Part 1: What is a CRM System?

• Customer contact details - These are critical for any CRM solution, as they provide the foundation for all customer communication. These details enable sales teams to quickly view all past interactions with customers and leads, ensuring stronger ability to close sales, faster resolution of customer issues, and enhanced customer intelligence.
• Lead scoring - Every CRM software solution will need to have lead scoring. This lets your sales team better utilize their time by being able to contact the "hottest" leads first and nurturing the "colder" leads.
• Quoting, help desk software, and invoicing tools - Having these tools within a CRM software program means that users don't need several programs to manage all of their customer facing activities. Make your life easier by finding CRM software that either integrates easily with other systems or comes out of the box with all the features you need to run your business.
• Customizable dashboard - What makes CRM useful for managers? The ability to use dashboards to get an at-a-glance view of sales, marketing, and customer satisfaction performance. Dashboards let you see whatever is most important for you, including number and quality of inbound leads, number of service calls resolves, and dollar amount of revenue in opportunity pipeline.
• Task management - Nowadays, CRM has gone beyond simple contact management to include project and task management. With task management you can delegate tasks and projects to specific employees and follow through until close.
• Click-to-call functionality - Do you know how much time your employees actually spend physically dialing phone numbers for their sales and outreach calls? Those seconds can add up to minutes and hours over a year's time. Ensuring that your CRM has click-to-call means your employees are as productive as possible.

Using CRM correctly should mean that all customer transactions and interactions are fluid and efficient. Customer relationship management is becoming one of the most fundamental aspects of any business and it can mean the difference between increased profits through repeat sales and customer satisfaction.

CRM also plays a large role in targeted marketing, it can help a business plan a marketing strategy based on previous sales figures. This means that money is not wasted on marketing campaigns targeting the wrong demographic, something which all too often happens to many businesses.

Similarly CRM can also be a huge help to sales staff when they are speaking on the phone to customers as it can help them to identify trends in customer's habits which can then enable them to up sell products and increase profits.

Using CRM in any business is a step in the right direction, especially if you've been using spreadsheets to manage customer relationships. Thankfully, CRM providers recognize how difficult it can be to implement new software, and training materials are readily available from any CRM provider you choose.

CRM can make all the difference to any business who values its customers and wants to implement more streamlined and efficient working practices.