5 reasons why you need a small business CRM

Why a small-business CRM is a must

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Your customers have a huge range of choices when they’re deciding who they want to buy from.

One of the most powerful ways to stand out from your competitors is to create lasting, authentic relationships with your clients. Meeting customer needs through great communication, superb service, and deep insight helps you to build trust—and that really is a competitive advantage.

Creating those connections takes some work, but you’ve got a powerful ally in your corner—customer relationship management (CRM) software. Once the domain of huge enterprise companies, thebest CRM softwareis becoming increasingly important to small businesses.

It’s also getting more accessible and easier to use—a small business CRM ties together your systems, technologies, and processes to put the customer front-and-center.

What does CRM software do?

Choosing the best small business CRM for your business

There are hundreds of types of CRM solutions out there, from enterprise software likeMicrosoftDynamics,Salesforce, or Oracle Netsuite through midrange CRMs likeHubspotor Zendesk to smaller vendors like Pipedrive,Zoho CRM, orFreshworks. You’ll want to rightsize your CRM software to your small business, and make it a central part of how you work.

We believe it’s worth exploring what a CRM is in more detail—not just what they do and why they matter, but how they can transform your small business. Used well, a CRM helps you to deeply connect with your customers, optimizes how you communicate and sell to them, creates new opportunities, and makes you much more than “just another business”.

You’ll seesignificant results, too. Customers are likely to spend 20% to 40% more when they engage with a company using CRM; CRM applications can increase revenue by up to 29%; and CRM systems improve customer retention rates, which leads to a profit increase of 25% to 85%.

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We’ll start by defining what small business CRM software is and what it does, then outline five key areas on how it can help your organization.

Let’s get into it.

Small business CRM software—what it is, and what it does

With CRM software you can manage every aspect of the “customer lifecycle”. This starts with initial marketing campaigns and leads, then supports sales and onboarding, ongoing client requirements, customer service, and reporting.

It brings together all of your customer information and interactions in one place for seamless relationship building. CRM software integrates with your other systems, automates common tasks, and lets you optimize how your small business functions.

We can break CRM functions down into several areas.

Storing customer information

Managing leads, deals, and sales

Driving marketing and promotional campaigns

Making and tracking customer interactions

Creating and storing quotes, proposals, and other documents

Integrating and automating business systems and processes

Providing customer service and support

Reporting on customer and business metrics

As you can see, CRMs can be as simple or as complex as you want to make them. You can put them at the heart of your business and run many of your critical functions through them, or limit them to very specific processes like communications or the sales pipeline.

Here are five key areas where a good small business CRM will maximize the success of your business.

1: Starting relationships with potential customers through your CRM

The smaller your customer base, the more important it is to start off every customer relationship in the best possible way. For small businesses, those first steps can grow into long-term customer sales, satisfaction, and advocacy.

Your small business CRM software ensures every customer gets the attention, products, services, and support they need. Here’s how it can work:

Working out this initial customer relationship process requires time, practice, and tweaking. What works for one customer may not work for another. Start identifying the factors that get you to a “yes”, and refine your processes to appeal to different types of customers.

2: Building relationships with existing customers using your small business CRM

Once you’ve started interacting with a customer and made your first sale, you can continue developing that relationship. This helps your small business to create repeat sales and retain customers—which is much less expensive than acquiring new customers.

Your small business CRM software lets you build on the previous good work you did starting a relationship as you develop it further. Here’s how it can work:

Building on an existing customer relationship is easier than starting one from scratch. You’ll already have a basic level of trust—you can expand on this by getting to know the customer better and suggesting more solutions to help them meet their needs.

3. Creating a repeatable, client-based sales process in your CRM tool

We’ve mentioned the importance of a customer-based sales process—now it’s time to dive into the details. The right sales process balances customer needs with your expertise, reassuring your clients that you understand them and that your products are the best solution. Here’s how it can work:

Your sales process will adapt and evolve over time. As you get a deeper understanding of customers, and launch more products and services, you can refine your sales process to focus on the value you add.

4: Build deep CRM integrations and automation with your other business processes and systems

One of the main advantages of a CRM tool is that you don’t have to build everything from scratch. If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ll already have plenty of customer, sales, and other data in existing applications and systems. A CRM can bring all of this together. Here’s how that can work:

Integrations and automation mean you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You can build on all the data and information you’ve already collected to create even more optimized ways of interacting with customers.

5. Drive customer service and success via your CRM tool

Your CRM tool isn’t limited to marketing and sales. Many CRM solutions can be combined with customer service, support, and success systems to manage every aspect of the customer relationship. Here’s how that could work for your small business:

Creating a central place where you can track and resolve everything for your customers leads to a much more holistic and complete approach for those relationships.

Conclusion

CRMs can revolutionize how you manage clients and make sales in your small business. Investing in a CRM will drive up your revenue, set you apart from your competitors, and build trust.

Your CRM will be a critical tool that brings together disparate processes and systems, so you can create better relationships, gain more customers, and help your small business thrive.

5 reasons why you need a small business CRM#

What does CRM software do?#

Choosing the best small business CRM for your business#

Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter#

Small business CRM software—what it is, and what it does#

1: Starting relationships with potential customers through your CRM#

2: Building relationships with existing customers using your small business CRM#

3. Creating a repeatable, client-based sales process in your CRM tool#

4: Build deep CRM integrations and automation with your other business processes and systems#

5. Drive customer service and success via your CRM tool#

Conclusion#

Further reading on CRM software#