What kinds of companies use CRM software?

If you probe and would like to understand what kinds of companies use CRM, you are unlikely to get any specific names. This is so, because customers are the kings in any business. Whether you are part of a bank, an insurance company, a retail outlet or a manufacturing entity, you need to understand that customers define your business. Using a CRM software will mean that you care for them and are ready to go the extra mile to offer them things, even before they ask for it.

Companies need to realize that CRM software helps in bridging three of the main elements in any business – people, process and technology. There needs to be a process in order to ensure that things take care of themselves. Any business is built around people. Lastly, technology helps you to get things closer.

Small companies use CRM software to help them manage things efficiently. Research tells us that only about 3% of sales happen in your first ever meeting. The % is slightly increased when you meet your customers 2 or 3 times. Eventually, it could take anywhere between 5 and 10 meetings to get a customer. However, this is a time taking process and you need to measure how long it will take for you to go through the entire process from solicitation to sales closure. Unless you have CRM software in place to give you the metrics, things could become rather difficult. Most number of start-up companies use CRM software applications too.

Lastly, big companies and conglomerates find varied uses for CRM applications. These include relationship building with customers, tracking sales processes, analyzing their High Net worth individual customers. Finally, whether you are a small size firm or a huge corporation, it all boils down to adding value!

What is the price range for CRM software?

There are many companies waiting to grab a fair share of the CRM software space. Microsoft, Oracle and SAP are some of the big names that most of us are aware of. In a bid to woo customers, they seem to be offering software applications at great prices. Depending on the kind and size of the company, you may manage to have something installed for as low as USD 5000. However, if you are looking at seasoned players, you may end up shelling amounts as high as USD 500,000.

Apart from this, there are some players who are willing to offer this on a subscription basis, just like how you would rent a library book. You just need to become a member to utilize the services. You do not need to worry too much about maintenance and service related issues. The vendor would be more than glad to take care of these issues on your behalf. Subscriptions as low as USD 130 – USD 150 are possible.

Most vendors focus on making you become first time users. This, they realize, would be possible only if they offer you a significantly low price. Moreover, every company would have different requirements from a CRM tool. While someone would want to manage accounts, someone else might just be interested in customer features. Another company might just place emphasis on the sales process. As a result of increased competition and diverse requirements by different companies, most vendors offer trial packages that may be used for a month or so for as low as USD 35. Once you are satisfied, you may choose to buy the packages.

Lastly, there are companies that use an incremental method of pricing. You may get a basic package for USD 40 or so, some extra applications for an extra 10 dollars or a complete range for USD 70 or so per month per user.

Why should a company use CRM?

CRM – The key to managing your business better!

The customer is the most important visitor in your office. Most companies do realize this fact and know for a fact that their customers have to be kept happy at all times, to ensure that they don’t stay in business, but keep growing every year.

Investing in a tool that could help a company manage its customers is something that requires no second thoughts about. A CRM application has been designed exclusively for this purpose. CRM – customer retention management is something that every company needs to keep in mind. Managing customers is absolutely vital, since it would cost you at least 7 times more to have a new customer! In addition to this, a satisfied customer is the best salesman that a company could ever dream of. Companies are also aware of the factor that good news spreads really fast. Hence, taking steps to keep your customers would mean increased business at the end of the day – through them and through their contacts as well.

There are different contact management software applications that have been developed. These ensure that the net profitability of the company goes up, unnecessary overheads are nipped right at bud, relationships with customers are enhanced and results are quantified.

Most of the time, the sales team puts in loads of efforts. However, having an effective CRM application would help the management understand where they are scoring and where they are missing out. Apart from this, it would give the management a clear example of what needs to be to ensure that the customers graduate from being happy customers to delighted customers.

A CRM application could be installed in office or be web-based. Sales people keep traveling most of the time. Hence, a web-based application would allow them to plan their day more effectively, manage sales leads better, pull out sales data even if they are at home or on a holiday and to follow up with customers at the right time.

Most CRM tools allow you to have a tracking or a queuing system that lets you make phone calls based on priority. Moreover, you can record the status, record and analyze your calls, automatically set reminders etc. Whether you are prospecting, generating leads, forecasting or qualifying your leads, nothing could be more effective than a CRM tool. Several vendors like SAP, Microsoft and Oracle have come out with CRM applications to help you manage your business better. Install them and see your business grow at a rate you never imagined!

CRM – Manage Your Business Better

How would you feel if you had a system that tells you how to manage your customers, clients and your sales deals? Great, isn’t it? Well, there are plenty of software applications available in the marketplace. These have been launched, since businesses have started understanding that managing customers and taking active steps to retaining them is the key to running a successful business?

So, what exactly is CRM and how does it benefit a company? CRM – Customer retention management is a process that helps corporations manage their customers more effectively by having certain processes in place. Most of the time, the sales team has data. The data is quite varied, since the sales team has to follow too many steps, right from the time of making the first contact to closing the deal.

A CRM tool allows the sales team to manage data, to have a look at their customer lists, understand how many clients need to be managed etc. In short, the application allows the sales team to access any data pertaining to their customers. Apart from managing individual customers, businesses will be able to manage groups of customers with ease using a software application.

Most managers believe that almost 80% of the data that is available is never used by their managers. If something like CRM software is in place, chances of the date being used would significantly go up. Sales people need not waste time remembering when they made their first call, when to keep in contact with their client next, how often to follow-up etc.

These CRM tools serve not just the sales associates, but the sales managers too. It allows managers to streamline the available data, allocate territories, in order to ensure that one member gets credit for something that isn’t actually due or someone does not barge into someone else’s territory etc. It also allows sales managers to make sales plans more effectively, since they would be able to understand the ‘sales cycle’ completely. By sales cycle, it refers to the total time it takes to make someone a customer, the number of phone calls made, personal visits, samples handed out etc.

There are different kinds of CRM software packages available in the marketplace. However, what price you pay for the same depends on what package you opt for and who you choose to buy it from. Ideally, it would make business sense to choose a basic package and keep adding to it, as you feel the need to graduate to advanced levels.