In this time of economic uncertainty, many businesses have been cautious of their spending and often reluctant to invest in their infrastructure when it comes to software and adding technology. Businesses that get ahead in this environment are those who make the investment in solutions like CRM and leverage tools to rise up above the competition in challenging times. Smart businesses learn that adding CRM to their arsenal helps them become more efficient, increase customer service, increase customer retention and become more competitive with better pipeline management.
In this article, we will highlight 5 ways businesses benefit by implementing a CRM solution like Sage CRM. CRM software helps with customer retention or otherwise known as that “stickiness” or customer loyalty. As hard as you work to get business in the door, having a CRM tool will help them remain loyal to you by better managing those existing relationships and allowing your business to track and manage promotions, new feature releases, upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Let’s dive into more details on how businesses who implement CRM, like Sage CRM, benefit from increased customer retention and increased revenue opportunities.
1) CRM Helps Existing Customer Relationships
Have you ever received a birthday card from a place where you were a customer in the past? How did that feel? Did it help increase your feelings of loyalty toward that place of business? CRM acts like the friend or relative that never forgets your birthday. CRM software helps you get to know your customers better, uncover hidden cross-sell opportunities, and breathe new life into your existing customer relationships.
2) CRM Helps Get New Customers in the Door
CRM software can also help you find and attract new business at a lower cost-of-sale than traditional methods. If you have sales people managing contacts and opportunities in spreadsheets and Outlook folders this approach requires more people, more administration, and more cost. It is difficult for management to have visibility on pipeline and forecasting details to get a pulse on potential future business. It is difficult for the marketing to coordinate with sales on the success of their marketing campaigns to determine what activities should be repeated and what activities should be ditched or revised.
3) CRM Lowers the Cost of Sales
CRM software is designed to help you sell more effectively and efficiently. This is due to the fact that your sales people (and managers) have a single point of access to contacts, calendars, meetings, follow-up tasks, accounts, call lists, sales opportunities, pipeline reports, and everything else they need to produce more revenue per sales hour. And with automated workflow built right into the software, there’s less paperwork and administration and a lot more selling. It also means that everyone is following the same successful sales methodology and focusing on opportunities that are most likely to close.
4) CRM Helps Increase Post-Sale Revenue Opportunities
Many businesses today rely on repeat business from customers they sold to in the past. It is much easier selling to an existing customer than to find and attract and earn the business of a new customer. In many cases, customer relationships are more profitable after the first sale. CRM can be invaluable to helping businesses earn customer loyalty and repeat business. As a sales person, it is invaluable to be able to track your customers’ preferred mode of communication (phone, email, fax, etc.), sales history, recent purchases, complementary products, and other important data that will help you deliver highly-targeted and timely follow up. CRM helps track this information and the software helps you find up-sell and cross-sell opportunities and maximize the overall value of every customer relationship.
5) CRM Integration Gives Your Personnel All-In-One Customer Visibility
Implementing a CRM system, like Sage CRM gives your customer-facing personnel (from sales, support, finance, management and marketing) relevant information available in a single database. Since Sage CRM integrates seamlessly with Sage 100 ERP, your staff has better visibility on customer data and is in a better position to provide excellent customer service. Contact us and we can help you implement this solution!
CRM ties together the front office and the back office of your organization from the sales person, support technician, to the accounting staff with up-to-date customer information on-hand. That means sales and customer service can maximize call time with customers by having access to recent shipments or customer credit status without flipping back and forth in the accounting system. This allows for more quality time on the phone where customer service and sales goals can be accomplished in less time. It also means that customer service or support staff are better able to resolve customer inquiries on the spot, rather than passing them to another department or promising to call back with an answer.
Contact us if you’d like to learn more about how our Sage CRM consultants can help your business uncover hidden revenue and cost-savings.
About Convergence Technologies, Ltd. - The mission of Convergence Technologies, ltd. is to provide quality business technology with exceptional service for our customers while promoting an enjoyable environment of continuous learning and growth for our staff. Convergence Technologies, Ltd. Is based in Fort Wayne, IN and proudly serves the area and the nation helping clients grow their business. Contact us at 877-483-0717 or visit http://www.converg-tech.com/contact-us.html to learn more how we can help your business grow!