Why CRM is Essential to Your ROI
Sales is an investment, just like any other part of your business. If you want to have a successful return on your investment, you’re going to want to have the proper tools to help your sales team perform at the top of their game.
CRM, or customer relationship management, can be just the solution. It helps keep your team organized and stable throughout the sales process and helps streamline the sales pipeline for managers. In fact, according to a 2014 study by Nucleus Research, for every $1 spent on CRM there is an average return of $8.71. Here are the reasons CRM has such a great ROI.
Time Is Money
First and foremost, CRM gives you plenty of bang for your buck. Time equals money (especially in sales), and any time saved by CRM means more sales and higher revenue. So much time is spent updating and creating contacts, when your CRM can do it for you. Salespeople should let their CRM set reminders, generate reports, and do any dreaded data entry. With the right CRM, salespeople can focus on one thing: selling. The cost to implement CRM is nominal and well worth it, meaning you’ll get a great ROI. Just think of all the time, money, and effort you’ll be saving.
Workflow Automation
Okay, so we know that CRM saves you time and money by automating much of the sales process. But what type of workflow automation can CRM provide? For starters, CRM automates callbacks, which can be the bane of a salesperson’s existence. Callbacks may only take a few minutes out of your day, but when you have multiple calls to follow up on, those minutes start to add up. CRM can schedule and perform callbacks, so you don’t have to.
Sales Forecasting
Sales forecasting, also known as predictive analytics, is an important part of the sales process. Usually someone would need to sift through tons of data to calculate a forecast. Not anymore. With the implementation of CRM, you can now build your sales portfolio by using predictive algorithms generated with the CRM to forecast sales and pinpoint new prospects and markets. The forecast reports can be used to help identify and understand your top lead sources, leading to increased conversion rates.
Analytics At Work
These days analytics are all the rage in sales, and for good reason. Analytics provide excellent insight into the inner-workings of your sales workflow. They offer up a snapshot of where the sales team has been, is currently at, and most importantly, where it’s going. The variety of analytics that a CRM can produce is impressive, from lead management, to interaction tracking, and more. Some CRMs (like Spiro) use artificial intelligence to create in-depth reports for your team, such as the “Risk Analysis” report which highlights deals that may be stalled or at risk.
Email Management
All salespeople know that emails can take up a large chunk of time. A good CRM has all the email templates you need in one place, so you don’t spend all day writing emails. A CRM should come pre-loaded with emails that are proven to get opened and responded to, taking away the guesswork on your side and increasing sales.
Real-time Alerts
In the busy world of sales, sales reps aren’t always able to remember everything they need to do. Things can easily slip through the cracks, causing you to lose potential sales. CRM will help keep you updated through real-time alerts that tell you who to follow up with, and when. The right CRM can be like your own personal sales assistant, giving you reminders and updating you on the status of accounts. If you regularly risk falling behind or missing a meeting, CRM could change your life in sales for the better.
The Bottom Line:
These are just some of the ways that CRM is essential to your return-on-investment. CRM uses your data to organize and prioritize leads, maintain the workflow with updates and alerts, and even respond to emails so that you can focus on selling. If you’re not sold yet on the whole saving-you-time-and-money thing, there may still be hope for you. Give Spiro’s sales automation CRM a try to see what great CRM can do for your sales team.
