For small businesses, CRM or Client Relationship Management software is a key tool for building and managing your sales and marketing efforts. Customer relationship management, or CRM, is the process of managing your client interactions in order to build mutually beneficial, competition-blocking, enduring relationships. By capturing insightful information about your client’s preferences, lifestyle and home, you and your team are better able to personalize your products, services, and communications more consistently, efficiently, and effectively.
Online applications have serveral advantages; they are much quicker and easier to set up, do not require a server (all you and your users need is a browser) and your businesses can focus on more critical, bottom-line building tasks instead of the traditional IT installation and development issues.
CRM Benefits:
1. More Leads Will Be Captured.CRM systems help you maintain a consistent selling process. That, in turn, creates a streamlined workflow that helps you determine successful tactics. These tactics will reduce costs associated with attracting and retaining customers. Defining and implementing trackable questionnaire templates will help you achieve shorter sales cycles by fitting client needs more effectively. They’ll also enable you to spot customer trends.
2. Documents Will Be Organized. A good CRM application will help with document management. Transactions, interactions, information and responses–all of these things can be stored in one place. This will abet personalized, effective contact each and every time your company interacts with a particular client. If you can impress clients by following-up with details from past communications, you will achieve greater client loyalty.
3. Sales Will Be Supported.Having a computer application that individualizes information for you facilitates your cross-sell and upsell efforts. Setting the stage for various revenue opportunities, CRM systems can provide insight into a client. With a click of a mouse, you’ll see recorded data that paints a clear picture of that client’s expectations as well as ideas that may entice them–personalized add-ons, upgrades, additional rooms, for example.
4. Employees Will Communicate More Effectively. With a CRM system, client information can be easily shared across an entire company. Personalized client interactions can be noted. E-mail conversations can be filed.CRM can also improve daily operations. It can serve as a centralized hub for tasks and conversations, improving productivity, morale, and confidence. Scheduled and to-be-scheduled job reminders can be generated, too, streamlining service maintenance and follow-up.
5. Marketing Will Be Improved.With a well-employed CRM strategy, you’ll be able to track client feedback during sale and post-sale interactions. Then, you’ll be able to easily market directly to those clients in the future, personalizing your mail or e-mail communications.
Here are 5 favorites that we think fit the bill:
1) Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com provides a customizable, real-time dashboard. Its various functions enable users to manage workflow, territories and leads; manage data; analyze trends; and create reports. It offers mobile capabilities for PDAs and laptops. Salesforce.com’s AppExchange program enables on-demand computing, downloads and development of personalized applications.
The Goods:Constant and Never-ending Improvement and Innovation. They are the benchmark for all SaaS competitors to compare.
2) NetSuite Inc.
NetSuite offers customer-centric order management. Its SuiteBuilder enables users to customize applications to specific needs. Order Management is built in to applications so that businesses can track when leads result in revenue. It integrates with other products, and its dashboard affords views of data required according to job functions such as accounting, sales and marketing. NetSuite’s family of products includes software for e-commerce, CRM, and accounting/ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).
The Goods:They are part of a larger ERP and e-commerce package. Plus, their recent IPO could help fund and increase their Research and Development budget, plus increase staff for Sales and Marketing.
3) Maximizer Software Inc.
Maximizer Software provides apps and interfaces for account and contact management. It focuses on sales-opportunity management and action plans. The dashboard contains customizable, flexible views. It integrates with Microsoft Office, allowing exports to Excel, Word or Maximizer’s word processor and has the capability to link to your phone and log calls to customer information. It provides reports for pipeline, forecasts, expenses, phone log and others. Web capabilities include tracing Web inquiries and an online store. The accounting interface integrates with QuickBooks.
The Goods:Their software integrates well with your phone logs. Multiple versions are avaialble based on business size. Probably the best choice for small size businesses due to the large user base of their popular client software.
4) Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online: This is an SaaS (software as a service) solution can operates within Microsoft datacenters, a reseller, or self-hosted at your own location. It’s tightly integrated with Microsoft Office, Outlook, and the Pocket PC (another PDAs are supported) .
The Goods: Microsoft’s familiar interface and technology plus integration to other Microsoft products. Single user licenses avaialable.
5) SugarCRM Professional
SugarCRM has come a long way. Several web hosting companies including The Launch Pad offer SugarCRM (and several other applications, like WordPress Blogs or Joomla for a complete CMS portal) as an easy install package. Once you register your domain name, setting up your web and applications is easy as pie. The latest version has mobile studio, social media feeds, improved dashboards and open source tools for developers.
The Goods: Free and Easy Installation from most major ISPs. Low cost and simple to set up.
All of these solutions have video demos. Many have test drives avaiable. Take some time to review the solution and see which feels like the best fit for your business.
