5 Signs your Business Needs a CRM

Your business has been around for years. Sales are good and your customers are happy. Sure, some of your processes are a bit outdated, but it seems to work. Or does it? Even though you’re happy with the way things are, you’ve noticed that you’re spending a lot of time doing mundane tasks after hours. You’ve also had a few leads drop off in the last few months. If this sounds like you – read on! This post explores 5 signs that your business needs a CRM.

1. You spend more time on admin tasks than customer engagement

You or your team are spending a lot of time completing tasks like:

• Entering leads into spreadsheets.
• Searching for old leads in files, folders or spreadsheets.
• Locating leads and/or customers in files or folders for follow-ups.
• Cutting, copying or pasting leads into different tabs to manage where they are in the sales process.
• Adjusting with cell sizes to accommodate lead feedback or comments.
• Managing lead tracking sheets.
• Fiddling with formatting in cells to enter client addresses and contact numbers.

The list goes on! These types of tasks can keep your team busy, but ‘busy’ doesn’t always produce the best outcome. Using a CRM system will win you back the time you’re spending on these tasks. What does this mean for your business? It means that your time can be spent doing more valuable tasks like business or product development, relationship management or sales. Just one of the many features of a CRM is capturing customer/lead contacts. It helps you easily locate customer information and track where they are in their sales journey. No more files, folders, papers or spreadsheets!

2. You often spot inaccurate information in your records

We’re all human. Typos happen! Manual entry of data or client information may seem like it’s working, but if you’ve recorded inaccurate client information it can have a negative effect on your business. One small typo or misspelling of an email address or phone number can result in a lost lead. Excel spreadsheets make it very easy for these errors to occur with their auto formatting. As Jim Rohn once said, “accuracy builds credibility”. This couldn’t be truer when it comes to recording your customer information.

Double handling is a common occurrence with spreadsheet lead management. If you have two or more members of staff using the same spreadsheet, you run the risk of making contact a potential twice in one day. This not only looks unprofessional but could scare them off.

Finally, accidental deleting. We’ve all been there. You’re in a copy, paste zone when suddenly you accidentally delete a chunk of information. Most businesses who use spreadsheets to record and track customers have a back-up, however, it’s still a reality that some people lose this information forever.

A CRM minimises all these mishaps. A CRM helps you record information accurately with minimal error so you don’t miss out on any leads. It also helps you log calls or comments so you don’t double handle your leads. Like most software platforms, accidental deletion is almost impossible as one or more pop-ups will appear asking you to confirm your deletion before the information disappears.

3. You have concerns about how your sales reps are spending their time

Although this is not an assumed problem for everyone, the reality is that many businesses have concerns about how their reps are spending their time.

Logging time for ‘follow-ups’ sounds diligent, but when follow-ups aren’t turning into sales there may be a problem.

A CRM allows you to track all correspondence, calls, and follow-ups with your clients. This helps you keep an eye on their activity and is a powerful training tool to improve their sales conversion. A CRM also helps generate insightful reports on your salesforce activity and pipeline so you can easily identify and prioritise where you should spend your time to improve your team’s efforts.

4. Your pipeline is large but your conversion rate is low

You get a lot of leads and opportunities, but they don’t convert. There are multiple reasons for low conversion rates. It could be down to your product or service. Perhaps, it’s down to your staff. Or, it’s just not the right time for the customer. While it could be one (or all of these things) we often find that low conversion rates are as a result of poor follow up and low customer engagement.

Your customers need to be nurtured down that sales funnel until they convert. Customers need (and want) to be engaged with several times before they make their purchase decision. Businesses with higher post enquiry follow up, have more of a chance of converting a customer than those who don’t. But it’s time-consuming, that’s why you need a CRM. A CRM helps you automate e-marketing to your leads to nudge them down the sales pipeline.

5. Your shop front is booming and you want to make more sales

You’ve run your business for years and product sales are great. You know there’s an opportunity to sell your products online but aren’t sure where to start or how to manage this. Powerful CRMs, like Infusionsoft, let you turn your website into an online storefront where you can accept order forms and generate sales without having to lift a finger. An integrated shopping cart and payment processing system turn your website into a self-sufficient sales platform. You can secure payments, process reoccurring payments, manage inventory, send quotes and invoices and more.

Using a CRM will grow your business by turning your site into an e-commerce store that will generate sales enquiries and manage follow-ups to increase conversion rates.

If you’ve spotted any of these signs in your business – we’d love to hear from you! Book a free consult with one of our specialists today to find out more about how a CRM like Infusionsoft can save you time, grow your business and make you more money today.