Why should I get a CRM?
If you’re a small business owner you may ask yourself why you need a CRM software. When you’re setting up a business, it’s just you or you and a partner and you believe you’ll have everything under control.
At the start, you may have a few customers that you can handle on your own. It’s not difficult. Then, as your business grows, more customers come your way.
Your business gets inquiries from the website’s forms - you might even get direct email and phone contacts. All this data you probably record in spreadsheets. Or you use a sticky note on your computer screen to remind you of something and a star to mark an important, ‘must-reply-right-away’ email.
Sure, that method may work, even if your clients start hitting double digits. Then, the client list hits the three digit mark. Still, you make it work.
You may wonder why you should spend money on something that you can manage without help. But the truth is, managing your inquiries through your email client alone isn’t enough. Neither is organizing information with spreadsheets.
Sometimes you’ll get an email and reply right away, but you don’t hear back from the person who sent it. Maybe you didn’t get a reply or it got lost in the barrage of more recent inquiries. What matters is: you’re losing potential sales.
What about all the customers you lost without noticing?
You mark emails you need to reply to with visual aids (stars, color tags). But after a while, you have a never-ending list of marked emails to respond to. Some aren’t a priority, while others were replaced by recent emails from the prospective client.
That is very inefficient.
You start to feel the strain of keeping up with all those emails. You think maybe you need to hire someone to help you with this. For that, you’ll have to findtime in your busy schedule training that person. Not to mention, you have to pay them.
If you have employees or partners, confusion is bound to happen. Everyone has their own way to organize things.
If your employees are keeping data their own way, how can you get proper reports?
You need precise information to make good decisions like finding new business opportunities and revenue streams. Only that will help you grow the business.
Your business can’t afford missteps.
Tracking data across various spreadsheets is a difficult task. It’s even harder to get an exact picture of your business.
Before you realize, you’re overwhelmed. Your information is scattered across spreadsheets, sticky notes and other reminders that seem to be impossible to find.
Wrong or outdated information is not the way to go. Consumers are getting more demanding. They want you to know everything about them: their names, buying history, their likes and dislikes and a lot more.
Consumers want a personalized service now - not in 10 minutes. And if you can’t give it, there are plenty of other businesses that can.
People will stick with a business that gives them what they want. It’s that simple. Give them what they want and you’ll have a customer for a long, long time.
What’s the solution? Stop trying to do everything on your own. You think you’re saving money, but in reality, you’re wasting time and money. There’s a reason why business use of CRM is becoming so popular.
Invest in a system to help you now and avoid losing money in the future.
Talk to us About Your Unique NeedsWhat does a CRM system do anyway?
A CRM allows you to track interactions between you and your customers and prospects. It can save you time and give a better experience for your customers.
Long-term accounts are valuable and need to be managed. Your customers aren’t all the same. Some need special attention, since they bring the most revenue.
Business relies on a certain amount of repeat customers, so a relationship with them is paramount.
A contact going through CRM is not lost among other emails. When someone contacts you, the CRM will automatically create a contact form for that person: name, email (and any other fields required in the contact form) and the message sent. You can also manually add a contact.
- Track your customers and don’t lose sight of them. This is part of the benefits of CRM for sales manager positions.
- Organize your contacts. Search and filter your contacts.
- Record inquiries, set reminders to make calls/email in the future.
- Send email marketing to your clients.
It goes beyond simple contact information storage. A CRM system will record important actions: emails, phone calls, meetings and much more.
You can track deal stages and the reasons the deals were won or lost.
The interaction history will let you know what was already done and what are the next steps to take. This is available to all employees.
With business use of CRM, if you have employees, the system will make sure everyone follows the same process. This means that all information in the system offers exact reports. Information is recorded the same way and accounted for.
With a CRM system, you can get insights that’ll help you make better decisions. Your business may just grow at a faster pace that you can keep up with, so having all the help you can get is essential.
Why You Need to Move Away from SpreadsheetsGet a CRM Software that Fits You
Software exists to make your life easier. It’s here so you can keep your customers, increase your sales and boost revenue. There are a lot of choices available for business use of CRM systems:
- Proprietary or Open Source software
- Free or Paid solutions
Every one of those has its advantages and disadvantages. It’s up to you to decide which one is the better fit for your business.
We obviously recommend Odoo: it’s versatile, user-friendly and works with businesses of all sizes. Odoo is a great solution for business use of CRM.
It’s one of the best open source CRM, according to Computer World UK.
- Accurate forecasts - get insights, reports and custom dashboards that help you make smarter decisions
- Data organisation - all your information is organized and easy to find with filters and tags
- Real-time overview - look at your performance and compare it to monthly targets
- Do more in less time - get information directly from the opportunity (site page views, emails received, etc) and schedule activities with sales scripts (calls, meetings, quotations)
- Know what is happening in your company at all times - real-time messaging and see when someone sends a quote or logs a call
Watch the video to discover more about Odoo CRM.
Learn About CRM Integration with Sage
Here’s one more reason to pick Odoo. As your business grows, you can easily add new apps to cover your needs. No need for expensive integrations. All apps work together as one unique system.
Work with the best. Work with Odoo CRM - the best software in the market.
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