Why Your Company Needs CRM Software: A Complete Overview

If you found this article, you’re already investigating the possibility of using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in your business. However, you might be wondering if you really need a CRM, or doubting if it could help you solve a particular problem or challenge. 

While we’ll be exploring the benefits of a CRM and whether or not you need one, the odds are good that a quality CRM solution can make a significant impact to your business.

In my personal experience, CRM software can help maintain and even improve customer relationships, boost ROI, organize information and projects, and more. CRM software is more than just a fancy innovation; if chosen well and set up correctly, your CRM will become a companion tool that will completely change how you do business.

Do you need to improve your internal processes or record keeping? Need help to tailor your marketing efforts, or glean deeper and more useful insights? Improve how you manage projects? A customer relationship management system can help you do all of this and more. 

In this article, we’re going to take a deeper dive into what CRM tools are, whether you need one, and even go over a few of the best CRM platforms out there today.

Introduction to CRM Software

In its simplest form, CRM software is designed to help businesses manage client information, analyze interactions, and organize customer data. The main purpose of these systems is to help you improve your relationship with customers, improving retention rates and driving sales. In essence, it’s a repository of information and, in this form, CRMs have been around since the 1980s.

However, over the years, CRM systems have become so much more than just simple databases. As technology improved and business needs evolved, CRM systems have changed into sophisticated tools that can include a massive variety of features and functions that go well beyond mere data storage.

Today, they’re nearly indispensable tools that even freelancers, solopreneurs, and smaller companies look to for help in optimizing and improving their processes – for larger businesses, a CRM is a must-have. 

Why Companies Need CRM Software

As I’ve mentioned already, a good CRM system can be a priceless asset to your business. In my experience, it can help a company or team better understand their customers, provide better services, recognize opportunities, and organize your processes in a way that your clients and staff will love.

Additionally, CRM tools will help you personalize your interactions with every client, since the entire communication history will be right at your fingertips. If there’s anything I’ve learned over the past decade in business, it’s that customers will always value a personalized experience over a generic approach – particularly when it comes to email communication and support.

Now, all of these capabilities I’ve mentioned above still fall under the traditional umbrella of a CRM. However, as I’ve mentioned, these systems have massively evolved and changed over the past 40 years, and that includes just what they can do. 

Today, a good CRM can help you with just about everything, from generating leads and running marketing campaigns to managing projects and billing.

That said, and despite this evolution of CRM software, it doesn’t mean that they no longer serve as databases. In fact, almost all systems will include the following features as a matter of course:

• Contact management and client information storage.
• Interaction tracking, including emails, calls, meetings, and notes.
• Lead and sales funnel management, from contact to conversion.
• Task and event scheduling, sometimes with automation capabilities.

More advanced systems may also include less common features to enhance their offering, including:

• Sales forecasting and deep data analysis.
• Fully capable marketing hubs and tools that integrate with social platforms.
• Advanced project management and time tracking.
• Customer service automation via ticketing and support features.
• AI-powered insights for predictive analytics, lead scoring, sentiment analysis, etc.
• Billing management, including proposals, quotes, invoices, payments, and more.

Some of the top CRM’s even allow for voice and facial recognition, blockchain integration, advanced AI tools, and customer portals – and if there’s a feature they don’t offer, there’s the option to integrate a third-party app quickly and easily to cover the gap. It’s also very likely that top CRM platforms will continue to add and improve features.

So why do we mention all of this? Well, understanding the full breadth and depth of CRM capabilities really helps to underscore why these systems are so crucial for businesses. Not only do they store information, but they can help you turn data into actionable insights, offer more personalized customer service, streamline sales and marketing, and more.

It also helps to demystify the systems a little, since it’s surprising how many misconceptions there really are about these platforms. If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you need a CRM, let’s take a look at a few of the most common indicators that suggest you should be investing in one.

Indicators That Suggest Your Company Needs A CRM Tool

The purpose of this article is to help you decide if your company needs a CRM. Now, I’ve discussed why most companies need a CRM solution, and what they can do. But, if you’re still on the fence, I’m going to share a few key factors that may indicate that you need one. Let’s dive right in.

Scattered and Lost Data

When starting out, a lot of companies rely on manual data management, like storing customer information in an excel data sheet, or tracking client communications by sorting emails into folders and taking manual notes. 

Not only can this lead to misplaced information and communication history, but it can also lead to lost opportunities. Worst of all, it can waste your team’s valuable time, taking them away from more productive and lucrative tasks.

With a CRM tool, you can store all of this information in a single place. You can even track communications and tasks, and even automate follow-up emails and reminders. With relevant data always easily at hand, you’ll save your team a lot of time.

Loss of Productivity

Let’s face it – there are a lot of manual and time consuming tasks involved in running a business. If you’ve noticed that your sales, marketing, project, operational, or other departments aren’t functioning optimally, it’s a clear indicator that you may need a CRM. 

Not only can it boost productivity by organizing internal communications and processes, but it can also make your teams far more efficient.

Better still, a great CRM will help you keep track of which team is working on what, and when, and departments will be able to communicate far better, decreasing the risk of missing something crucial.

Lack of Data Insights and Analysis

Historical data can be extremely valuable. If you can analyze customer, sales, communication, and marketing data, you can glean valuable insights into your client’s behavior. That, in turn, can help identify bottlenecks, challenges, and opportunities, and lead to increased personalization and customer satisfaction.

Better yet, by analyzing your sales and lead generation activities, you can identify where your marketing resources would be better spent – and perhaps even automate these activities through your CRM!

Missed Sales Opportunities

I’ve mentioned it before, but one of the biggest indicators that you need a CRM is missed sales opportunities. CRM software can help you track leads as they travel through the sales pipeline, helping you glean invaluable insights through lead scoring and analysis. It can also help you identify new opportunities, and even get a solid sales forecast.

Low Customer Satisfaction

This is a big one. If you’ve been encountering a drop in customer satisfaction, there’s a good chance there’s a problem in your company that a CRM can solve. Are you missing communication deadlines? Losing track of critical data? Missing project deadlines without realizing? Are your teams seemingly overwhelmed, and you have no idea why? All of these can lead to a drop in customer satisfaction – and, coincidentally, they’re all issues a CRM can help you solve.

The 6 Best CRM Solutions That You Need

Now that you know whether or not you need a CRM – and you most likely do – I can share with you a few of my favorite CRM solutions. While we won’t take a deep dive into each one, I’ll discuss what makes these platforms stand out, and highlight a few of their features that can help you choose the best one for your business.

Conclusion

Deciding to use CRM software in your company isn’t about having a fun bit of technology to play with, or hopping on some technological fad. Instead, a CRM is meant to fundamentally change and improve how you interact with your customers. 

Whether that’s through how you manage their information, communicate, run marketing campaigns, or offer customer service, a CRM can really make all the difference.

If you’re planning on thriving in your niche and blasting your competitors out of the water – or keep up with them, at the very least – you’ll need to adopt CRM software. It’s not about making a smart business decision – it’s an essential one.

Check out our other blogs too! Our CRM experts publish helpful content daily, covering topics from how-to guides to tackling the biggest CRM challenges.