CRM Technology Isn’t Just for Major Corporations. Customer relationships used to be handled with post-it notes and cork boards. Now, as with most things, there is a piece of technology that has improved the process. Customer Relationship Management software is a solution that small business can take advantage of.

Modern CRM tools combine basic sales tracking tools with task management systems that automate the process of following up on leads and closed sales. Advanced functions for your customers include facilitating satisfaction surveys, recommending future purchases, and delivering push order status information to customers’ online profiles. These functions are valuable and diverse.

Organizations with multiple sales and service channels can use these tools to unify the flow of data, even enabling self-service options for tracking and ordering. It sounds like a lot, and you may think that this type of technology is reserved for corporations with a lot of overhead and huge marketing budgets, but that’s not true. CRM technology provides many benefits for small business, and here are just a few of the ways your employees can use it to build relationships and increase sales.

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CRM Software Frees Up Time for Internal Communication and Marketing

When you crunch the numbers, you’re sure to see that your employees are crunching out a certain number of tasks in a 40 hour work week. How much of that goes into tracking customers and establishing satisfaction levels and sales trends? If the number is higher than you would like, it’s time to see what relationship software can do for you and your team.

Most CRMs will contain modules that track customer feedback and establish trends in sales, opinions, and overall consumer satisfaction. By implementing the use of this software into your business structure, you can eliminate hours of manual data entry and research that your staff would otherwise have to spend. This creates more time for improving your marketing message and promotes better-informed communication among team members. Employees will make more of their time with the use of CRM.

CRM Productivity Tools and Add-Ons Help the Creative Process

How many different productivity tools are your employees using? Wouldn’t it be better if they could login to one system for all of their creative needs? Depending on the systems, CRM may solve this issue.

A well-constructed CRM platform supplies the kinds of tools your sales staff needs to be more productive – things like email templates, customized reports, and asset libraries that make selling easier. Your staff can take advantage of any and all productivity tools supplied by the platform or integrate the ones they currently use. With CRM, an all-in-one system can be used for nearly any set of sales technology needs.

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Using CRM to Forecast Employee Trends

Sales meetings are often a time for touching on the strengths and weaknesses of your team. You can actually eliminate that all together and spend your time brainstorming new strategies and sharing motivational information. Technology makes that possible.

A good CRM platform has a way of instantly supplying metrics you’ll use to measure employee performance and identify weakness that can be discussed in future sales meetings. This is the ability to forecast sales trends within your small business structure so that changes can be made to strategies before difficulties become hurdles.

Employees stay integrated with updated information and analytics, distributing responsibilities (reducing the dependency on one or two employees, which could cause problems in case of staff turnover). Staff will appreciate the ability to easily see into their own performance metrics and reach out for ideas in advance, rather than hear about issues from someone else once individual shortcomings have already caused problems.

Analytics Tools Provide Valuable Insight for Current Campaigns

Sales campaigns generally have time written in for structured analytics and re-strategizing. Real time data sharing and reports eliminate the need for scheduled analysis, opening up the time for strategy.  

Today’s CRM delivers the enhanced ability to forecast trends, measure performance, and work smarter to small business employees. Data available in the analytics board represent the most important benefits for productivity and revenue growth in companies of all sizes. Changes and updates are communicated in close to real time, meaning that decisions can be made in real time.

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In Conclusion

Using CRM software reduces time spent writing email templates, answering common questions, analyzing data. Add-ons and productivity tools enhance the creative process, while employee trends and sales data can be analyzed. CRM isn’t just for big business. Sign up for a free trial today, and find out what you’ve been missing.