When starting a business, it is possible to use spreadsheets, e.g. Excel, to control business transactions, orders, sales and so forth, although it is common to waste time and opportunities. The larger the company becomes, the more such manual procedure slows down the company's success. Spreadsheets are difficult to update, interpret, and share with the team; Notes and emails are lost; communication between sellers is compromised.

The main problem is that your most important data is located in different places, making it difficult to share and collaborate on information with everyone. Luckily there is CRM! In this post, you will learn about the main benefits of adopting this tool.

But first, of course, we come to the definition!

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a system for capturing and organizing all of important contacts and keeping track of company interactions with prospects and customers. It enables full management of all customer relationships, which ensures the long-term success of the company.

When contacting a potential customer, you can store important data such as name, address, telephone number, website visits and a description of each interaction in the tool. This way, customer data, leads and opportunities are collected in the same place. It goes way beyond a contact list: CRM enables business to build lasting relationships with customers and provide them with the best experience throughout the sales process.

Alright, now finally to the advantages.

The benefits of using a CRM system

Organize and manage business processes

Using spreadsheets or inflexible internal systems hinders opportunity tracking. With an E-Commerce-CRM it is possible to organize the sales process and monitor the data in real time, which ensures a clear overview of all stages of the negotiation. Full control!

All data in one place

Anyone who works with spreadsheets or diaries knows that it is difficult to rely on memory alone to remember everything that was said, discussed, agreed during the phone call 2 months ago.

However, losing details of a service can affect sales. With the information at hand, on the other hand, you can have a personalized interaction because you know exactly what touch points the potential customer has had with the company. Personalization! 

By the way, do you want to read more about personalization in e-commerce? Then this one Article right for you.

In CRM, all data is centralized and organized in one place, so every employee can access the information they need from one platform. This includes contact information like email address and phone numbers, but also more detailed data like history of interactions with your business and what the customer has already bought from you.

Sell ​​more, better and faster

With CRM, sellers carry out the entire sales process from one place. The tools often integrate with email, calendar, and marketing automation software, so the seller doesn't have to waste time switching between tools.

The result: more frequent, smarter and faster sales. In CRM it is also possible to set up a sales process with step-by-step instructions - so-called workflows.

Focus on customer needs = customer loyalty

Put the focus on the customer, even before they say it. Nowadays, retaining a customer is just as important or even more important than acquiring new customers. When someone has bought from you, the next vital step is to retain the customer, and the CRM helps immensely in this task.

The information available in the software allows you to offer products that are in the consumer's profile, work with targeted marketing and customize the timing of contact and an offer, in addition to a highly personalized service. The result? Loyal customers!

Analyze and improve

Knowing the reasons why deals aren't closing is the first step to increasing sales volume. Knowing where your product or service's weak points lie, where the sales team's arguments fail, and where the competition is ahead is essential for you to reinvent the offering and regain market leadership. And with a CRM solution, such analyzes are possible and efficient in the long term.

Do you still have doubts?

But if you still have doubts, consider these points:

When you make fewer sales

In order to attract and retain more customers, you need to know where each prospect is (i.e. at what stage), which allows for a more accurate approach. Without this information it is more difficult to close a deal.

When your processes don't work

If the sales process is not well coordinated, the work becomes more complicated and the costs increase. In addition, it takes longer to answer customer inquiries. The consequences are self-explanatory.

When you make decisions based on inaccurate data

With inaccurate reports, it's difficult to figure out where your business is doing right and where it's not making the necessary changes. If you're still creating manual reports, it might just be the right time to take CRM a step further.

Are you looking for a CRM for eCommerce?

EspoCRM is here for you. This is a CRM solution for small and medium-sized enterprises with numerous advantages, available as cloud software or self-hosted (on your own server, free of charge). It offers essential functions for managing customer relationships, workflows, reports, roles and rights, calendars, emails and much more.

Manufacturer's website:https://www.espocrm.com

Our company KennerSoft Services GmbH is happy to take on the work related to server hardware adjustments, operating systems, optimizations and configurations. We will help to adapt EspoCRM to your business needs. Our agency has been working with EspoCRM for a long time - the implementation costs are low. We offer you excellent value for money and you will start to benefit from EspoCRM very quickly.