Are you struggling to set up a CRM (customer relationship management) tool for your business in the right manner? Or are you simply looking for some quick tips and tricks for an efficient CRM setup and business tracking?
Well, you have come to the right place!
What does a CRM tool contribute to your business?
Customer relationship management and the tools that automate this process are effective means of tracking your business activity. Proper use of these tools makes a business more effective and contributes to its success.
However, in reality, many businesses do not realize its importance and do not, as a result, invest in setting up CRMs properly. Some problems with customer management may have their roots in the CRM tool not working properly or the best practices and standards not being followed for the process.
Understanding The Modules of a CRM
A CRM deals with four different modules or parts (as some call them). These modules include:
- Leads
- Accounts
- Contacts
- Deals
Most businesses bundle them up and deal with them as a collective unit. Not differentiating between them, and thus not using them properly, tends to make the system malfunction.
These modules have to be divided into two groups and dealt with as such. The first is the leads, and the second group contains the contacts, accounts, and deals modules. A proper CRM and good business practice are to keep them separate.
Lead
A lead is an unqualified sales prospect. When you first correspond with a potential client or business interest, you are assessing them, their capabilities, and their demands. Over time, as the interaction increases, the potential client, or lead, develops a better understanding of the demands and whether you can deliver them up to their expectations. You keep track of your correspondence, including all relevant emails and messages.
When you realize that a deal might happen and the lead shows interest, that is when you convert that lead into a corresponding account, a contact, and a subsequent deal.
Understanding this conversion and doing it properly is very important for business-to-business (B2B) sales.
Exploring B2B Prospects
In a B2B sale process, the Account module holds the associated company and the Contact module carries the individual’s information with whom you are conversing. In your CRM, these two must be tracked correctly and in time and a deal must be created at the same time. Ignoring to act on this and improper use of CRM tools may lead to an opportunity loss.
Inefficient use of CRM is, in fact, what many businesses do and do not realize. Such businesses underplay the importance of good and timely use of the modules and sometimes even claim that they are not vital to their operations. The truth cannot be further than that. A lot of problems that you may be facing in your business management may be due to ignoring a well-structured CRM and sticking to the old non-automated methods.
Proper Setup of CRM Modules
In the B2B domain, tracking and correct assignment of the modules are of paramount importance. The system hierarchy must be understood and dealt with accordingly.
Account
Accounts hold the top position in the second group of modules and contacts come in second. Now you may be dealing with several departments within the same company (i.e., the account holder), so you may create multiple contacts, one for each one of them, under the same account. This feature provides a better structure.
Deal
A deal must be created as soon as the lead shows sufficient interest. Following this standard practice helps you track the sales funnel efficiently. A well-developed and well-tracked sales funnel can give you a precise measure of your pipeline potential.
Asking The Right Questions and Finding Their Answers
To effectively manage your sales process and make accurate predictions for future demands and outputs, a good sales funnel must be maintained. And that is greatly helped by setting up a proper CRM and maintaining it to that effect. You must consider questions like:
- How many deals are coming through?
- How much revenue will be coming in?
- At what point do you need to hire someone new?
You must be on top of these matters for your business to succeed. And to make these decisions, knowledge of certain statistics plays a huge role. This knowledge comes from handling your CRM in the best way possible.
Exploring B2C Prospects
Business-to-consumer (B2C) and B2B are very similar in this regard and a large amount of useful information can be tracked by setting up a good CRM for a B2C system.
While most consumers are individual customers and families, an account can still be created with their address. This step can prove to be more beneficial in the long run. Tracking a customer or lead would be much easier this way for providing after-sales services and maintenance in the future.
The Contact module can be created the same way as in the B2B model and deals can be tracked similarly too.
Although some small B2C setups might not need a CRM tool, its utility cannot be denied, even for them.
Doing Things The Right Way
Make sure that you are taking advantage of the whole system. Certain modules are only meant to do certain things and there are so many different pieces that are automated. So, it’s incredibly important that you do this right. Because if you don’t, eventually you will require someone like Clientric to come in and fix it for you. Then, it will take more time, energy, resources, and money.
Make sure you have done your due diligence and that you use everything properly.
If you still have any questions, you can reach out to us at kasey@clientric.co.
Clientric CRM Consulting
