Five reasons why your business needs a CRM system

At the start of a business - it's all hands on deck. With both time and money in short supply, the worry is to decide the processes fast. Businesses are ready to innovate and be creative. However, after a time, 'this is how we have been doing things' starts to hold the business back.

Businesses continue to stick to the same processes that are not entirely meeting their needs. The hope is: maybe these loopholes will go away. But then does it really happen? You know the answer.

Instead, businesses outgrow their processes and start losing money because they fail to keep up with the current clients and prospects. Opportunities do not get captured and decisions become slow and uninformed.

What seems the best way to come out of such a plight?

Investing in a Customer Relationship Management system - It is by far, the best way to manage the critical functions of the business. (Especially the advanced CRMs that function as a business management software). Not only do they take care of customer interactions but also assist your team in – sales, marketing and collaboration. Result: Your sales, marketing and customer service teams become more efficient, that keeps your entire company on track and gives you the success you want.

And in case you still are in double minds about implementing a CRM – here are 5 indicators to precisely tell you whether your business demands a CRM or not:

1. Information scattered in multiple systems

 Whether it is posting notes on desks, handling excessive paperwork in office or storing important customer details in the address book - having information in different places or multiple systems only leads to wastage of time. With no easy digital access, your team takes too long to find useful information.  Plus the information which they acquire has chances of being old and probably inaccurate which inevitably impact your sales, marketing and customer service activities.

Converge Enterprise functions as one single repository for company collaterals brochures, presentations and case studies. It provides one central platform for Sales, Marketing, Service and Collaboration to give complete visibility into your business. Using Converge Enterprise, Marketing, Sales and Customer Service teams easily find the required data and work together on one unified platform to grow leads, identify opportunities, close deals and support customers. Inevitably this leads to an alignment of your company’s Sales, Marketing and Service efforts that helps you grow the base of happy successful customers.

2. Too much data entry

Any good CRM system is designed and developed to automate majority of your mundane tasks. And the best example of this is data entry. Post the implementation of the CRM – your sales, marketing and customer service professionals do not have to enter in the same information on three different screens. In one or two simple steps – they can easily import the existing database into the CRM.

CRM systems like Converge Enterprise offer an easy data entry process. Plus, users can make use of the duplicate checking intelligence to eliminate chances of duplicate entries. Not only can they share the data with other team members but customize the imported lists and assign the database to any marketing campaigns.

3. You aren’t mobile enough

Imagine: Your sales rep heads to a meeting. In the half-way he remembers of going through the details of the prospect, only to find out that he has left his address book in the office itself. Do I need to say that the meeting will not go as desired?

For employees who essentially work in the field – mobile CRM is a must. Not only does it give the benefit of having access to data anytime anywhere but also keeps your sales reps prepared and effective 24/7. So whether they happen to meet a prospect at the airport or whether you want to see the latest sales meeting update while travelling by car – mobile CRM lets you do all.

Converge Enterprise Mobile Version is easy to use, easy to deploy, that works online on multiple devices, and adapts to your changing business needs. It makes things easier and simpler for employees by working seamlessly on preferred mobile devices. The objective is obviously to empower employees with a tool that lets them have the company data at their finger tips. From accessing and updating the CRM throughout the day to raising quotations on the fly – Converge Enterprise users can do all this and much more.

4. Lack of Reporting

It’s not a good moment if you do not hold any idea about the potential revenue your business is about to generate. As evident, revenue forecast is critical for long-term planning.  Without these figures, it is practically impossible to make good decisions about your business moving forward.

If you think manually created reports are serving the purpose for you – think again. Employees often find making these reports tedious and painful. Plus, you really cannot guarantee the authenticity of the facts in the reports. Remember facts can be tampered here and there.

With a CRM system, you do not have to worry about reporting. Whether it is tracking the number of open opportunities, knowing the closing ratio at each stage of the sales funnel, or calculating the expected value of your pipeline – you can easily do all. Having accurate up-to-the minute reports to look into, you can easily make revenue forecasts.

Converge Enterprise provides pre-defined and customized reports useful for your business’s day-to-day health analysis. Result: you never fail to appreciate the fact how your business is progressing. Using the CRM, you create reports based on your particular requirements to best judge your performance.

5. Collaboration is difficult

Making your employees work in a bubble, with no built-in systems for sharing information with other team members – is like deliberately putting your feet on the axe. Chances are that in such a scenario, one crack can make your whole team get submerged.

Advanced CRM tools (again why do I keep saying advanced is because all CRMs do not offer this functionality) enables you to share and collaborate documents, data and other key insights.

Converge Enterprise lets the users drive more efficiency by working together as a team. Not only do the users share and collaborate within the company but with third-party associates who may or may not be Converge Enterprise users.