Over the past three years, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools have skyrocketed in popularity among small and medium sized businesses. Previously not ranked on the list of top things that CIOs prioritized, CRM is now one of the top 10 SMB technologies, according to Gartner Research.
With the rapid growth of CRMs, one question remains constant: Is your team using the right CRM?
The right CRM is easy to use and pulls all the features your marketing and sales teams need to work efficiently into one convenient interface. Without effective CRM, your business is losing opportunities, sales, and in extreme cases, top employees. With so much at stake and such a high priority placed on this essential business tool, are you sure your sales team is using the best CRM available?
Here are a few key components that your team needs at its disposal to thrive. If your CRM doesn’t have them, it might be time to switch.
Scheduling Features
Your sales team is busy. Each team member fills her days with appointments to try to land the next big contract. To fill schedules and track important events seamlessly, your CRM must have a built-in calendar.
Your CRM calendar should have a few key features baked into it:
- Reminders
- Recurring tasks
- The ability to assign work to other team members
- Automated processes
- Sales pipelines
Without these features, it’s more difficult to stay on top of a prospect’s needs.
Program Integrations
Your CRM is not the only tool used in your business, so to be effective, it must work with other products to create an efficient workflow.
Here are some examples of the types of apps you can integrate with your CRM:
- If your team uses Evernote to jot down thoughts and ideas, your CRM should seamlessly link to the app to upload the information.
- Calendar. Your CRM should have calendar sync capabilities so it can sync your CRM calendar with data from popular scheduling tools, such as Google Calendar or Outlook.
- Email Marketing. Do you send emails using a third-party email marketing platform, such as MailChimp? If so, you’ll want to quickly copy your ever-growing list of contacts from one platform to another. Your CRM should make that as easy as possible.
- File Sharing. Clients often need to see files and documents related to their project. Make file sharing fast and simple by integrating your CRM with your favorite file-sharing program, such as Dropbox or Box.
- Sending proposals should be a painless process. Did you know that Insightly connects to Quote Roller? By pulling together your customer records and proposal software accessible from anywhere, a great CRM lets your team spend less time on paperwork and more time shaking hands with new customers.
Help your business and sales team run a little smoother on the backend by keeping your third party applications up-to-date and seamlessly integrated with your CRM.
Search
You juggle a lot in your business. Each client has unique demands, and for you to thrive, you need to stay on top of each unique request. That’s not always easy to do.
Your CRM should bridge the knowledge gap by offering a fast, easy way to search for notes and information about a client. Before your next phone call or meeting, give your sales team full access to the information it needs to make the best impression with fast search functionality. You’ll better equip these top performers to work harder and smarter for your business.
Notification System
Perhaps the most important part of your CRM is the notification system. This tells your sales team when something has happened to move a sale forward. On the flipside, it also shows your team when a prospect is dragging his or her feet and avoiding the sale.
With a notification system in place, your team can aggressively target the hot prospects and capture the sale before it goes to your competitor.
Is Your CRM Up to Par?
Don’t slow your sales team down by forcing them to use an outdated system. Give your top performers the tools needed to land you more sales and build your company.
Try out Insightly’s sales features to see if our CRM is a good fit for your team.
Sign up for a 14-day free trial.
Kimberly Crossland is a copywriter who works closely with the tech industry. She has a keen eye for new trends and products that make doing business a little (or a lot) easier.
