Why CRM is needed? – Brutal Marketing blog

World progress has reached the time when a person is trying to automate almost all the processes that occur daily. When it comes to business, this is all the more important.

For some reason, in small and medium-sized businesses, customer relationships to this day often do not imply a sufficient degree of attention to high-quality accounting and the introduction of automation.

This article will characterize effective CRM and show the differences in the life of the company before and after its implementation.

In the 1980s and 1990s, when no one had yet heard of a customer relationship system, most companies used the following sales structure:

In an office equipped with telephones, there are several managers who make and receive incoming calls on their own, try to answer customer questions, direct them and sell goods / services.

Many companies continue to operate this way to this day. The results of sales and profits of the company in such a system depended directly on the personal qualities and decency of employees.

It was at this time that the cult of the almighty salesman was born, and all companies began to actively develop the sales skills of their managers. At the same time, the task of creating a system and rules for working with the client base faded into the background.

At this point, firms were sending their own sales teams en masse to various training courses in the expectation that magic methods and tools would be a superstart to increase sales. The winners on an equal footing were those who managed to hire super-professionals.

If the manager is good, then he will not forget to call back, will not miss clients and successfully close deals. However, in such a situation, the company was absolutely dependent on the employee: as long as you work with specialists, you win, but as soon as he, together with the already formed client base of the brand, went to a competing company, you are left with nothing.

Large companies have many similar stories, when specialists left not even one by one, but in whole teams, while firms that previously had a large turnover went bankrupt.

Gradually, modern technologies appeared, bringing with them completely new ways of working with customers. For the success of sales, it was now necessary to find out everything about the buyers: age, name, address of registration, whether he has a family, what and how often he likes to buy, etc.

Thanks to the use of call centers, automated information systems and analytical databases, it has become possible and accessible to work with each individual client, as if he were the only one.

Companies with resources began to implement everything that was offered on the market, not particularly delving into the details.

There are many examples where companies spent millions of dollars, installing all kinds of expensive systems, and as a result, the main tasks remained unresolved.

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The client needs attention to his person. Due to the constant disappointment with queues at the clinic, the lack of quality service in stores, the "cold" reception at the bank, a person welcomes and remembers any attention to his needs.

The company, when it shows (unobtrusive!) attention to each customer, will be respected and loved by customers. The client returns to her services again and again, thereby increasing the company's sales without excessive costs for product promotion.

Because, according to statistics, satisfied customers will definitely tell five of their friends about a successful purchase, who are more likely to contact the same company.

Customer Relationship Management or customer relationship management system. Mysterious management, some kind of relationship ...

Companies with resources began to implement everything that was offered on the market, without really delving into the details. For them, it didn't matter what CRM was, what kind of relationships they were talking about, etc. There are many examples when companies spent millions of dollars from the budget to install all kinds of expensive systems, and as a result, the main tasks remained unresolved.

What exactly influences the sale? What is the source of applications? Which destination has the highest conversion rate?

Thanks to CRM, a company receives answers to thousands of questions that are crucial for doing business and making good management decisions.

A company without CRM and with it is like a pair of trains: the first is a slow electric train, and the second is a modern express train that gets to its destination 2 times faster if the driver is able to think correctly.

What tasks do you need CRM for? This is the main question when choosing a system. It is this question that must be answered before moving on to choosing a system.

Make a list of requirements from which you will build. The list should not try to create a car of the future, but rather identify a number of desired functions:

Before making a final decision, you need to know how to set up the system. How will she solve your problems? The answers to these questions will help you choose an automated assistant in more detail:

• How should the history of interaction with the company's customers be recorded: in relation to a contact or to a deal? The first option - binding to a contact - is more suitable for working with a cold base, the second - for working with incoming requests.
• It is necessary to create restrictions on visibility rights (when the manager sees only his part of the database, without access to the entire client base of the company)?
• What stages of sales does the client go through from the first contact of the manager to the purchase (sales funnel)?
• What kind of analytics do you need to track: operational performance of managers (number of calls, overdue tasks) or do you need general analytics for the company (income, sales forecast, conversion of each stage)?
• Do I need integration with additional services (email mailing services, telephony, integration with 1C, etc.)?

There are a number of system requirements that you should not overdo.

Overloading the system with functions has the opposite effect, when a large clumsy system is not able to quickly rebuild in crisis or force majeure situations, and well-established processes become ineffective in the current conditions.

