Every business is driven by customers. Customers equal sales. So – what do customer insights translate to then? If you guessed increased sales, then you’re already starting to understand the benefits of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Beyond bringin’ in the dough, customers provide companies with a clearer direction and purpose. They offer feedback and directly promote the growth of your business. For that reason, understanding your customers is the key driver to growing your company’s sales.

A properly implemented CRM system stores everything related to managing customer relationships – contact information, data, metrics, notes – all in one place. The tools within a strong CRM system aim to help your company develop effective and personalized strategies for managing customer relationships.

Once you determine the right CRM system for your industry, sales reps and customer base, the resulting benefits to come are endless. Here, we highlight the major benefits of introducing a CRM system into your business:

1. Improve customer outreach through automation

According to Campaign Monitor, “72% of customers open an email due to the discount it offers and 62% customers open due to the personalised subject line.”

CRM systems capture data and insights on an ongoing basis, while analyzing industry and market trends, allowing you to create and automate more relevant and personalized messages to your audience. By placing different customers into groups based on shared interests, different drip campaigns can be created for each group.

By leveraging the automated email function, you can set up a series of emails targeting a specific audience that are sent when triggered by a certain action. For example, on an online bookstore, if a customer creates a list of memoirs, instead of sending them emails about books, you can add them to a drip campaign for people who add memoirs to their list. Your customer is more likely to open your email due to this personalization, forming a direct connection with them.

2. Increase sales productivity

According to Salesforce, “CRM apps can increase sales by up to 29%, sales productivity by up to 34%, and forecast accuracy by 42%.”

CRM platforms provide businesses with invaluable information about their customers, which arms sales reps with the knowledge to better meet their customers’ specific needs. Tools like sales reporting allow salespeople to understand how their customers interact with their business and how the business can meet those needs most effectively.

Due to the variety of tools available on an effective CRM platform, such as sales enablement tools, process automation, sales reporting, and access to tons of personal customer data, sales reps have the correct information to engage in meaningful and personalized interactions with prospects.

Additionally, CRM’s ability to streamline and automate processes reduces the time sales reps spend on tedious duties like data entry and in turn, frees up time to focus on customer concerns and strategizing sales practices.

3. Growing Customer Retention

According to Capterra, “CRM users found that 47% of respondents say that CRM usage has a substantial impact on customer retention.”

By implementing an effective CRM system, more accurate and focused marketing strategies can be developed to target certain segments of your audience. Through appealing to customer interests and addressing their concerns or even anticipating their needs, you can keep current customers loyal and attract new customers.

CRM Questions?

Interested in learning more about how to use your sales data? Thinking about implementing a CRM platform for your business? Feel free to reach out to us and we’d be more than happy to help!