Yes, you have to CRM (customer relationship management). It’s like putting the saddle on the horse when you want to go for a ride.
Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, CRM refers to practices, strategies and technologies used by companies to analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle.
Positive outcomes of using a CRM correctly include improved relationships with customers, greater customer retention, and it can be a driving force in the acquisition of new revenue streams.
Are You Reaching Unique Customers?
Before you can reach the right customers at the right time with the right sales strategy, you’ve got to first look at how you’re interacting with them: online, phone calls, email? It’s important to correlate those activities and that’s nearly impossible to do without a CRM platform.
CRM has become the most important topic of discussion in the agricultural industry in the last five years and cloud hosted CRM is critical, and we talk more about that here. [THIS SHOULD BE LINKED TO THE POST FOLLOWING THIS ONE AND “HERE” WILL BECOME HEADLINE OF RELEVANT POST.]
It takes investment to get your CRM house in order. It also needs to be connected to your accounting system so you have a 360-degree view of customer activities–that’s what drives value. Without ordering information, you’re not going to end up with a useful profile of your customer. The CRM platform has to become the focal point of all sales activities. If you make the calls, or the in-person visits, you must enter them into the system.
Once you start tracking orders and sales, your sales team can use it to monitor new leads, and whether they result in quotes and sales. Critical Question: How many communication points are being performed by my team and how are those activities correlated to success when it comes to getting new customers and growing sales orders?
When you can answer that question, you’ll fully realize the value of your CRM program. The best way to guarantee value and success out of a CRM platform is using it to be forecasting future sales. Your team should be delivering on sales projects based on opportunities that exist in your CRM platform. Then, you can track sales and project future sales.
The True Value of CRM
To recap, CRM is core to your business. You put your operation at risk if not using it because somebody else is doing just that and can replace you. You can use core CRM to make your business truly successful, to maximize revenue, and make sales that are available to you in potential customer base.