What is CRM and how can it help increase sales?
If you are a business owner and need some way to increase your business and sales, learning what a CRM is and how to use it can help you a lot.
Keep reading our article, learn all about it and hire one right now!
What is CRM?
Let's start by explaining what it is, and then address other topics that may be more interesting in increasing your sales.
CRM is an acronym in English that means "Customer Relationship Management" or, in Portuguese, “Customer Relationship Management ”. It is the entire process that small or large companies and startups use to manage and analyze all their contacts with customers to improve profitability and sales.
What he does?
CRM is used to store information (such as name, address and phone number) both for existing customers and potential customers. It also stores your activities, points of contact with the company and much more, all in order to facilitate future contacts and connections and make you earn more extra income.
However, it is not just for that purpose, gathering and gathering important data for the preparation of the company's teams with personal information of their customers and their shopping preferences. A CRM service does the following things, among others:
- It actively tracks the information of all customers, in addition to managing it;
- Connect and integrate your entire team on any device;
- Capture your clients' emails using artificial intelligence;
- It makes repetitive tasks simplified so that you can follow potential new customers more effectively;
- It gives you recommendations and suggestions instantly;
- Expands and personalizes according to how your company grows.
What are the benefits of CRM?
Another aspect in explaining what a CRM is is what benefits it brings to you and your company, which we will cover here. A CRM will help your company to dispense with manual efforts and unnecessary processes, automating everything, to simplify sales.
It is possible to find more business possibilities, retain more customers and expand your company more with a CRM, in addition to having a guarantee of personal, relevant and updated conversations with customers.
What types exist?
There are two main types of CRM: Local CRM and Cloud CRM, which work in different ways and are recommended for different needs and budgets.
- Local CRM: Also known as CRM On-Premise, it is the most recommended type of CRM for companies that have a physical server and need their own IT staff for maintenance. It is necessary to install the CRM software on the server;
- Benefits:
- It brings with it the advantage that it will have more control of the server by the IT teams;
- Disadvantages:
- A power failure can delay the use of the system;
- The initial setup and installation costs are very high;
- You need to hire an IT team to manage the server and perform maintenance;
- Difficult sizing and expensive upgrades.
- Benefits:
- CRM in the Cloud: CRM in the Cloud is an online CRM, based on cloud computing, so that it is not installed on a computer or requires dedicated IT staff for your company. Just access the login page anywhere, anytime to check it out!
- Benefits:
- Possibly the main advantage, it is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from anywhere via mobile devices;
- Minimal initial investment;
- It does not need any server maintenance, besides having automatic updates;
- Follows the company's growth in an easy way;
- Disadvantages:
- As it depends on the internet connection, it runs the risk of becoming unavailable. However, synchronization with offline data is possible.
- Benefits:
Benefits of having a CRM
Knowing what it is, you may want to know what the benefits of having one are. We will explain this in this topic.
With a CRM for sales, it is possible to make much more sales in much less time, since CRM acts intelligently, completing simple tasks in an automated way so that your team can dedicate their attention to selling more.
It helps a lot in the management of the Sales Funnel, so that the whole process is optimized.
As much as CRM is typically associated only with sales, it also has a very important role when it comes to Marketing, also fundamental in its relationship with the customer.
It works by automating marketing so that many of the manual processes become mechanical. Helps marketing teams to prioritize the best strategies with agility and efficiency.
Finally, a CRM will help with customer service, either before, during or after purchase. Helps you prepare for easy, intuitive self-service and always available.
In addition, it allows you to integrate all actions before, during and after the sale to improve customer service, increasing the chances of closing more deals and making money from it.
What did you think of our guide on what is a CRM?
Leave in the comments if you already knew this type of service for your company or if we introduce you to it. Don't forget to also check out our tips on how to work from home and see how to choose the right digital bank for you.