What Is CRM Software and How To Choose One That Can Transform Your Business?

CRM software was created to aid organizations in creating new relationships with customers and maintaining contact with the existing customers. With the passing of time, today CRM software has come a long way by evolving from a contact management tool into a full blown system that assists businesses to handle their sales, point of sales (POS), marketing, vendors, customers, accounting and all kinds of operational data in an easy manner.

In a B2B business, a CRM software can help you to find leads, follow up with potential customers and coax them down the sales funnel while encouraging repeat transactions. It can be used as a great solution to nurture customer loyalty as CRM software can store essential information regarding the preferences of customers to boost sales and provide top-notch customer services.

In this blog, we are going to discuss how a CRM software can benefit your B2B business and how you can choose one that is most appropriate for your demands.

What Is CRM Software?

CRM stands for “Customer Relationship Management”. A CRM software began its roots in the 1970’s in order to be more empathetic to the needs, psychology and preferences of the customer. A CRM software helps a business manage areas such as customer data and interactions, accessing business information, sales automation, tracking leads, contracts, marketing, customer support, clients or contacts, supporting vendors or partner ties, employees, training, and assets.

Benefits of CRM Software in a B2B Business

CRM software can be highly beneficial to B2B businesses so that they can tap into various niches and explore their business base to bring as many potential leads down the sales pipeline through their phases of awareness, engagement and conversion. Modern CRM systems can help a B2B business by collecting and interpreting information regarding the requirement and preferences of customers and nurturing leads to convert them. This tool also aids B2B’s in their ultimate drive to keep increasing their CRO by helping them identify the needs of their potential customer to create the perfect sales funnel.

Given below are the benefits of CRM software to a B2B business:

• Identifying Leaks and Opportunities: Sales funnels are subject to course correction and improvements from time to time to maximize their results. A CRM software helps businesses identify whether there are any leaks in their sales funnel and minimize potential client businesses from escaping the pipeline before a deal is made. This tool can help sales teams identify the opportunities that can be used to their advantage to improve upon their conversion strategy. 

• Lead Grooming: Every potential customer is required to be tracked in their journey so that they can be groomed into the sales funnel and ultimately converted. A CRM software helps map such leads’ journey to help the potential customers arrive at a buying mindset and action execution.

• Combining The Effort of The Marketing And Sales Units: Since the marketing, sales and customer service teams all need to work together to experience a higher CRO through boosted conversions of clients, they require a system that brings all their operations together. A CRM software combines the efforts of the sales, marketing and customer service teams so as to expedite their sales, customer service and encourage repeat purchases by their clients.

• Track Marketing Campaigns and Their Effect: B2B businesses can track their marketing campaigns and gauge the effectiveness of their strategies by generating reports, tracking leads to their source and analysing the data to improvise as and when required.

• Improve Personalizing Customer Preferences: Personalizing customer preferences is key while providing them tailored services that resolve their individual pain points. CRM software can now be integrated with third party platforms as well as other tools to work together and map their customers effectively. This can be done by using a combination of tools on a third party platform to find leads and potential clients based on metrics such as demographics, fit data, firmographics, competitors and find their problem areas so as to provide personalized services as per their preferences. A CRM can also help to refine the database of potential databases and prioritize the course of action to convert them by providing each of them the solution they need on a time-bound basis.

• Automates Normal Tasks: While filling forms and generating automated reports is a daily task in a B2b organization, it is time consuming for the employee who can be designated to a more important and less redundant task. A CRM software helps to automate such repetitive tasks and frees up space for the business to allocate its human resources to a better task.

• Better Communication: Every potential client of a B2B has pain points unique to their industry and organization which they want their vendor to listen to. A CRM software puts more empathy into the communications systems between such clients and the B2B by having humans talk to humans and not an organization. By being available on mobile devices as well as computers, a CRM software ensures that the client handler has all the information necessary to communicate effectively with the client and provide them the best solution possible.

• Multi-Team Information Access: A CRM software enables several teams to access data which is important in client acquisition, sales, after-sales service and retention. Teams like marketing, sales and customer service all work hand in hand, so a CRM enhances their ability to work together seamlessly. By sending the correct data to the concerned team, each and every process is expedited while leaving less room for errors through transparency in actions.

• Sales and Analytical Reporting: CRM software can be easily integrated with other automation based tools or plug-ins to give marketers accurate reports regarding each and every potential client. This tool also helps them generate automated sales reports to see how they are meeting their goals, and if improvements can be made through performance reports. 

What is The Cost of CRM software?

