Got a Growing Sales Team? A CRM can help!

So here’s the thing. Growth of a business and consequently a larger sales team is a potentially positive development. A larger sales team means that more customers are being catered to. At least more clients are wanting to engage with your business which led you to hire more people.

All of this is great. However, what you also need to be mindful of is the management of this customer base. Customer satisfaction and retention is directly related to customer relationships. You would never want the quality of interaction to suffer due to increasing quantity. The solution hence is to turn to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and invest in a good CRM tool.

Why CRM and what will a tool do?

Typically CRM refers to all that businesses do in order to analyze customer data, their patterns, behavior as well as interactions during the entire time or life cycle that the customer is with them. This information is extremely helpful, as it will enable you to formulate strategies and best practices both to be able to give your customers the kind of service required and also to have them stay on with you for longer.

There are a number of CRM systems that are available in the market and it is better for you to do some thorough research before choosing which system you’d like to invest in. However, that being said, most CRM systems are designed to incorporate these features below:

-The CRM system will identify the different points of contact between the customer and your business and then compile this data for analysis. These points of contact could range from anything such as social media handles, telephone, website or email marketing etc.

-There is arguably one feature of a CRM system that is very beneficial for businesses. Whatever data the system collects gets consolidated and reflected into a single database that you as the business owner or your sales team can easily manage and access. Having all of this information in one place helps to get a bird’s eye view of what your customer base is up to and what is it that you need to do to mange them effectively

-A good CRM system can also help with the productivity and efficiency of the sales team. There are options such as marketing automation and contact center automation. These features help in automating certain tasks such as sending out marketing alerts to potential new customers automatically. Options include using a pre-recorded voice system for problem solving and giving out information

-A CRM system also records the various customer interactions and you can use this information to track and evaluate performance as well as the productivity of your sales team. A growing sales team makes it harder to micro manage and this is where the CRM system can step in and make things more effective

CRM systems are very popular with most growing businesses and it would make sense for you to evaluate your needs and invest in one. With a larger team, automation and streamlining of processes not only boosts efficiency but it also leads to much better management of your customer database, something that is critical to your business.

Another plus point and one that is also very important is to be able to track lead generation. A lead that is lost is a conversion opportunity gone down the drain. This is not something that you would like to consistently encounter in your business model. CRM systems help in effective lead tracking and facilitate the process of cultivating a positive customer relationship too.

The point being, a CRM system will eventually be an eventuality. If you want to seamlessly transition into the next level of your business growth plan, it will be helpful to invest in such a system sooner rather than later.