8 Surefire Ways CRM Can Accelerate Small Businesses ROI

Is your business struggling with low ROI despite the CRM implementation?

Considering you’ve clicked-open this article, I’d take ‘yes’ for an answer.

One of the reasons, perhaps, is that you simply jumped on the bandwagon and purchased CRM for small businesses – but failed to adopt best CRM practices.

There could be more reasons why you’re not getting the desirable ROI. But, keep in mind that deploying a CRM tool would not make your business leap overnight. It’s part of a long-term strategy that needs you to unlock true potential and know the technology inside out.

So, how do you do that? How do you learn about ways CRMs can be more efficient?

We’ll cover all of that and more in this blog post. Stay tuned. Before we get into details, let’s do a quick review of what CRM is.

What is CRM?

CRM stands for Customer-relationship management system. It is used for businesses for managing customer interaction and for consolidating all customer data in one location.

This data typically includes customer contact information such as email, phone, addresses, social media accounts, website, and more. It is also used for keeping track of communication history with each customer or prospect, all records of the interactions including phone calls, emails, online chat, and more.

Furthermore, CRMs are also used by businesses to record and store details of customer relationships. For example, how the customer discovered a business, buying history, length of the relationship, and everything about their buyer journey.

Without a CRM system, 79% of all marketing leads are never converted to sales. In short, it’s a pretty important tool to have if you want to strengthen customer relationships.

CRM For Small Businesses – How Effective Are They?

CRM software can be a lifesaver for small businesses. This software help entrepreneurs track important data such as how customers are interacting with the product or service, and where they’re in the buying journey.

The tools help small businesses sort through customer data in powerful and innovative ways, doing everything from developing partnerships to predicting customer needs to process sales.

And get this, Nucleus Research report found that for small businesses using a CRM, 65% are achieving their sales quotas.

Here’s a quick break-down of CRM benefits for small business:

• Helps you understand customers better
• Provides a clear view of the funnel
• Serves as a centralized resource for employees collaboration
• Guides businesses towards informed decisions
• Gives insights to boost customer retention
• Cuts down on missed opportunities
• Cuts down on delays in communication

This post will help you learn more about the best CRM practices so you can rock that ROI.

1. Know Your Customer Better to Maximize Sales Potential

Selling a product or service to a known audience is 50% easier as compared to brand new prospects.

That’s not all, many types of research have proven that retaining an existing customer is way cheaper than acquiring a new one.

Customer relationship management tools can help you streamline customer relationships. Your goal should be to use these tools to identify and seize the best opportunity.

When you have significant information about your leads, you’ll have valuable insights to:

• Communicate consistently on relevant topics across a stretched period of time
• Craft well-times offers and plans
• Determine strong opportunities to cross-sell or up-sell
• Anticipate customer’s needs
• Build rapport with each customer
• Personalize buying journey
• Boost customer engagement

2. Don’t Waste Time On Bad Leads

When you use the CRM properly, you get a 360-degree view of all leads and customers – obviously through their email marketing campaign, social media interaction, and other marketing automation tools.

You’ve to use this 360-degree view effectively, you learn to differentiate between strong and weak leads, and channel your efforts towards the strong ones. Do not waste time on the bad leads.

This not only saves frustration but also a great deal of time for salespeople. It also directs the organization towards more growth productivity.

3. Personalize Customer Service

There’s a reason why personalization is known to be one of the most effective strategies. One of the target marketing studies reported that 48% of the customers pay more attention to a brand and spend more when a personalized effort is taken for them.

And when it comes to personalization, CRM does the job. You can use this tool to gain insight into what your customer prefers, and how you can meet unique goals for the clients. For example, a lot of companies send email offers that are related to previous purchases done by a customer.

Irrespective of how you utilize CRM for small businesses, your goal should be to observe customer touchpoints, key demographics, behavioristics, and understand the browsing history of customers.

We’ll drop a couple of examples of how you can induce personalization in your customer service:

1. Keep track of important dates of your customer
2. Follow up on a consumer’s experience to guarantee a positive experience
3. Make specific offers to individuals based on their interest in a particular product

4. Train Your Team Members

Your employees and team members are at the cornerstone of your CRM’s success. As a result, it makes sense to make sure that they are well-equipped with how the software works. All members who’ve onboarded the app should have the essential skills and knowledge to utilize the system to its fullest.

And how do you make sure that happens?

Training, of course.

Your goal as a team lead or employer should be to provide sufficient training around using the software efficiently. You should focus on training the employees and educating them about how their input can enhance their performance and boost their productivity.

We’d suggest delivering training on a team or departmental basis and focusing on the processes instead of the functionalities.

5. Choose CRM That Aligns With Your Business Goals

Okay, this one is pretty important. You need to know that not every CRM is created equally. Different CRMs work differently – depending on the industry and work nature.

So, whenever you’re choosing the CRM for your business, make sure to do enough research, weigh the pros and cons, and analyze its capabilities before buying the subscription.

Make sure to see if the CRM tool’s capabilities align with your business goals and nature. Does your business need highly-customizable features or basic functions? Would you prefer a CRM that is located on-site or operates via the cloud?

Ask similar questions, weigh all your options, and understand what your business needs before making the purchase.

6. Strengthen Team Collaboration

One of the reasons most businesses today rely heavily on CRM tools is their potential for improving collaborative efforts. Since CRM makes the same information accessible to everyone across the department, it helps break silos and reduces confusion.

But, if you want to get more from the tool, you should focus on strengthening your team’s collaborative effort. This can be done by successful onboarding everyone, improving team communication, breaking silos, and providing enough training.

7. Incorporate CRM Into Marketing

CRM for small businesses often comes with features that can enable businesses to develop and track not just customer relations but also marketing campaigns. By using CTM to get feedback on campaigns launched for the businesses, one can figure out what customers are interested in, and how they are responding to the campaign.

In simpler words, if your CRM has the feature of evaluating what deals your customers are clicking on, you can find how to move forward with the campaign. You can also determine how to modify the marketing campaigns in the future.

What we’re trying to say is, your CRM tool’s potential doesn’t have to be limited to its standard use in tracking and monitoring customer interaction. With some creativity and innovation, you can smartly incorporate your CRM’s capabilities into multiple business departments and improve customer relations.

8. Integrate Your Other Tools

Sales, marketing, and customer success information – all of these should be centralized in your CRM. This helps businesses get a 360-view of their customers and prospects and also cuts down on manual data entry.

Not only does integration save your time but also streamlines the process for more productive results. It makes the entire process seamless and far more efficient.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to increasing the performance of small businesses, the implementation of the right CRM software is the first actionable step you should be taking.

Now that you’ve gained a significant understanding of what CRMs are, why there’s so much hype about CRM for small businesses, and different ways SMBs can use CRMs, the question is – are you ready to accelerate your business growth?

If you’re in an industry that entails managing customers efficiently, you most certainly are. So, we’d suggest you make the most out of your CRM tool by implementing the strategies mentioned above.

With an efficient CRM in place, you’ll be able to keep with the customer demands, and your business won’t be missing out on valuable opportunities.