CRM Systems

According to Gartner, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) became the largest software market in 2017. This large and growing market has lured many companies into the business. Given the plethora of CRM solutions, it’s easy to become overwhelmed figuring out which one is right for your organization. 

What you’re looking for is a CRM solution that enables you to achieve your objectives, fits with your existing systems and allows you to maximize your sales opportunities.
Given that, here are some steps to finding the right CRM.

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer,” said writer and management consultant Peter F. Drucker. And today, thanks to technology, we have more tools than ever to help us with lead generation, conversion and customer retention.

One of these tools is Salesforce, the highly popular customer relationship management application. There are many ways you can use Salesforce to automate routine aspects of your business, enable collaboration, and make associates more productive. By doing so, you empower employees to focus on areas that make the best use of their skills, such as reaching out to prospects and customers with a human touch at just the right moment.

Here are just a few ways to use Salesforce to free up your associates to do what they do best. 

Your goals for new customer acquisition in 2014 are set. You want to get off to a running start and achieve them. Your first stop should be to check out what's in your sales funnel.

Find the Facts in the Funnel

A sales funnel report should enable you to answer the following questions:

• How many untapped leads are stalled in the funnel—not ready to buy or not yet qualified?
• How many qualified customer acquisition opportunities are ready to emerge in the next month?
• What's the potential value of these emerging opportunities?
• What's our average conversion rate?
• Are there any areas in the funnel where leads tend to get stuck and not convert to the next stage? For example, are lead conversion rates from leads to demonstrations meeting your objectives?
• How long is your sales cycle?
• Based on history, is your sales funnel growing or shrinking?

The answers to these questions give you a crystal ball for predicting sales, enable you to prioritize the sales opportunities to focus on, and provide clues for funnel optimization.