Why combine CRM with project management? The long list of advantages

What is CRM software used for?

CRMs are used to manage contacts, sales, agent productivity, and more. Business relationships are what a CRM system is all about: improving them to grow your business. At every touch point with your customers, including marketing, sales, and customer service, CRM tools help you manage customer relationships.

With CRM software, all of your leads and customers' data can be brought together in one place, allowing business owners to better manage their leads and customers by tracking all communication. Instead of putting together a variety of spreadsheets, databases, and apps to track customer data, many businesses use a CRM. This leads to improved time management, organization, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

CRMs consolidate all communications (completed forms, calls, emails, texts, and meetings), documents, quotes, purchases, and tasks associated with each lead or customer. You can provide great service or close a sale if your entire team has access to these details at the right time.

We can divide the different CRM solutions into three main types: operational, analytical, and collaborative. Each of them is designed to handle specific processes related to managing customer relationships and storing customer data, such as automating sales, marketing, and service tasks, identifying and leveraging customer trends, and more.

What is project management software?

The goal of project management is to ensure that projects and tasks are completed on time. Meeting deadlines keeps customers happy, but if you do not, you lose their trust.

There are several types of project management software:

Individual

Each project manager uses their own project management software. Project management software can be a spreadsheet or a simple application that provides all the features a PM needs. Although this user interface may be installed throughout the organization, there is no connection between the different users.

Collaborative

Collaborative software allows entire teams to work together on a single planning source. It makes the data accessible, readable, and editable by other project team members. This is often customized to avoid interrupting the work of others. When these systems meet an organization's goals, they can be rather low-tech. However, these tools can only work on one project at a time, regardless of how many users are accessing the project at the same time. The inability of this application to integrate data from other projects is a major drawback.

Integrated

Project management software that integrates multiple projects at once is the best solution for companies that have multiple projects running at once. Multiple teams working on different projects can access data from current and previous projects on a single mainframe. Information about the project is accessible to each team member. Data and information can usually be integrated into dashboard-like interfaces in these project management systems, making it possible to track the various projects at a glance.

Each project or job can be logged into the server-based program using permission-based access. There are a number of features, including portfolio management, job dependencies, time tracking, in-app communication, and scheduling. Most of these apps have a user-friendly interface and allow for different project types; even tutorials are included.

CRM vs. project management software

While CRM software is designed to manage interactions with potential and existing customers, project management software is designed to complete a project on time and within budget. Project management software promotes best practices and techniques to achieve project goals quickly.

When observing CRM vs project management, you notice there is an overlap between the two types of software. For example, both have an email element - be it integration or email marketing - both include a scheduling and/or time tracking tool, a system for organizing contacts, a mobile integration feature, a project management or project planning component, and more.

True, CRM software and project management software differ in many ways and perhaps neither software offers the full feature set of the other, but it's fair to say that both software generally offers the basic features of the other.

Why use CRM with project management?

A CRM has a lot to do with project management, especially when it comes to learning about and satisfying customers. It is in our opinion that companies will only benefit from combining both types of software.

CRM project management software is a solution that combines two business applications into a single platform to unify data and achieve the common goal of serving and satisfying customers. CRM and project management for small businesses help put the customer first, while project management systems help define tasks, identify resources, and track progress.

It makes sense to integrate CRM and project management. It allows you to effortlessly manage all aspects of your agency while meeting your client's needs and completing their projects on time.

CRMs can be integrated into project management to achieve the following:

●       Customers can view and approve deliverables, improving quality control (converting relationships into partnerships).

●       Promote the use of the software (creating tasks, taking notes, etc.)

●       Coordinate PM teams, sales, and customer service.

●       Sales and account managers can track the progress of a project.

●       Develop triggers and personalized content based on lead and customer journey information to increase marketing efficiency.

●       Keeping track of customer activity is possible while you're working on a project.

●       Develop projects based on sales.

