Businesses: 3 Steps to Get More Value from Your CRM System

Most businesses will already know that their CRM system is their business lifeline and is at the centre of all processes.

A CRM system – much like a central nervous system – is responsible for ensuring everything runs smoothly in a company: they help manage customer data, support sales management, deliver insights, integrate with social media and enable team communication.

But many businesses struggle to use the system to full effect.

Data Dwell, a global provider of a sales enablement software that can be integrated with these systems, have shared insight into how businesses can get the most value from their CRM systems by improving the quality and consistency of data being added at three different stages.

Demonstrate the value to your sales reps

Your sales reps are the first step in the process so any problems here and you’ll experience a knock-on effect throughout the rest of the business.

Sales reps don’t always see the benefits of using a CRM – to them, time spent doing data entry is time spent not closing deals. It also forces a magnifying glass on their activity, and not all sales people want to be monitored that closely for fear of interference.

In order to change behaviours, you need to communicate the direct benefits to them or you won’t see the change you want.

1. A well-maintained CRM uncovers a host of interesting and useful buying signals.
2. Leveraging the data will mean reps can identify those opportunities that are ready to be progressed at that time.
3. As a result, they’ll close bigger and better deals, much faster.
4. All whilst spending less time on prospects of lower value, or who are less likely to convert. The direct benefit is increased commission.

These steps will help the sales team understand how this software can streamline their everyday processes and having the sales team on board is vital to the success of a CRM system. After a few sales cycles, they’ll feel the difference!

Plan a structure

Lack of time is one of the biggest challenges in getting data into the CRM, so by putting a structure in place it means the system can run a lot smoother.

Many processes can be easily automated, saving time on repetitive tasks. With that in mind, here are five automation functions that can be extremely useful:

1. Lead Management Automation – your CRM can automate lead management and data entry by profiling basic information, such as; emails, web behaviour and social media.
2. Lead Nurturing Automation – once your lead data is sorted automatically, the automatic nurturing should be able to sort out the leads into various groups based on their response to drip emails, web page visits and buying patterns.
3. Calling Automation – CRMs include telephony automation, so you can include one-click calling, call recording and automatic notes to ensure that follow ups are made.
4. Deal Management Automation – you should be able to automate routine sales-related activities, for example; deal tracking, recording daily deals, monthly revenues, billing, account management and profit forecasting.
5. Customer Support Automation – vital for improving the customer experience, CRMs offer live chat, automated responses, real-time voice calling and basic FAQs, which can be automated for faster responses.

Your CRM may need additional integrations or plugins to achieve these, but the cost will be offset by the efficiencies and time savings.

Removing friction

Passing the data through the CRM system should be as simple as possible. To achieve this, it is recommended you check any friction between it and the platforms you use.

Making sure that the data flows seamlessly from one function to the next will enable your sales reps to get the information they are looking for when they need it and ultimately everything will run more smoothly.

1. Regularly check your data access points, and audit the integrity of the data
2. Identify any touch points where the data falls down
3. Ruthlessly change anything that isn’t working

So, if you feel you need to get more value from your CRM remember that a few simple changes could greatly benefit your company. A correctly managed system can not only save your business time, but results show that it could also improve customer experience leading to greater customer retention and an increase in sales.

Image Credits: Campaign Creators