Why you need CRM and what is important to know

Who uses CRM most often?

It can be teams across the company (sales, marketing, customer support, company management). They can visualize data, create campaign performance reports, all of which can be shared between and among teams. Everyone can create their own personal ToDo list.

Advantages of CRM

When companies decide to invest in a CRM , they usually think about automating routine tasks or managing contacts.

But CRM has a bigger potential - to transform your processes, decision making and communication:

Insight into your sales pipeline

CRM offers a broad view of your entire sales channel. For example, you can see how many deals are at each stage of the process and what their value is. For example, you get an overview of sales reps' offers. This helps salespeople in deciding which deals to spend more time on.

Real-time updates

Unlike the spreadsheets you share at your monthly meeting, the CRM updates in real time. Having access to the latest information helps you act quickly and make better strategic decisions.

Simplified information sharing

All stakeholders have access to the same information.

What a good CRM should be able to do

Dashboards are part of most CRMs, but some are better than others. Here are some of the features you should look for.

Customization

Your teams should be able to see information that is valuable and actionable for them - nothing more, nothing less. Customizable CRM dashboards give you access to real-time data. You can focus on your core objectives and not waste time with data that isn't relevant to you.

Intuitive interface

Your CRM will be used by team members from different departments with a wide range of experience - accessing and interpreting CRM dashboards shouldn't require any specialist knowledge. Any user should be able to easily find, understand and export data.

User permissions

A good CRM will allow you to grant different levels of access to users in different roles. Some people only need permission to view, while others should be able to edit the data.

How to proceed?

1. Choose the right CRM

Before you evaluate a solution, have an idea of which metrics will be most important for your CRM reporting. Of course, dashboards aren't the only feature you should look for in a sales CRM. Automation capabilities, contact management, contact segmentation, sales estimates, integration with other tools, etc. are important.

2. Set your goals

The best CRMs can display reports for almost any metric. Dashboards should be a quick overview of important information, not a chaotic jumble of charts and tables.

3. Define your sales process

Every company uses a unique sales channel and process. Your dashboards should match your requirements. For example, if you have different types of customers that you've acquired from different sales channels, it may be appropriate to create a separate dashboard for each channel. Or you can track your business performance by the product groups you use in your company.

Need a CRM that optimizes your processes? Are you using or want to newly use email marketing?

ActiveCampaign offers a wealth of features to target your customers and enable you to achieve higher conversion rates. It will simplify your work by automating your email communication.

These include features such as:

• Automatic generation of new leads based on a completed form.
• Responding to emails, where ActiveCamaign automatically moves leads within a stage, segments, etc.
• Offering SMS text messaging, social media integration, customer relationship management (CRM) software, automation and also landing pages, or lead collection pages.

In addition, it includes a tool specifically designed for creating and running limited-time offers.