Large corporations have used Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for decades to manage communications between customers, prospective customers (leads), and the sales team. However, keeping everyone in the loop can be challenging in any size business.
And recently, small businesses have also integrated CRMs into their sales and marketing processes. This is because there are so many software options available now. Unfortunately, many businesses have a ‘leaky bucket’ when it comes to leads. New inquiries, whether they are ready to buy or not, are coming in but they are not always followed up on. They are quickly forgotten about, and they move on.
Keeping in contact with potential customers who are just feeling you out is important. People may be interested in your product or service, but not everyone is ready to buy right away. Therefore, it is important to keep track of and contact all potential customers.
Even small improvements in your conversion rate will have a huge impact on your profits (since the cost for lead generation remains the same). A computerized system, like CRMs, can help you capture more leads from your website and other channels and nurture them until they are ready to buy or be converted into paying customers.
What are the Benefits of a CRM?
There are many benefits to implementing a CRM into your sales process for both your team and business's success.
Visibility
CRMs make your sales process visible to everyone on your team. Depending on your sales cycle (the time it takes from first inquiry to making the sale), it can be easy to lose track of leads, especially those that are interested but not ready to buy right away.
An Overview of Your Customers
Having an overview of where your customers are in their customer journey will help you get more control; this is your sales pipeline. It also provides insight on how you should communicate with them based on where they are in the sales process.
Keep Everyone Informed
Even if you are a solopreneur or you have a large sales team, keeping everyone up to date can be difficult. With a CRM, you have one tool in which your whole team can have an overview of your clients and where they are at in the sales process to keep everyone informed. They can even see conversations and the complete history of the interaction with your clients and prospects.
Productivity Improvements
You can increase your team's productivity when it is easier to keep track and be accountable for your sales process. And to keep things running even smoother, you can automate communications like emails and SMS (text) with your clients. For example, you can set follow-up emails to send out automatically.
Track Your Leads
Tracking where your leads come from allows you to better focus your marketing efforts. It is often difficult to find where your customers found you without asking them outright. With a CRM, you can track your leads from all kinds of channels (email, phone, Facebook Messenger, Google Business Profile, chat bubbles, text, etc).
The Three Stages of Sales Conversion
When it comes to your sale process, there are three stages that your team needs to address when a new potential customer comes in. And luckily, a CRM can help your team at each stage.
Capture
As you already know, not everyone is ready to buy today, but they may be down the road. You don’t want to lose contact with these potential customers, but how will you capture them? People also visit your website because they are interested in something you posted on social media, but how do you see that? These potential leads could escape from your bucket, and you definitely don’t want a “leaky bucket.”
A leaky sales bucket happens when you are not following up with leads and there is no visibility for new leads. To prevent a leaky bucket, there are several actions you can take to capture leads, and they all can be done through a CRM!
- Landing pages
- Surveys
- Forms
- Online appointment scheduling
- Call tracking
Nurture
Once you have captured your potential leads with their contact information, you can start nurturing your relationship with them and become a Marketing Farmer. Sometimes you have to build trust and provide valuable information before they feel ready to buy. This is where you help guide your new lead through the customer journey.
Convert
In the end, you want to be able to convert potential leads into committed customers. To do that, you need to reduce the friction of getting them across the finish line. Automatic appointment booking and accepting payments online make it easier for them. The easier you make things for them, the happier they will be to become paying customers.
And to make the process of converting easier for your team, implementing sales pipeline management is integral. Sales pipeline management involves organizing and tracking leads, objectives, and outcomes. Effective pipeline management allows salespeople to keep track of deals by knowing exactly which stage the deal is in.
One of the key parts of both marketing and sales is measuring results (analytics). Use analytics to measure the success of your conversion rates.
Every business should consider implementing a CRM system - no matter the size of your company. They can help keep you and the rest of your team organized and make the sales process more seamless and effective. Remember that your customers are on a journey. Keeping track of where they are and providing them with the information they need every step of the way makes it more likely that you can get them to become customers.
You may have a leaky bucket and not even know it. However, you can dramatically improve your profits by identifying and fixing the leaky bucket; even small improvements, including implementing a CRM system, can provide huge results.
EDGE has a complete Marketing & CRM platform available that addresses all areas of your business needs. Contact our team today if you want to learn more about this tool.
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Posted: September 12, 2022
