CRM is a key tool for small and medium-sized businesses, enabling them to optimize their vital functions .
Increase sales
This is the initial vocation of a good CRM for SMEs: to help with prospecting, follow-up of existing customers and customer file management. A good system allows you to call more customers, to be more tailored to the customer and therefore to increase the efficiency of the sales representative.
Time management
It’s the vocation of a good CRM to help salespeople, representatives and customer service agents manage and optimize their efficient time. They can :
- Prioritize their time with their most important customers, the 20% who bring in 80% of sales
- Important prospects who will compensate for the inevitable loss of customers
- Sort less important customers and prospects according to their priorities
- Remove uninteresting customers and prospects so you don’t waste time on them – competitors might as well!
Once the priorities have been set, sales staff can get on with administrative tasks. These administrative tasks are reduced to a strict minimum, since the philosophy of a good CRM is to take notes during contact with the customer to minimize subsequent tasks. This is particularly true over the phone, but not always face-to-face, as the priority remains the customer, but notes are taken immediately afterwards, in the car if it’s a sales rep. This, of course, requires a connected tablet or laptop.
Customer experience
By personalizing the customer relationship, agents can offer a more personalized service and keep a complete contact history, making CRM the ideal tool for improving customer service and satisfaction.
Automate the sales and marketing process
Standardized processes and automatic actions mean you can do things better and faster, and deal with more customers more quickly, thanks to automated sales systems. Here’s how it works: the salesperson captures the essential data and enters it into the CRM, which is then stored in a database connected to the company’s other systems. As the CRM is integrated, all key information is automatically transmitted to the organization’s other systems: invoicing, contracts, accounting, statistics, marketing. No manual action is required, no recopying with risk of error, everything is done automatically.
Marketing
A good customer relationship manager enables you to carry out targeted advertising campaigns using a variety of methods:
- Personalized, targeted e-mails.
- Publication on social networks displayed in the sales promotion section of the system
- Observation of sales results
Logistics
With access to the system, logistics can obtain information on orders, but also on past difficulties with certain customers: if there were any delivery difficulties, how they were resolved. The customer relations system is not a statistical tool, but rather a personalized approach to each customer.
Production
Production is not directly concerned by CRM, but can nevertheless use it to understand customer needs and problems, and thus adapt its offering to the market.
Team communication
CRM enables several people to work together on the same customer, enabling them to communicate more effectively and coordinate their efforts. Customer service will not be linked to the presence or absence of one person, it will rely on an entire team.
Performance management
The key figures (KPIs) to be measured are :
- Number of calls per salesperson per day
- Number of customer meetings per salesperson per week
- Appointment closing rate per salesperson per month
- Sales closing rate by salesperson and month
- Sales by salesperson week and month
- Global sales per day, per week, per month
- Year-to-date vs. targets
Coaching
The numbers, but also the quality of the salespeople’s note-taking, enable coaching based on observation and facts, while providing the coach with historical data.
