How to Choose the Right CRM System for Your Business?

It is well-known in the business world that CRM can help in managing and analyzing customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, in order to improve business relationships, assist in retention, and drive sales growth.

In addition, most businesses realize that the way they manage their customer databases determines their success. And that is why businesses that use CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software probably can’t imagine the world without it. 

On the other hand, an effective CRM system provides structure and organization to your business. It enables you to keep everything related to managing your customer relationships — data, notes, metrics, and more — in one place.

In fact, most businesses that use CRM software are mainly looking to improve their relationships with customers and establish customer loyalty.

But, how can you choose the right CRM system for your business?! And is there a way to tell if your CRM is working optimally?! This is what I’m going to cover in this post.

How Can CRM Help Your Business?!

CRM systems are rapidly changing and new features are being launched all the time. Therefore, in order to choose the right CRM system or software for your business, you must understand how it can help you.

An effective CRM system should help you with the following:

- Providing a better knowledge of customers by having all information on each contact stored in one place.

- Helping you in segmenting your contacts (customers and prospects) by breaking down data by categories and criteria, in order to create focused lists of your target audiences.

- Improving and speeding your communication with customers by providing you with a set of customizable, ready-to-use email templates, letters, documents, proposals, quotes, invitations, newsletters, etc.

- Staying in control of your sales and marketing efforts, by improving the communication process between sales and marketing teams.

- Achieving better customer retention. Remember, keeping an existing customer is 6 or 7 times cheaper than getting a new one.
Ex: Reminding you about appointments or sending follow-up emails to your existing customers. As well as, prompting you to reach out to customers who have not been contacted in while.

- Better anticipation of customers’ needs by tracking their buying habits, which would make cross-selling and upselling them much easier.

- Allowing you to find new customers by automatically managing the Lead Nurturing process, such as sending your employees alerts to reach out to prospects and tracking every interaction with them.

- Increasing sales and productivity by streamlining your sales process, building a sales pipeline, automate key tasks, and analyze your sales data in one centralized place.

- Monitoring and optimizing your marketing campaigns by providing built-in analytic capabilities to contextualize data, breaking it down into actionable items and metrics (such as click-through rates, bounce rates, and demographic information).

- Offering an inbuilt GDPR-related functionality that helps you in complying with the data privacy requirements.

What to Consider When Choosing the Right CRM for Your Business?!

Every business has unique terms of processes, customer base, and growth dynamics. Therefore, you need a scalable CRM system that can adapt to your business needs.

Try not to overestimate or underestimate the features you need when choosing your CRM.

You should aim to balance obtaining the tools and features that your teams really need to achieve your business objectives, and trying out new features that could optimize your workflow.

In general, here is a list of top features and functionality to look for when choosing CRM system:

• Large and effective contacts database.
• Segmentation and listing features.
• Lead management and sales tools.
• Built-in marketing tools.
• Easy e-commerce integration.
• Reporting functionality.
• Dynamic dashboards.
• Call center capabilities.
• Workflows/approvals.
• Easy Integration with other applications.
• User-friendly interface.
• GDPR features.
• Security Features.
• API accessibility.
• Customization features.
• Test drive and free trials.
• Setup/implementation and technical assistance included.
• Software training.
• Easy upgrading options.

Finally, here are some questions you could think about to ensure that your CRM is working optimally?!

- Are your marketing and sales teams using the CRM system?

- Do you see movement on your dashboard such as new leads and prospects moving forward through your funnels?

-Is your CRM helping you analyze what is working and what needs attention in your sales process?