CRM 101 for Startups and small businesses.
The benefits of CRM software for SMB’s to startups are endless. In our introduction primer about CRM, we are going to discuss what CRM is, and how it helps your small business grow and what are the best CRM software.
You can fix your broken sales process and gain visibility with the help of the CRM Software. It gives you a clear picture of your sales process by organizing everything in one centralized system. This platform is simple, pocket-friendly, and easy to set up and use.
What is CRM Software?
When you search “What is CRM?” on the internet, you get hundreds of results. But if you want to know the exact definition of CRM, then here it is. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, which is a collective term for strategies, ideas and practices that help a business grow a strong relationship with its customers.
You can easily manage your contacts, employees, clients, contract wins and sales lead with CRM software. Customers are the most valuable asset for a business, so it’s important to provide customers with a better service. With CRM software, everything becomes easy for you.
You have a single place, where every single information about your customers stays. Any business that wants to maintain a good relationship with its customers, uses CRM software. It will streamline your entire business in the right direction.
Related Info: What Is CRM? Definition & Beginner’s Guide to CRM – CRM.ORG
How CRM helps a small business?
A single tool for centralized marketing and sales
When using the integrated CRM platform, you can eliminate misinformation and misalignment between the sales & marketing teams. Seamlessly pass the business guidelines to the marketing and sales team. You will not encounter with confusing metrics and complex handover processes.
Sales and marketing departments will comfortably function as a single unit and win consumers as ever. the Free Small Business CRM with marketing automation promotes increased alignment between sales and marketing departments. Work together to achieve the best results with CRM software in your growing Small Business!
Stay organized, efficient & effective
You can say as a small business owner that you are handling task management systems, business emails, a calendar system of your company but in fact, you are missing the overall big picture of your company.
You need to arrange all the details into one system. CRM incorporates all of these activities into an easy-to-maintain and manage a place that will allow you to discover everything about your business that you never knew before. So, using a CRM system will help you to stay organized, which is extremely important for the success of your business.
You never lose your most valuable asset, your business data
If you store your business and client information on your computer, then you are making a big mistake in your business. If your laptop gets stolen or damaged, there are higher chances of losing your entire business data.
There is a huge importance of CRM software for small businesses. CRM software eradicates the risk of losing business data. You will get rid of notepads, calendars, memo-books, and other outdated manual systems for tracking your data if you are using CRM software.
It has a cloud-based server, which guarantees data safety and provides your business with a protective cover against data loss.
Integrate your business calls
Integrate your business calls with free CRM software so your business can have a data-backed, context-rich conversation on every call. With this software, you will take the entire sales process of your business to a whole new level.
This software provides you with timely reminders so that you never miss a call. You can see past conversations, notes, and tasks associated with each customer.
With automatic call logging feature, you can save a lot of time. Measuring the performance of your sales team has also become easier with CRM software.
Follow-ups become easier
Follow-ups play a vital role in closing the sales process. You will never lose a client follow-up ever again if you will use CRM software. Tracking all to-do-tasks gets easier when CRM automate things.
The sales team of your business will get periodic reminder alerts to never miss a task. Your team will know the tasks in advance for the day when you integrate CRM software in your business.
Track your scale and profitability
If you use CRM software, then there is no need of worrying about tracking your billing processes. Use CRM software in your business to ease-up the work of your accountants.
It works like a speedy bookkeeping system that produces accurate financial reporting. Once you adopt a CRM, you can keep every crucial process in the corporate value chain. Tracking profitability gets easier with CRM software.
Content Marketing + CRM
With CRM software, not only are a sales team of your company gets the insights of sales, but marketing departments are now better able to understand what impact does the content marketing strategy has on your business sales.
Data points that your team gets from social media, digital marketing campaigns, blogging, PPC or CTRs (Click-through-rates) can now integrate into a CRM.
The 35 best Free CRM software
- Salesforce CRM
- Daylite
- Streak
- HubSpot Sales Hub
- InStream
- ActiveCampaign
- Bitrix24
- Accelo
- Zoho CRMP
- ipedrive
- Nimble
- Freshworks CRM
- Insightly
- Really Simple Systems
- PipelineDeals
- Keap (formerly Infusionsoft)
- Copper
- Insightly CRM
- GreenRope
- Workbooks
- Nutshell
- Less Annoying CRM
- NetHunt CRM
- Maximizer CRM
- Creatio
- Zendesk Sell
- Streak
- Salesforce Essentials
- Act!
- Vtiger All-In-One CRM
- Pipeliner CRM
- BenchmarkONE (formerly Hatchbuck)
- Salesflare
- Agile CRM
- Engagebay
Companies that use CRM
One of the most famous companies that use CRM for sales management is Designhill. It is a free graphic designing platform where businesses can easily design logo, poster, sticker, merchandise, banner ads, social media posts, labels, postcard, flyer, leaflet, illustrations, magazine, book cover, etc. There is a huge number of people using this platform for designing.
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