There comes a time in every organization when they have outgrown their spreadsheets and SharePoint lists, and they need something to organize their business, gain insights from their data and drive future growth while keeping the team aligned. A good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system can bring your team together and be vital to organizational efficiencies. Here are seven signs your team needs a CRM solution –
1. It's hard to find the correct information
If your data is spread out in various spreadsheets, notebooks, mailboxes or siloed systems, it can be hard and time-consuming to access the information you need. To deliver exceptional communications and experiences, you and your team need this data to be available on any device and at your fingertips. A CRM system can bring together all the customer information, documents, past communications, and activities so you have a centralized location to find the most current information.
2. The team is unable to keep up
Managing a flood of new leads or support cases can be challenging. Overwhelming growth can result in missed sales opportunities, poor follow-ups, lost revenue and upset customers. With a CRM system, you can automate customer notifications, set reminders for your team members and help them prioritize these leads and cases. A CRM allows the team to stay organized, identify escalations, and respond to your customers promptly and efficiently.
3. Your team is disconnected
Without a centralized platform, your team has no clarity on who owns the lead or account and the relationship. Without insights into ownership or past interactions, your sales and marketing aren’t aligned, leading to multiple contracts and sometimes inconsistent messaging. Leveraging a CRM platform allows you to set transparent processes and efficiently manage hand-offs between team members without disrupting your customer experience.
4. Your team is wasting time on manual processes
If a large portion of your team’s time is spent on cumbersome, manual processes, it is time to look for a CRM platform. A CRM like Dynamics 365 can help automate a lot of repetitive tasks, freeing up your team’s time to do what matters most and focus on your customers. It’s like having a virtual assistant for everyone on the team!
5. You lack visibility into your sales pipeline
Without a clear vision of what’s in the pipeline and which stage each deal is at, you have no idea whether your team is going to hit their goals. Moreover, the service team has no idea what to prepare for either. Having a CRM can get you insights into your current opportunities, help you coach your team through the sales process and make the team more productive.
6. It is hard to get insights or analytics out of your data
Your instincts can help you grow only so much. After a certain point, you can’t be everywhere or know everything – which is why great leaders rely on data, insights and analytics. Your team’s KPIs are indicators of their performance and also help you understand what works and what doesn’t. A CRM system can help you transform your data into invaluable insights that you can leverage to form business strategies and accelerate growth.
7. You are unable to scale
You know that if you had more control over your data and align your team, you could hit your goals and grow faster. A spreadsheet and some post-it notes may be enough if your business is dealing with only a handful of customers, but it will become more challenging to keep this up as your business grows. With a larger team, errors and miscommunications happen. And it takes time for the new team members to understand existing accounts and their history. A CRM platform can help standardize sales process, provide email templates, and help your new team members to become productive immediately. At the same time, it can help you keep things in control and identify challenges as you rapidly scale your business.
CRM systems are powerful organizational tools that allow companies to better understand how customers interact with their brand. These systems can help drive sales, increase your effectiveness in marketing campaigns, improve internal collaboration and keep track of your goals for the future. If you are looking to implement a CRM solution for your organization, be sure to check out our Xpress CRM accelerator or reach out to our team. We’d love the opportunity to assist you in making your decision.