What is Customer Relationship Management & How it Can Help Your Business

74% of companies say that converting leads into customers is their top priority.

A customer relationship management system, otherwise known as a CRM, is a system that helps businesses do that and more…

…by allowing for more efficient communication internally and among clients.

So today, we’re going to cover what customer relationship management is as well as why and how it’s helpful to small business owners.

So let’s start by answering this question.

What Is Customer Relationship Management Or CRM?

Investopedia says it’s…

“the principles, practices, and guidelines that an organization follows when interacting with its customers.”

Salesforce says a CRM…

“is a technology for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers….

A CRM system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability.”

So simply put, customer relationship management or CRM is a program or software to help you manage your customer relationships. 

This will look different across different businesses because your processes are different.

Where, when, and how you interact with customers is different, and so on.

So the beauty of a CRM is you can customize things and set things up in a way that works for you and your business.

That means that it can work for both B2B AND B2C companies.

6 Ways Customer Relationship Management Can Help Your Business

1. It can automatically assign new leads to a sales team member.

This ensures that every potential customer that fills out a contact form on your website gets immediate attention from someone on your team.

And, that your sales team members each receive leads fairly based on whatever delivery method you input.

2. It can send automated reminders to your team members.

A customer relationship management tool could also be used as a reminder to follow up with leads or email subscribers…

…if you haven’t heard from them in so many days. 

This could be a reminder to send an upsell email days or weeks after a customer made a purchase, which brings us to our next point. 

3. It can be used to create and send automated email templates.

Many email marketing softwares have CRMs built into them – like the one we use at LYFE.

So you can set up automated emails to be sent to your clients and customers. 

For example, if you own an eCommerce store…

…you can set it up so that your customers automatically receive a confirmation email with their tracking number whenever they purchase from you.

4. It gives you better organization with your data and communication.

With data, you can always see exactly how far away you are from meeting your monthly goals or yearly goals.

Using a customer relationship management tool helps you keep track of your numbers.

With communication, you can look up leads quickly. And at any given point, you can see where they’re at in their buying cycle or sales funnel.

Who has reached out to them, and when? Are they a good lead or a bad lead? Has a proposal been sent to them? 

A CRM allows you to store and refer back to all of this information in seconds.

5. It keeps everybody on the same page.

You won’t run into the issue of multiple people accidentally emailing the same lead or sending the same emails to your customer. 

By using customer relationship management software, everyone can see all of the information.

6. It can help organize and manage any type of business relationship.

This includes any vendor relationships you have, your marketing team’s activity, and your sales team activity.

Again, having all of this data in one place allows it to be leveraged in the most efficient way possible.

Now we know if you’re totally new to this and have never used a CRM, it still might be kind of hard to envision what it is or how you use it. 

So we want to wrap up with a few more takeaways that will hopefully clarify any remaining questions you have.

By the way, before we do that, just a quick reminder that our new social media ads training course is out now.

If you really want to maximize the results you’re getting from your social media ads, you have to check this out.

Takeaways

So if you’re still unsure about what a CRM is or if your business needs one, we’re going to quickly list 15 problems that a CRM helps you solve. 

Check out the list and if you see one and think “oh yeah I definitely struggle with that,” then a CRM could probably be your new best friend. 

1. Your business is starting to grow to a point where you can’t keep track of all the information you need anymore on your own.
   
2. Your sales team misses appointments.
   
3. You don’t have a consistent flow of the same emails being sent to all leads.
   
4. If someone asked you if your marketing dollars are paying off, you couldn’t tell them because you have no idea.
   
5. You’re losing interested leads because your sales team isn’t clear on who is supposed to follow up with who and when.
   
6. You spend a lot of time going through your inbox trying to find that one email from that one client.
   
7. Each of your sales team members all have a different process for how they interact with leads.
   
8. You don’t know if the Google ads cost you’re spending is worth it. Are your campaigns profitable or are losing your money?
   
9. The same thing with your Facebook ad campaign– you don’t know if they’re profitable or not because maybe sales are happening offline.
   
10. Your customers or clients have to repeat their situation every time they call your business because:
    • they’re not getting sent to the same person every time, and
    • your team don’t all have access to the same customer profiles.
      
11. Your sales team does not have a clear, prioritized list of their tasks.
    
12. Your marketing and sales team are not on the same page and therefore, not working together for a more cohesive customer experience.
    
13. If a specific person were to leave your company, you’d lose a lot of potential leads along with them.
    
14. You’ve been struggling to successfully de-escalate customer issues or can’t always remember a client or customer’s history with you.
    
15. And lastly, you have no idea if your company is growing overall or at what rate.

A lot of small business owners think their company is too small to utilize a customer relationship management tool…

…but if any of those problems applied to you, it’s probably time to look into one!

We thought CRM summed up everything nicely. They said:

“A CRM system gives everyone — from sales, customer service, business development, recruiting, marketing, or any other line of business —

a better way to manage the external interactions and relationships that drive success. 

A CRM tool lets you store customer and prospect contact information, identify sales opportunities, record service issues, and manage marketing campaigns,

all in one central location — and make information about every customer interaction available to anyone at your company who might need it.”

So tell us, are you thinking about using a CRM now? Are you already utilizing a CRM? If so, which one?

And if you need more help with generating more customers, check out our customer acquisition services or lead generation services.

Get in touch with us today to get started!

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