As companies grow, managing more and more customers becomes increasingly more complex. Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) makes growth manageable by allowing companies to keep track of historical data, communications and interactions with customers in one central location.
This empowers sales, marketing and customer service professionals to do their jobs better, and enables executives and owners to gain clearer insights into company performance, the customer landscape, and future performance expectations.
After many hours of building a CRM from scratch, and after years of using and implementing CRM software for different organizations, I have gained a unique appreciation for this piece of critical infrastructure. Here are:
10 Benefits of CRM Software
1. Improves Company Intelligence and Communication
2. Increases Customer Retention and Satisfaction
3. Raises Team, Manager and Employee Performance
4. Facilitates Automation and Scaling of Processes
5. Enhances Customer Data
6. Improves Reporting
7. Upgrades Revenue Forecasting
8. Increases Accessibility to Company Infrastructure
9. Improves Marketing
10. Increases Revenue
1. Improves Company Intelligence and Communication
With CRM, all information regarding any prospect or customer is centralized into one location that is accessible across departments (mainly Sales, Customer Service and Marketing).
Biographical information and interactions (think phone calls, emails, text messages, link clicks, form fills etc.) are there, along with data generated via integration with third-party tools and social media feeds, all in the context of the stages in the sales cycle.
This centralized information improves company intelligence and allows reps better understand and communicate with customers and prospects.
2. Increases Customer Retention and Satisfaction
With this increased understanding and communication, relationships with customers are strengthened, enabling companies to improve customer satisfaction and build a loyal customer base of repeat customers. In a survey of 500 CRM users, 47% said that CRM software significantly improved customer retention and satisfaction. (source: Capterra)
Repeat customers spend significantly more than new customers, and are more likely to refer. Customers who have been referred are more valuable than those who are not. (source: Harvard Business School)
3. Raises Team, Manager and Employee Performance
As the central point of focus for your sales, customer service and marketing departments, CRM enables teams to better collaborate and manage greater outcomes.
With phone calls, emails and sales visits all being logged into the software, management is able to measure performance indicators of employees using management dashboards.
User-specific performance insights are also displayed to employees (sales reps, customer service reps, etc.), often in relation to their peers, motivating improved performance.
4. Facilitates Automation and Scaling of Processes
CRM provides tools for automating parts of the sales and marketing process, enabling companies to scale up their activities and increase their reach.
Two ways that CRM can automate workflow include automatically logging customer interactions (phone calls, emails, chats, etc.) and sending personalized, predefined email sequences.
5. Enhances Customer Data
72% of companies report that their CRM gives them better access to data. (source: Affinity) CRM data is generated from the following methods: automated based on customer/prospect interactions, manual entry by company reps, and third-party data integrations.
Many CRM software applications (CRMs) also have tools for understanding and improving data quality, such as data scoring models and dupe handling tools.
6. Improves Reporting
Reports are a critical source of information to all stakeholders involved in any business.
Most commercially available CRMs can generate reports so that companies can understand what is happening in the business, track performance, and make strategic business decisions.
7. Improves Revenue Forecasting
Think for a moment of how valuable accurate revenue forecasting can be.
With quality forecasting, companies are able to develop persuasive arguments for securing business partnerships, investments and credit lines. Forecasting also enables companies to plan and make more informed decisions.
CRM applications can increase sales forecast accuracy by 45%. (source: Salesforce) Let that sink in. 
8. Increases Accessibility to Company Infrastructure
Most commercial CRMs are available on the cloud and offer basic functionality via mobile and tablet devices. This allows for greater accessibility of employees to real-time information across platforms, and improved communication with customers and prospects.
Mobile CRM access increases sales productivity, and as of 2021, 81% of companies operate their CRM with the use of multiple devices (ie mobile, tablet, desktop, laptop). (source: founderjar.com)
9. Improves Marketing
CRM allows marketing departments to identify, engage with, nurture and convert prospects with data from across departments and third party integrations.
Marketers can use CRM to craft email marketing campaigns, tailor ad copy and evaluate CRM channel performance. Most CRMs have user-friendly dashboards which enable marketers to easily evaluate data and implement automation.
10. Increases Revenue
The most important benefit to using CRM is that it can increase company revenue. 89% of companies see an increase in revenue after CRM implementation. (source: Freshworks)
Given all of these benefits, it is no surprise that 91% of companies with 10 or more employees use CRM software. (source: CRM.org)
But, I should warn you.
It’s not enough to just purchase a CRM software and tell your team to use it.
No, that most likely won’t work.
In fact, up to 70% of CRM deployments fail. (source: Skuid) A study found that 47% of companies have attempted to implement CRM two or more times, and that 50% of sales managers say CRM is difficult to implement. (source: CRM.org)
It’s not always easy to implement CRM software, but it is always important. – me
Here’s my advice – make a commitment to making this work.
Speak to the CRM experts at Lead Nectar, and get your free CRM Implementation call.
Lead Nectar is staffed with CRM experts from tier-one Fintech companies that have managed implementation campaigns to hundreds of global financial institutions.
To get your free call with the CRM Implementations Team, click the link below and follow the prompts.
See you on the other side.
– Will
Will Carlson
Lead Nectar provides transformational business consulting to companies in Investment Banking, Investment Management, SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies), DeFi, FinTech, RegTech, Logistics, Food Services and Non-Profit Organizations.
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