Customer relationship management (CRM) is a system for managing relationships with existing and future customers. Modern CRM systems have thousands of options and tools. Simply put, it is a solution that allows you to improve all segments in an organization, including planning, sales, marketing, analytics, and customer support. Ultimately, CRM helps improve overall sales.
There have been many myths about CRM for more than 20 years of its existence and popularity. In this post, we analyzed some of the most frequently repeated ones.
Myth #1: We Don’t Need CRM If We Don’t Have a Sales Team within the Company
Regardless of whether you have the word “sales” in the title of the position, everyone within the company somehow participates in one of the main company goals—building relationships with customers. From the accountant to the company driver, they are all part of a whole that aims to give the customer what they bought so the company would have revenue and continue its development.
In other words, CRM is wrongly considered to be just a sales tool. It is designed to boost sales but is also used in an internal organization to improve the work of all teams, whether it is marketing, customer support, logistics, or any other team.
Myth #2: We Don’t Need CRM Because We Are a Small Company
This statement can only be true if you want to stay a small business with a couple of sales per month forever. But why would you? We understand that you want your work processes to be simple and that, as a small company, you only need one Excel sheet or a notebook to note down sales information. However, the most significant advantage of CRM is that it provides an opportunity to build relationships and trust with existing and future customers.
CRM helps you reach more leads (potential customers), convert them into customers, and earn more. Furthermore, CRM helps you to:
- Sell more goods and services through upselling and cross-selling
- Follow user comments and inquiries in one place
- Know the status of every customer inquiry at any time and make appropriate offers
- Provide adequate customer support
- Know when contracts expire
- Know when to make personalized offers
- Know how to direct your marketing activities and what brings you the most money
In other words, CRM helps you no longer be a small company.
CRM can also be integrated into your email marketing strategy. To begin with, using one of numerous online email marketing tools makes it simple to send tailored and interesting emails to existing and potential consumers. Then, by gathering, organizing, and analyzing client data, CRM software will assist you in finding new leads and enhancing engagement with current ones together with the email marketing tool we previously mentioned.
It will accomplish this by collecting, sorting, and examining client data. Building solid relationships with current leads and new consumers is the end goal of CRM email marketing, which involves integrating CRM technologies into your email marketing campaigns. That will ensure that you remain at the top of their minds.
Myth #3: Our Product Is Unique, and We Can’t Apply a Solution That Others Use
That is implied in a way. Why would you have a business that is not unique? But remember that no business is so unique that technology cannot help it. What is more, CRM systems can make your company even more competitive than it is now.
But let’s not deal with theory but with concrete details. Modern CRM systems can be customized to suit your unique needs perfectly. How is that? These are flexible platforms with tools that can create and personalize your applications and extensions and integrate them with your existing systems. It does not matter at all whether you export livestock or offer business space rental services. CRM can be customized to suit you and your company.
Myth #4: CRM Is a Waste of Money
We agree that caution is recommended, especially in times of crisis. However, the question is how is the sale usually made? In many companies, sales involve hiring many salespeople who are overburdened with set targets and who burn out from stress after a short time. We are talking about another possibility—instead of constantly hiring new people and expanding the team, the money is invested in the salespersons you already have. When good salespeople have CRM, they can show their full sales potential by:
- Reducing the number of administrative tasks that are repetitive and tedious so salespeople have more time to deal with sales and connect with customers
- Increasing employee satisfaction because their work is made easier, and all important information is available to them in just a few clicks on their computer or mobile phone
Myth #5: Implementing CRM Is Very Demanding
Yes and no. On the one hand, it is necessary to implement the system correctly to adapt to your needs, the size of the company, and the type of business. That part is dealt with by the software company hired to make the system for you as your partner. It means that they solve all technical challenges in cooperation with you and what is important to you as a company. On the other hand, what is important for you as a company is to be aware that the implementation of CRM implies a new way of thinking and acting, and the transformation of the business from product to customer.
Often, businesses ask those who implement CRM solutions with them if it is complicated to use CRM tools. If you hire a reliable provider, dashboards are essentially very intuitive, and it takes a short period of time to get accustomed to using them.
Also, CRM tools integrate with the applications you already use, so you do not have to switch to some completely new software and applications but only connect them in one place, in one system. You can learn how to properly implement CRM by examining how it is implemented within a service you already use to help your business grow.
For instance, if you paid for an online platform to build your website through the best pricing plans, such as Wix, check out how its CRM works when you start using the service. It allows you to gather leads, convert them, create enduring relationships with your clients, and manage your workflow with Wix’s comprehensive customer management solution. By integrating your CRM package with your website, you already have all you need to expand your business.
Change Is Difficult, but Necessary
We understand that business transformation is a huge step requiring much thought and careful investment. It is always easier to keep the status quo and say, “We have always done things this way, and what’s wrong with that,” solve only incidental problems, and not make big decisions. And then a pandemic happens, and more than half of the companies face huge losses.
Implementing a CRM system is a decision that is not made overnight, especially when you take into account everything that the world has gone through in the last two years or so.
However, we are sure of two things:
- Digital business transformation is essential. So the question is not whether you will execute it, but only when it will happen.
- Transformation is much easier when you have partners who know what they are doing.
If you still have second thoughts about introducing CRM into your business, consider this—new generations of CRM systems go even one step further. With the help of built-in automation and artificial intelligence (AI) systems, they can independently analyze, make predictions, and automatically perform routine things and tasks to provide additional time for other, more valuable activities that employees need to do.
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