Do I Need a CRM? And Other Burning Questions SMB Owners Are Asking Themselves

What Is a CRM?

CRM is like a conductor leading an orchestra, harmonizing the different sections and ensuring each musician plays their part in unison. As a result, you can create a beautiful symphony of customer satisfaction. 

Sales, marketing, and customer service teams use CRM tools to collect and analyze customer data to understand their needs, wants, and preferences. This way, you can meet each customer where they are. You can speak their language and connect their needs to your solutions at just the right time.

By using this data, companies can personalize their marketing and outreach, and as a result, increase your closed deals and loyal customers.

What Does a CRM Do?

A CRM solution is the secret sauce of successful companies. It’s one tool that does the work of many,  including:

• Storing customer contact information
• Tracking communications (e.g., phone calls, email, text messages)
• Organizing purchase history
• Sharing information between employees
• Monitoring leads in the sales funnel
• Managing leads and channels
• Setting follow-up reminders
• Automating sales and marketing tasks
• Anticipating customer needs via predictive analytics and AI

These are just a few of the ways a CRM gives you a helping hand throughout your business. 

Who Uses CRM Software?

From startups to multinational corporations, small and large companies alike can benefit from a CRM solution. Essentially any organization that needs to provide excellent customer experiences and grow their business can use CRM software as an anchor.

CRM systems cater to various departments, such as sales, marketing, and customer service. All employees can pull from and contribute to the same data so you can support each customer with a complete view of up-to-date information.

How Can a CRM Benefit My Business?

Every business has unique needs and expectations of their CRM. Generally speaking, CRM users can improve the way they work in more than one way. If you’re asking yourself, “Why do I need a CRM system?”, here’s some food for thought.

Get Inside Your Customers’ Minds

Consumers are increasingly demanding personalized marketing, with 71% of customers saying they expect it from the companies they do business with. They don’t want to waste time on messages that aren’t relevant to them. When you can tailor your offer to customer needs, you’re more likely to capture their attention and get a positive outcome. 

CRM offers insights into customer behaviors, making it easier to personalize your outreach. You can see at a glance what they’ve bought from you, the offers you’ve already given them, and what similar customers are purchasing. 

By tracking interactions and interests, you’ll have a better idea of what your customers need (and when they need it).

Supercharge Your Revenue

Effective sales organizations are 81% more likely to consistently use a CRM or similar system. By using a CRM to personalize marketing, organizations can increase conversion rates, leading to more revenue. 

CRM software paints a full picture of each customer’s experience, including how they found you, what made them buy from you in the first place, what they’ve bought, and what they’ve been offered but didn’t pull the trigger on, for example. You can use this intel to figure out your customer’s most pressing needs and deliver on them like no other company.

Confidently Cross-Sell and Upsell

By tracking interactions and purchases, you can find trends and opportunities for upselling or cross-selling products or services. 

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• Cross-selling is when you offer additional items to purchase based on what your customers are already buying.
• Upselling refers to augmenting your customer’s purchase with an upgrade or complementary item.

By seeing what people buy at a glance, employees can make better recommendations to increase sales and deliver a shiny customer experience. This opens the door for communication so customers can learn more about your business. 

Even better, many CRM tools will make these suggestions automatically. You can stop guessing about what to offer. AI can review what similar customers are purchasing from you, kind of like Amazon’s “Frequently Bought Together” section on its product listing pages. Instead of spending precious time figuring out what to cross-sell or upsell, put this process on autopilot. Simply make the suggestion to your customer and take the conversation to the next step.

Time Your Customer Connections

Being proactive with customers helps your company stay top of mind. When customers need something you offer, you’re more likely to be the first one they think of.

CRM systems help you improve customer outreach by setting follow-up reminders, automating email campaigns, and creating targeted marketing campaigns at scale. You can also track customer interactions across channels to find the best places and times to reach your customers. This way, they’re more likely to receive your messages and (hopefully) act on them.

Create Loyal Fans

Predicting customer needs is a surefire way to stand out in a positive way. Research shows that 61% of SMBs that use a CRM retain more customers as a direct result of their business tools. Many CRM platforms use predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs or churn, allowing you to serve each customer like they’re your only one.

Do I Need a CRM?

CRM tools offer plenty of value in sales, marketing, and customer service. But does your business need one?

Here are a few signs you might need a CRM solution:

• You loathe the thought of manually keying in another customer’s name, address, and phone number. 
• Your customer account data is homeless, or at least spread across different systems. 
• Teams and departments can’t find the data they need, so they create their own every time. 
• You aren’t closing many deals.
• You aren’t personalizing your marketing.
• You aren’t sure what customers need next.
• You have a long sales cycle.

These are just a few reasons you might benefit from a CRM. If these hit close to home, let’s explore the things to look for that will make a CRM worthwhile (and let you sleep better at night).

What to Look for in a CRM

While every business has unique needs for CRM software, a few key features and functions will set you up for success. Here’s what you should look for in a CRM to gain the most from your investment.

User-Friendly Interface

A complex and confusing interface spells doom for employee adoption. If this is the case, you might be better off without a CRM.

Look for a CRM that offers intuitive navigation, clear menus, and easy access to important features. Ease of use motivates your employees to use their tools. After all, your CRM is only as good as the data your team feeds it.

Easy Customization Options

Your CRM should work for you, not the other way around. Customization allows you to tailor the technology to fit your specific needs and workflows, making it more efficient and user-friendly for your team. By being able to customize every field, automation, and report, you can ensure the CRM aligns perfectly with your business processes.

Scalability

CRM ultimately helps your business grow. As you acquire more customers (and more employees), your tools should evolve alongside you. Make sure you can easily add new users, features, and data to your CRM without needing complete reconfigurations, business disruptions, or massive upgrade costs. 

Mobile Access

So much of today’s business is done on the go. Even if you don’t have remote employees, your teams should be able to access customer data when and where they need it if it means growing your business (e.g., when an important call comes in after hours or while in the field).

Having mobile access to your CRM is no longer just a nice-to-have feature, but rather a necessity. Whether you're meeting with clients, attending conferences, or traveling for work, being able to quickly log in to your CRM from your mobile device allows you to stay connected and up-to-date with important information. You can also sync updates with on-site teams and ensure data is logged in real-time.

Third-Party Integrations

Third-party integrations let you stick with what’s already working without having to reinvent the wheel. Your CRM should augment your existing workflows and tools with features that might not otherwise be available.

Explore Fireberry CRM Today

Fireberry offers the most customizable CRM on the market, giving you more control over your data, processes, and workflows. Skip the coding—your CRM works the way you do and plays nicely with your existing tools for instant and ongoing success.

Schedule your Fireberry demo today to explore a truly custom CRM and all the ways your business can benefit from it.