Now that we have looked at the benefits a CRM software can bring to a B2B business, let’s talk about the appropriate cost of one that suits all your business requirements. The cost of every CRM can vary depending upon the in-built and add-on features it provides. CRM software companies usually have a subscription model that is categorized on various factors such as the type of business, the number of systems, the tools required and so on. The more sophisticated and updated a CRM software is, the more expensive it gets. When a business pays for a CRM software per month in the subscription model, they are charged a monthly rate and can upgrade to a more extensive plan as and when your business requires it. However, if your business runs a wide array of functions and requires a strong CRM software with an extensive selection of features and a large user access, you can choose to purchase a high-grade CRM software on a yearly subscription system. The ultimate choice lies with the B2B business and what they want their CRM software to help them with. The more automated a CRM helps a business to become, the higher its cost, since it replaces a lot of human input while helping the business allocate time to more essential tasks.

Before buying a CRM software, you can use the free trial period provided by almost every CRM software vendor to test which one suits your business demands the best while giving you value for money. If you cannot afford a CRM software, you can also find free versions of these software. Some are loaded with complete features but limit the number of users, whereas others have a bottleneck as to the features that can be accessed in the free CRM software model. To summarize this section, a CRM software can cost you anywhere between ten dollars to thousands of dollars per subscription depending on the kind of services you choose.

How To Choose A CRM Software For Your Business?

A CRM today does much more than organizing your contacts; it provides an array of functions to improve your conversions, sales and marketing campaigns. Choosing a CRM software can be confusing if you don’t know what exactly are the features based on which one can qualify as a great tool. To help you out, we have compiled a list of the features you need to look for in a CRM software before you make a purchase. They are:

• Cloud Deployment or On-Premise System: Both Cloud CRM services and an on-premise CRM software have their own set of features. A Cloud CRM software requires no technical expertise or server, where the user can simply log in through their browser and get to work. However, to keep the CRM software running, the systems are required to be running for a long time while an internet connection is mandatory throughout the day to track data in real-time. An on-premise CRM software is hosted in your business establishment, which requires a technical expert to attend to the system. This eliminates the need to keep subscribing as it is a one time purchase. However, you will need to purchase an updated version whenever you need an upgrade, which can be costlier.

• Features and Functions Provided: The number of features and functionalities should be in line with what your business requires from a CRM. As your business expands, so will your functionality of the CRm. Make sure to choose a software that expands along with your business so that there is uniformity and scalability. It is also observed that the first time purchasers of CRM software go overboard and purchase plans they do not require. So, a business requires to take a hard look at what features are of immediate importance and what comes in only when they reach a certain level. This will help you save a lot of money in the long run.

• Application Integration: Integration of the CRM software with mobile devices, third party platforms and additional tools that your business uses. This year has seen a higher rate of companies using mobile CRM software as 50% teams find it more productive. Integration makes way for automation in tracking and data collection across different applications without the need for the user to enter them manually. This can be useful when several teams are working parallely in an organization. Often the sales, marketing and customer service teams are required to each other’s processes to find roadblocks or opportunities in improvement; this is where integration across platforms and plug-ins help.

• Industry Specific: Some CRM software are made for industry-specific use, which can be a great advantage if you need customized features added in. This will also help you get the assistance you require as the vendor will be familiar with the technicalities and requirements of your industry and business rather than providing generalized services.

• Customization and Training Facilities: It is good to check how customizable and flexible the CRM software is when pertaining to the functionality and features it provides. Can it cater to your individual demands even when unconventional? 

Training is another aspect that is very important to a CRM software. Usually vendor companies provide a training session to help the staff acclimatize to the operations and functions of their CRM software for an efficient transition.

• User Experience: User experience is often ignored while considering the purchase of a CRM software, which can be a heavy price to pay later. The people using the CRM software may not be from a technical background, and hence the interface of the CRM system needs to be user friendly with a neat and uncluttered layout. Completing simple and intricate tasks such as generating customized reports, tracking the sales funnel, mapping potential clients and more should be made easier using the CRM software.

Wrapping Up: A great CRM software can immensely help your small business find more opportunities to grow your client base while improving current sales strategies along with stellar customer service for higher retention. While each business has individual and industry specific demands from the CRM software they deploy throughout their organization, the ultimate goal to increase the CRO is a common factor among all businesses as it is the stepping stone of their growth. To help you fulfil all your CRM requirements, Deskera has one of the best CRM software solutions that is cost-effective and customizable according to your business. With over 500,000 downloads, we have an award-winning mobile app that caters to all your CRM needs. For more information regarding what is CRM software and a free trial, visit our website.