●       Organize all your contacts in one place.

●       Mine data to improve deliverables.

Benefits of CRM With Project Management

CRMs play a crucial role in project management, particularly when it comes to understanding and satisfying customers. When including a CRM with project management teams, sales, and customer service are on the same page. You can track the progress of projects from one place, understand where leads are in the customer journey can improve the effectiveness of your marketing teams, track all your contacts in one place, and better monitor customer activity.

Combining the two software offers the following benefits:

Money and time savings

When you use comprehensive software, you won't have to pay subscriptions for many other tools. With just one software, you don't have to navigate between different applications and train your employees to use it.

It's important to clarify roles, communicate tasks clearly, and maintain up-to-date data so your team members have the tools they need. As a result, your productivity will increase, response times will be reduced, and accuracy will be improved.

Also, reducing or eliminating duplication of effort will be beneficial. When you have more time and money to invest in your agency, you'll be able to deliver more to your clients.

Better results

Client feedback is easy to obtain and can be shared with your entire team, which can help you identify strengths and areas for improvement. Feedback may also suggest future actions. CRM systems can help you learn where your customers are having problems, such as with prices, packages, or services. CRM data indicates that potential customers are choosing competitors who offer website development over you.

You can use this knowledge to predict future trends. 

With improved results, you can focus on both immediate and long-term goals. CRM and project management combined can help you create better strategic plans.

When you address the immediate needs of your customers, you will be better able to serve them.

Ultimate data organization

Data can be managed and stored centrally on a single platform. It is easy to organize and view all the project data. As a result, your teams can make business decisions based on the same data. As a result, errors and discrepancies are minimized.

The centralization of data allows it to be updated across departments and platforms. The latest information is available to everyone. It is possible to gain a deeper understanding of your customers by bringing data together and also develop better strategies and plans based on data-driven insights.

Team alignment and coordination

It is easier for your teams to coordinate and understand customer needs and project progress when they have a single source of data. Moreover, it allows for easy and transparent monitoring of employee progress and work. Marketing and sales teams can use measurement and reporting tools to measure the effectiveness of their efforts.

Your customers' experience can be improved through cross-team collaboration. As everyone knows their tasks, productivity can also increase, and teamwork will be made easier.

Your customers will also benefit from easier cross-team collaboration. As everyone knows what their responsibilities are, productivity can also increase and collaboration becomes easier.

No matter the size of your agency, it makes sense to integrate your sales CRM and project management. With this powerful combination, you can achieve greater customer satisfaction and growth.

What makes a good CRM project management solution?

In order to create an effective project management solution, there are many factors to consider. Understanding the needs of your business is key to finding the right solution. User-friendly, customizable, and flexible solutions are ideal. Also, choose a solution that facilitates collaboration, manages documents, and notifies specific individuals when their attention is required.  Keep in mind some of these characteristics:

User-friendly

A project management system should be easy to use. Furthermore, they should integrate well with your existing processes. Customizable solutions help you maintain ease of use.

Flexibility

CRM project management solutions should be flexible. You can customize it according to your needs. The right system is flexible, yet reliable. Look for flexibility when searching for the right CRM project management platform for your business.

Adaptability

Your business has unique requirements. In order to maximize project management success, you should find a CRM solution that is customizable. There are times when a one-size-fits-all solution is just not right for your business. A solution that can be customized to fit your unique organization's needs is what you are looking for.

Document management capabilities

Documents can be created and shared using a powerful project management solution. Having everything in one place can save time, even if it is more convenient to pull documents from another source.

Notification features

In the absence of notifications to teams and employees, CRM project management solutions are of little use. Make sure all stakeholders are notified when a task needs to be completed. It's important to keep everyone in the loop so nothing falls through the cracks.

Collaborative features

Managing projects without collaboration is difficult. An effective project management solution will make collaboration easy and seamless. CRM project management solutions simplify the process of collaborating on customer-focused solutions.

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