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This includes functionality like sales forecasting, analytics, pipeline management, and more.
These are the kinds of must-have features that can improveproductivity, empowercollaboration, and strengthen customer loyalty.
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The layouts provided by CRM tools can differ substantially, which will affect how employees retrieve information.
Segmentation should be another consideration when businesses are assessing the contact management functionality of a CRM solution.
One of the areas where this is most important is in terms of sales figures.
With the right sales forecasting functionality from their CRM, businesses will see their revenues skyrocket.
Instead, concrete data and clear projections can guide their actions.
This provides the kind of insights that may prove essential to safeguarding your companys future.
Accurate sales forecasting is particularly important for businesses undergoing or planning for rapid growth.
What effect will entering a new geography have on sales?
How are the companys finances looking for the next quarter and beyond?
Lead Management
Another important feature of CRM software is lead management.
Not all engagements will be with loyal customers who have stuck by your brand for years.
It is important that these leads are nurtured appropriately before they too can be translated into sales.
Within a lead management feature, automation is also often included and can help streamline your sales funnel.
Detailed tracking, including analysis of lead behavior like previous website visits and email opens, is also useful.
Scoring is also important and should take criteria like demographics, location, and engagement history, into account.
This will help businesses prioritize leads so they know which ones are more likely to ultimately become sales.
After all, it is this that will ultimately determine whether your business is a success or failure.
Sales analytics are a great way of visualizing your sales pipeline, objectives and success rates.
Easy-to-understand charts and graphs allow your sales team to quickly identify bottlenecks, success stories, and overall progress.
Visualizations can be a huge help here.
This is essential in the always-on world of today.
Mobile functionality is important for more than just remaining contactable, however.
Some important functionality included as part of workflow automation is around process streamlining.
Its worth bearing in mind that workflow automation is often an additional paid-for feature of some CRM solutions.
If thats the case, weigh up how much money your company could potentially save by employing automation.
Thats why its important to examine the kind of dashboards and reporting functionality that come with CRM tools.
Otherwise, your CRM will serve as little more than a shiny new toy.
#when looking at the dashboard options provided by different CRMs, remember the importance of customizability.
Reports should also be shareable so different departments can benefit from the insights delivered by the CRM.
And, of course, ease of use is another important consideration.
Are the reports generated by your CRM clear?
Can you adjust the metrics being considered for next time?
It is crucial that your chosen CRM platform can provide a holistic overview of your customer relationships.
If not, all it will do is make your company silos more entrenched.
Take email, for example.
It is vital that CRM tools integrate with popular email platforms, such asGmailandMicrosoft Outlook.
You should also consider how your teams prefer to communicate internally.
confirm your CRM integrates with their medium of choice to ensure that collaboration is encouraged.
Its a process - and one that can take months of hard work and research before conversion is achieved.
Its all about providing an overview that adds some transparency and clarity to your sales process.
Metrics, analytics, and optimization tools should all be included within your approach to pipeline management.
This will provide a framework around which your business development goals can be organized.
Customer Support
Things will go wrong with even the best business software.
Its simply an unavoidable fact of life.
Businesses need real-time support or risk losing customers.
Look for CRM software that boasts efficient ticket management so requests for support can be monitored and prioritized efficiently.
Forums can also be a great way of crowd-sourcing support.
Flexibility is a hallmark of the best CRM platforms and that should extend to the support they offer.
