Customer relationships are critical to your company’s success, so you must manage them efficiently. The more you use your CRM’s features and data, the more insights you’ll gain that will help you maximize your ROI. You can start seeing the results immediately if you use a complete and fully integrated CRM solution.
CRM tools can assist you in better managing your sales process and increasing customer loyalty. CRMs, on the other hand, are not all created equal. Customer service and relationship management are unquestionably essential aspects of any business. When a company nurtures its existing customer relationships, it increases the customer lifetime value, boosting profits.
Furthermore, keeping an existing customer is much less expensive than finding new ones. According to a study, acquiring a customer is five times the cost of keeping a customer.
Role Of CRM In Business
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems assist businesses in centralizing their customers’ data and information to effectively provide excellent customer service.
CRM helps your sales team monitor and manage accounts, upsell current customers, and secure new business, among other things, by storing customer information, integrating marketing automation, and providing predictive analytics.
Calculating The Return On Investment Of CRM
Most businesses lack a reliable method for calculating the ROI of their CRM or specific key features.
(Gain from Investment – Cost of Investment) + Cost of Investment is a simple equation.
Often, businesses don’t have a clear picture of their CRM investment – this is a crucial first step.
The best way to boost your CRM ROI is to boost the conversion rate of your sales team. The ability of a company to convert a lead into a paying customer is one of the most critical metrics. Even a 0.5 percent increase in conversion rate can result in thousands, if not millions, of dollars in new and repeat business.
Customers expect responsiveness in today’s world, so responsiveness is the easiest way to increase the conversion rate. According to a Forbes and HBR (Harvard Business Review) study, sales reps who responded within the first 5 minutes had a 21x higher chance of qualifying a lead than those who responded within the first 30 minutes.
Top CRM Features That Help Bring Higher ROI & Benefits
The following are some of the most important features of CRM software that can help you increase your ROI:
Data Centralization
CRM is no longer viewed solely as a sales and marketing tool but as a data hub. Data is undeniably important, and businesses are increasingly aware of the need to collect and manage data effectively.
Businesses invest in CRM for various reasons, one of which is to improve data management. When data is spread across multiple systems, it can cause a slew of issues, including the following at the highest level:
- Loss of Information
- Lack of Collaboration
- Non-compliance
- Difficulty in rolling out initiatives and
- Duplicated tasks
Every business will face unique challenges, but inefficiency and wasted time are recurring themes. However, having a centralized CRM system allowed a company to adapt to legislative changes, improve responsiveness, improve customer experience, and sell more effectively.
Segmentation
Splitting a customer base into smaller groups is known as segmentation, and it is traditionally used to tailor marketing to the right customers. It can also be useful for other tasks, such as deciding which product lines to release and making strategic decisions about which customers to promote products.
Here are a few examples of how segmentation can be used:
- Customers can be segmented based on their purchasing habits, allowing you to target them with products tailored to their needs.
- Detailed demographic data on your customer base can help you make strategic product development decisions.
- When creating a brand message, demographic data is crucial because it allows marketers to understand who they’re speaking to.
In short, you must know who your customers are in order to provide the best service possible.
Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is the process of valuing various leads to determine where sales resources should be allocated.
One of the most challenging decisions a sales team must make is where to focus their time and energy. When a CRM reports on the highest-quality leads, it can help salespeople concentrate their efforts.
Many businesses struggle to answer the question “who are the best leads?” because lead scoring forces them to do so. Even the scoring process should aid in the selection of the best potential clients.
For lead scoring to be effective, a company must consider the following:
- Is there enough information to determine what constitutes a good lead?
- Will our tactical approach to leads be influenced by lead scoring, and if so, how?
- Is there enough time and resources to score leads?
As leads progress from strong to medium, a company can begin to decide where to focus its efforts.
Productivity Tracking
A well-designed CRM can provide analytics on a team and individual activity levels. This information can be used to track:
- Calls made
- Emails sent
- Notes that have been added
- Attendance at meetings
- Completed tasks
It can be difficult to draw meaningful conclusions from this data, but it can often be very telling as the data accumulates over time.
Inventory Management
Inventory management is a method of keeping track of which products you have on hand and relevant information about those products. This is especially true for businesses that sell tangible goods.
Here are just a few of the advantages of a good inventory management CRM:
- Stock control: entails reordering stock when it becomes scarce.
- Provide insight into purchasing habits: for example, if a product’s sales are on the decline, it may be time to replace it.
- Product details: Having product details on hand can come in handy when responding to customer questions.
- Manufacturer details: this can include information on special offers, warranties, and manufacturer reliability, which are helpful when deciding which products to stock.
Reporting Tailored To Your Needs
The term “custom reporting” refers to the variety of reports generated by a CRM. The best CRMs provide a set of valuable reports and the ability to create custom reports.
Reports can take many different forms, such as:
- Activity reports
- Pipeline overview
- Sales team performance
- Sales figures
- Segmentation and
- Email marketing
Poor customer service is one of the leading causes of customer churn, so a system that encourages excellent customer service can help retain customers and encourage them to refer others.
Conclusion
Although calculating the return on investment of a CRM is complicated, it is critical to take steps to make sense of your data. As data becomes more valuable, having a clear picture of your data will give you a competitive advantage.