What Is CRM?

What is CRM?

When people talk about CRM, they are usually referring to CRM software. CRM software is a tool that is used for contact management. Its key purpose is to allow for the effective management of relationships between prospects, customers, and supplier. CRM also enables sales management, productivity, and much, much more. CRM software digitises processes and automates tasks to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of customer relationship management.

CRM is a software application. Its key purpose is to allow for the effective management of relationships between customer and supplier, but what does that actually mean.

Relationships form when there is an affinity between a group of people.  Commonly referred to as market segmentation. where segments are distinctive, accessible, and measurable. For example, typically geography, industry.

What is CRM and how can it aid customer insight

Businesses are complex things made up of different individuals, products, and services, most of which may mean very little to most customers.  Despite the huge array of choice that many businesses offer these days there are probably just a few things that each customer sees as being valuable to them.

So, the first key to building relationships with prospects and customers is to understand what is really important to them. Your CRM system CRM (also called customer relationship management) should help you by allowing you to attribute each contact and company with information that can segmented into groups with shared values and interests.

You are not just building relationships externally; you’re also doing it internally.  Your CRM system should be easy for your staff. It should allow them to understand the prospects and customers the are engaging. It should aid and inform their decision about what they need to do. It should help identify opportunities as well as resolve customer problems.

What is CRM and how can it aid Sales Engagement

As well as understanding your prospects and customers, CRM should allow you to tune your communications. A well segmented database will ensure that prospects are receiving targeted communication that is better aligned to their buying requirements. This will result in enhanced sales engagement.

A CRM system should also help you understand how you are progressing with each opportunity and identify potential deals that have slowed, so that you can engage the appropriate nurturing, or adjust a deals probability.

To do this you must be able to clearly the define the steps involved in progressing a sales opportunity towards a conclusion for your business.  Restricting yourself to the steps included in a CRM system will lead to some friction and a misunderstanding of how deals or actually progressing.

Whilst the progression of deals is a good indication, the time a deal takes to move between stages and the time at a particular stage can provide important insight. This can also help determine opportunities that are slowing or stalled or have a lower probability of winning.

What is CRM and how can it aid the customer experience?

A CRM system is a piece of technology (software) that help businesses build relationships with prospects and customers. It provides a better understand how live deals are progressing. In addition to sales it can capture all kind of after sales and customer services related issues

ProAptivity are an independent CRM solution provider. We focus on the implementation, training, and support of highly customised CRM software solutions. Our CRM software provides the customer insights with the tools needed to manage your business, grow bigger, faster with more ease. We also deliver Sales Training that helps organisations embed sales best practice throughout their organisation.

If you need help in understanding why my business needs CRM, maybe some of our eBooks could help! Alternatively visit Maximizer CRM or Pipedrive CRM for more information.

Contact us today on 028 9099 6388 or via info@proaptivity.com. We can help you assess if your business is CRM ready.

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