Top 5 tips to eliminate data silos – Pt V

You now know how CRM platforms enable sales processes, and that this is the first step to successful job card software implementation. Now it’s time to look at how that happens.

This means investigating the human-driven aspects of CRM, and how they work from the perspective of sales managers and sales development reps.

As you’ll learn in the next section, automation is one of the biggest benefits a CRM platform can bring.

Instead of manually executing tasks such as outreach, follow-up and qualification, free job card management software platforms can help you automate these menial tasks. This allows sales reps to focus on the activities that bring the most impact.

This level of automation can benefit other areas of the business. For example, marketing can contribute to qualification through lead scoring. Every time a lead interacts with your brand, their score increases. Once a certain threshold is reached, that lead will go from a “marketing qualified lead” (MQL) to a “sales qualified lead” (SQL).

This is the perfect time to evaluate which stages of your sales funnel are making the biggest impact.

Talk to customers who have closed in the last three to six months. Ask them what they found most valuable during their communications with you. Find out what they didn’t find of value.

Customer interviews and surveys can shine a light on high-impact processes. These are the areas to be automated and optimized.

The role of CRM technology

In this section, we’re going to take an in-depth look at maintenance work order app technologies.

You’ll learn which features you should prioritize, how to communicate to senior decision makers and persuade key stakeholders, and the selection process to find a vendor that’s right for you.

Why you should invest in a CRM platform

There are several reasons to invest in CRM, and we’ll take a look at each in depth to help you fully understand the importance of adopting a good CRM platform.

Everyone makes mistakes

Do you remember every key piece of information from customer interactions and meetings? It’s highly unlikely, and even if you kept written notes, they’re liable to go missing.

Don’t rely on memory alone. Use ngo accounting software technology to store key information on your conversations. Train your sales teams to enter this information as soon as they’ve ended a call or meeting.

Not only does this lead to more efficient sales and follow-up processes, it means more data for you and your teams to collect in the long-term.

Monitor key metrics

Without a field service management software platform in place, you probably have multiple Excel spreadsheets set up for customer communications, sales numbers and deal tracking.

It’s good to keep track of these things, but having everything in silos can cause miscommunication between team members. Not only that, it’s also far more difficult to yield useful insights from those numbers.

With a CRM Software platform, all of your sales, marketing and communications data is in one place. This will allow you to create more accurate sales forecasts and create a sales process built on a predictable revenue model.

Keeping data secure

Another downside to having spreadsheets containing your data is that it’s insecure. Furthermore, if you lose that data or files become corrupted, it’s hard to retrieve.

With GDPR rules in place since 2018, you could now face serious legal ramifications for not keeping customer data secure.

Some ERP Software platforms are GDPR compliant out of the box, including Pipedrive, which means you don’t need to worry about the safety of your data. Everything is stored in the cloud on secure servers, meaning your data is usually safer and more secure than it would be sitting on your local computer.

Collaboration across the business

Another downside to having disorganized customer data is how difficult it can be to work with other teams. Everyone has their own way of doing things, and the same data can often be duplicated in several places.

By bringing the entire organization to a single platform, there’s one standard way of doing things and one home for the same data. Marketing can see which channels are generating leads, while sales can access that historical data to fuel their sales communications.

Better customer service

The benefits above extend to how you interact and delight your customers. As all interactions are recorded in the same place, customer service teams can see a historical view of a customer’s relationship with your brand.

This insight allows customer service reps to personalize their interactions. For example, let’s say an individual is more likely to talk to the sales team over the phone; seeing this in the manufacturing software, a customer service rep knows to schedule in a call rather than try to chat over email.

CRM benefits for the entire organization

When talking about apps for repair and maintenance, most people think of sales, but the benefits can extend to every inch of the business.

Why? Because it’s a tool for enhancing the entire customer experience, not just increasing sales performance.

Your CRM must empower you to serve your customers:

“In order to actually ‘manage the customer relationship’ the CRM should be delivering a whole lot more around Customer Success metrics. That is, data and information about the buyer and their current business problems. Collating and synthesizing customer data is now easy, however we live in a world where buyers expect you to:

  • Know them
  • Personalize every engagement
  • Teach them
  • Anticipate their needs

“Against that backdrop the CRM must focus on providing vendors with better intelligence on buyer intent data, customer health, trigger events and share of social voice.”

If your business has customers, it can benefit from a CRM. Here are just a few CRM supporters:

  • Top business schools such as Wharton teach entire courses on CRM
  • Business sites like Harvard Business Review cover CRM from every possible angle
  • The U.S. government’s Small Business Administration sponsors events on CRM
  • Even the International Labor Organization studies and recommends CRM

 

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