CRM must be simple, but at the same time, mobile and adaptable to market behavior.

Similar cases were with our clients. Previously, the company installed a rather extensive multifunctional system, which was used exclusively for maintaining a history of communication with customers.

Analytics was conducted manually, emails were made from another service, although the installed CRM had all the necessary functions.

A simple model can always be improved. You don't have to abandon a system you like with a foundation to work with if there's a shortage of a particular module.

The area of improvement of CRM systems is very relevant today, so adding the missing tools to the functionality will not be a big problem, requiring a lot of time and money.

On initial sales:

Profit increase
The manager has complete information about the client, sales history. The number of transactions and the speed of the transaction are increasing. It's easy to focus on the best deals.

Cost reduction
Automation of the sales process allows you to automate routine operations, control processes and management of sales staff.

Increasing employee productivity
Opportunity management, scheduling and contact tools help you make the most of your time.

Increasing the likelihood of a deal
Automating the sales cycle and extending best practices to all sales people increases the success rate. The knowledge base on standard customer questions and answers to them, the knowledge base on the strengths and weaknesses of competitors' work allows even a novice seller to work effectively with a client.

Improving Sales Forecasting Accuracy
Statistical information allows you to assess the likelihood of a deal and predict the speed of customers passing through the sales funnel, which allows you to effectively manage the company's cash flows.

Further work with clients:

Increase in the average check
A customer service call can be a good chance to sell them additional products or services. In the future, it becomes possible to offer the client new products or services (cross-selling and up-selling).

Develop customer loyalty
Good service gives the customer a positive experience with the company, increasing the desire to continue with the company and buy additional products.

Service quality improvement
Complete information about the client allows you to more accurately identify the category of the appeal and accurately determine the necessary resource to solve the problem. You don't need to switch to other support representatives during a conversation with a customer.

Increasing customer satisfaction
The expectation of the client to work with a company that always provides accurate and timely information, maintains regular contacts with him, always solves service problems on time and with high quality, treats him personally and any person in the company has complete information about interaction with him is ensured.

Help Desk Cost Reduction
Cost reduction occurs due to the automation of routine operations, the use of a knowledge base about customer requests, and automation of control over the passage of applications. The implementation of the system allows to reduce the response time to the client's request.

A lot can be written about the impact of CRM on sales, but it is better to illustrate everything with examples.
There are a couple of companies selling dance lessons. One firm (let's call it A) is a start-up consisting of young managers. Since it does not have the opportunity to hire specialists, modern automated systems are used to work with clients, including CRM.

Another company - B - has an excellent sales team consisting of 5 experienced people; specially established rules (after communicating with the client, managers do not forget to send letters and set tasks for the second call), but there is no CRM.

Suppose the customer wanted to learn how to dance, so he left requests from both companies at once. What will be next?

While the managers in company B answered the call, identified the needs of the buyer, presented the product, arranged a meeting to call in a day, and after the call sent a commercial offer, the time spent by the employee reached about 20 minutes (half of the allotted time was taken by the call itself, 5-6 minutes - preparation of business proposals, 3-4 minutes - data entry in Excel and planning).

In company A, the manager received a call, during the call he wrote down all the data in CRM, sent the "KP Template" and at the end of the call created a task to call back with a couple of mouse clicks.

The time spent by this employee did not exceed 10 minutes.

In general, we have a noticeable difference of 8-10 minutes per call (almost half of the employee's time for a request). Modern advertising tools, reaction speed help to make a powerful breakthrough compared to even the most ideal "manual" sales system.

Here is another example of comparing the achievements of the same company before and after the introduction of CRM.

Business development in the country is going at a rapid pace. In some areas, competition for consumers has intensified.

Many companies today are no longer able to lower tariffs to attract buyers - there is only competition in terms of quality indicators, including improving work with customers, increasing the level of service. And this is the area of responsibility of CRM.

CRM technologies are the future. There was a time when advertising was considered the engine of trade, and factories tried to produce hundreds of thousands of identical goods.

At present, it is no longer enough to produce a product, it must be adapted to the needs of a particular consumer.

Marketing begins with the idea of creating a product or concept of providing a service. Production aims to produce more and more customer-oriented products. Advertising draws attention to the availability of the product, and CRM allows you to complete the entire cycle of "correct" work with clients.

A company that has mastered CRM technology can be head and shoulders ahead of its competitors.