There’s a joke that captures the latest digital revolution. Executives are asked who’s driving digitization in their organizations and have to choose between CEO and Chief Digital Officer. They reject both choices and say, “COVID–19.”
The pandemic has taken a terrible toll on human life, not just in mortality but also in the form of job losses. But it is also fueling change, leaving companies with no excuse to avoid digitization anymore.
One of the first tools most companies, especially SMEs, consider on this journey is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. A CRM tool enables them to store and analyze customer and sales data, and streamline sales to positively impact their top lines and bottom.
There are two types of companies that look for a CRM tool in the market. The first type has not used CRM software before. The second type uses a CRM tool but is not satisfied with it
Yet, despite knowing the benefits, both types of companies are apprehensive to adopt such a tool. The first type gets overwhelmed with the number of options in the market. The second type gets deterred by the costs of switching: monetary, time and effort, training, and so on.
If you’re stuck in either of these boats, the rest of this article is for you. It’ll discuss the key pillars of an effective CRM tool and how you can choose the right system that aligns with your organizational goals.
The three pillars of an effective CRM tool are as follows:
Pillar 1. User Management and Control
Data is useful when the right people have access to it in the right quantum. If you provide people with too much data, they’ll get overwhelmed. If you provide them with too little, their ability to take good decisions becomes limited.
An effective CRM tool makes it simple for you to store and define customer types. It also makes it simple for you to define roles for your people, assign customers to them, manage how much data they can access, and what they can do in the system.
Thus, you can add new customer details, change sales and relationship-building strategies, or even show a different data set to new employees, all with zero third-party intervention.
Pillar 2. Product Management
Every business sells either a product or a service. When it comes to products, different businesses rely on different attributes to sell them.
For instance, two organizations could use different attributes to sell the same product. One might use pieces while another might use packets. A third might use bundles.
An effective CRM tool gives your people the ability to add new products and define their attributes by themselves. All you have to do is monitor and approve the inputs instead of doing the entire work by yourself.
Thus, you can step away from daily operations and manual work. Instead, you can focus on larger goals like scaling up your business.
Pillar 3. Data Reporting and Analysis
Every business wants to gain more customers and improve its efficiency. To do this, it needs the right information.
A CRM tool is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Expecting sales numbers to jump just because you have CRM software is like expecting the coronavirus to vanish just because a lockdown is imposed. It’s important to study the reports of the tool and take decisions accordingly.
This makes data reporting and analysis an important pillar of an effective CRM software. Without reports, leaders will have no means to track whether about they’re headed in the right direction.
An effective CRM tool lets you see the reports that matter to you. This could mean switching between quarterly, annual, or monthly data, viewing sales region-wise and country-wise, or drilling down to track performance at a team and individual level.
Thus, it allows you to customize your reports, brings clarity to the clutter, and helps you make better decisions.
Final Thoughts
A common business rule is that if you focus on the basics, everything else falls in place. The same applies for CRM and other digitization tools too.
There are many metrics and features to compare CRM tools in the market. But if you focus on the simple basics of user control, product management, and data analytics, everything else will fall in place.