Here we present you with a CRM(customer relationship management) for beginners guide, which can take you through the basics of CRM!

We can say without the slightest bit of doubt that every single aspect of modern-day man’s life has been graced by automation. It has become literally impossible for us to live without this aspect of technology. For instance, think about how well you would be able to manage to make a call on your phone without the help of automation. Most of us wouldn’t even be able to remember our contacts’ numbers by heart. In such situations, the whole aspect of automation saves the day.

What is CRM?

CRM is a platform that offers nothing but an advanced way of using data and analysis to optimize your organization’s communications with your customers. With its many advantages (a strong focus on sales growth and customer retention being the primary ones in the list), the aspect of the Customer Relationship Management platform helps to boost businesses to a great extent.

HubSpot CRM, Salesforce, and Oracle CRM are some examples of extremely popular CRMs.

A short peek into history shows us that CRM used to be the largest software market way back in 2017. And that doesn’t stop there. This particular trend is all set to grow, with more organizations recognizing its many advantages.
During the bygone era, one was supposed to install CRMs on their organization’s systems, just the way it’s done in the case of any other software. But with the advent of technology, most CRMs have become cloud-based, which can be logged into easily, with the help of one’s own account.
A CRM platform works by storing data of all your contacts into a CRM database so that it helps in facilitating easy access to their email addresses, numbers, names, and other details. But modern-day CRMs go way beyond this and provide many more advantages. Some of them can integrate all of your sales and marketing tools.

But then again, in spite of a large scale availability of free CRMs, most businesses still shy away from diving in to take a dip in the many advantages of CRM software. Now, you don’t want to join that bandwagon of outdated businesses, do you?

So, it’s time for you to chuck out the old school processes and accounts payable automation software, and amp up your business with the help of CRM software and CRM marketing. Now that we are clear about the CRM definition, let’s take a look at how one can go about this.

But then again, it’s a shocking thing to note that in spite of the general public (consumers)utilizing this technology to its maximum, most businesses still go the old school way and depend on outdated strategies and systems.

Thus they still struggle to catch up with the fast-moving world, all thanks to outdated processes such as data entry and impersonal messages. This can heavily affect their business in a negative way (Especially for the companies whose business revolves around accounting. The various automation solutions offered by SaasAnt are definitely worth a try).

Types of CRM Softwares:

Firstly, there are three main types of CRM: Operational, analytical, and collaborative. But then, there are also CRMs which are integrations of all the 3 types.

Operational CRM Software:

The main purpose of this type of CRM software is to streamline and optimize business operations with the usage of automation (For those who are still in the dark about the term ‘automation’, it’s simply all about getting a task done by machines, with the least possible human intervention). This type of CRM software help with different business processes including sales and marketing, help desk support services, etc. among a large horde of others. But then again, it should be noted that the primary functions of operational CRMs revolve around sales, customer services as well as marketing.

The visitors on your website can be tracked easily with the help of a CRM database, thereby helping in keeping track of their actions. Thus business owners can understand their customers better, and thereby service them better. The data collected this way can also help in personalizing the messages used for email marketing and other types of outreach. Apart from this, such software additionally helps in creating workflows, score leads, etc. along with filtering customer activity and updating customer account data automatically.

Analytical CRM Software:

This is another important form of CRM software. On the question of the usefulness/benefits of Analytical CRM, they assist in collecting and analyzing the collected data for the advancement of companies. According to Forrester, 73% of company data is wasted away, without being employed for analytics. This gap can be easily bridged with the usage of such software. Analytical CRM software plow ahead and correlate the collected data with various contact profiles.

Another aspect of analytical CRM software is segmentation. Here you can segment all of your contacts effectively. Based on this sort of segmentation, marketing campaigns can be done.

Also, you can keep a watch over how your campaigns are progressing in terms of metrics and KPIs.

Collaborative CRM Software:

This helps in bringing all your departments under one roof. Thus inter-departmental conflicts and confusion can be avoided. In effect, it will help you give a seamless experience to your customers when it comes to business-related processes and communication.
Thus we can safely conclude that CRM software is essential for any business looking out for a great deal of progress. The choice of the software is completely left to you and your individual business needs.

CRM Terms You Should Know:

When it comes to CRMs and CRM marketing, there are various terms one must be aware of. Here are some:

Objects: It’s a data point in your CRM, such as contact information in your database. Objects change and evolve along with the business.

Contacts: Individuals whose information that’s stored in your database. It could range from anywhere between a customer to personal contact.

Conversions: Now this one happens when a visitor of your website fills a form or clicks on a CTA that’s given on the website. This explanation of conversions is purely in marketing terms. In terms of salespeople, it’s every lead that has been qualified. So in effect, it’s nothing but an object that converts to a status in the buying cycle.

Leads: Every contact that is interested in talking business with you is a lead. They have to be followed up with further marketing and sales strategies.

Accounts: Accounts are companies whom you can approach to make sales. If you keep account information in a CRM, you will be able to easily do account-based marketing.

Opportunities: A lead interested in shaking hands with you and buy from you is known as an opportunity. There are CRMs that separate opportunities as marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and sales-qualified leads (SQLs).

Campaigns: They contain a series of deployed marketing assets and metrics. Multi-channel marketing campaigns in CRMs come handy when it comes to effectively tracking its ROI.

Workflows: Automated series of tasks are known as workflows. They consist of triggers and actions.

APIs: Expanded as an “application programming interface,” they are sets of programming standards that gives one access to a cloud-based application.

Deployment: This simply refers to the way in which CRM is installed in your organization. E.g. On-Demand or On-Premise.

Knowing these terms will help you to put your CRM software to the best use, thereby getting the most out of them. A layman who is not aware of such basic terms would find himself in tough waters when it comes to using CRM.

Key Features of CRM:

CRMs should have certain features for sure. These basic features will ensure that you get the best out of your business. Some of them are:

• Custom reporting
• Contact interaction tracking
• Document storage and delivery

Reports and dashboards

• Mobile access (usually through an app)
• Social media integration
• Email integration
• Workflows
• Quotes and deals management
• Call tracking and call center management
• Social media marketing automation tools
• Email marketing automation tools
• Custom website forms
• Website integrations
• Ecommerce integrations
• A blogging platform
• Referral tracking
• Product tracking
• Sales automation
• Help desk management tools

Importance of CRM in Small Business Growth Plan:

An increase in sales, as well as customer service: With swift access to customer-related data, you'll be able to easily service your customers, thereby resulting in great customer relations.

Customer retention:

There are CRM tools which facilitate in increasing your customer retention. Even customer churn can be avoided by using tools that help you with a warning during such situations.

Higher efficiency:

Bringing every business function under one umbrella helps in achieving an increased workflow, a better collaboration of team members, easier project management, etc. among others. There is also the aspect of task automation, which efficiently eliminates manual, repetitive work.

Better knowledge sharing:

There are collaborative CRM tools that streamline your team and its work processes, and thereby avoid time waste due to miscommunication and lack of information transfer.

More transparency:

A level of high transparency can be established, all thanks to CRM. And how is it done? By assigning tasks, showing work, and delineating the roles of individuals. Also, performance tracking for every single sales agent can be done.

The list doesn’t end there! There are many more benefits of CRM and CRM marketing which helps in improving customer relations.

Now, after reading through this basic CRM guide, one would definitely be tempted beyond any doubt, to try it out and get the maximum out of it. If that’s the case with you as well, the good news is that there are an endless number of choices out there in the market. All you have to do is, choose the one that best suits your small business growth plan.