Top 10 CRM Features
Many small companies are starting to use it CRM To improve their sales and productivity. In the past five years, CRM usage has increased from 55% to 75%.
More than thousands of CRMs on the market, with hundreds of features and functions, help run a successful business. CRM software Not only does it help you with the problem of tracking and connecting with customers but it also helps in getting all your leads in one place through integrations and other means.
CRM software allows your small business to easily collect, analyze, retrieve and manage all vital information associated with your customer base. All CRMs have some standard core features and many other peripheral features. Not every feature will be useful for you and your team to manage leads. However, here are the top 10 essential features that you must have in your technical CRM stack.
- Contact management
- Leadership management
- Email integration
- Document management
- Workflow automation
- Reports and analytics
- Sales forecasting
- personalization
- Social media
- Third party integration
1. Contact management
The main function of a CRM is to keep all your leads and customers information in one place. An important piece of information about a lead is their contact information.
Contact management involves storing customer contact information such as names, phone numbers, addresses, and social media account links in a way that can be quickly searched and retrieved. This information will come in handy when you want to reach your potential customers, anytime and from anywhere.
2. Lead management
Lead management is one of the vital functions that every business needs from CRM. It is also important to manage all your leads under one roof to convert potential leads into customers. Potential customers are those who have expressed a certain level of interest in your product or offering but were not qualified to determine whether they fit your ideal buyer persona. for you CRM You should be able to help you track and manage such leads to convert them into paying customers.
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CRM software helps capture lead details from various channels, including phone calls, web forms, social media platforms, and emails. The lead management function makes sure that you don’t lose any leads and also ensures that you properly register and qualify your leads. This job also tracks customer progress and leads through the sales cycle and assists in deciding marketing initiatives for their nurturing. Lead management helps improve the efficiency and productivity of the sales force by focusing on the right leads at the right time.
3. Email integration
Email is the preferred channel for effective communication between businesses. Emails also serve as a central hub for shared internal collaboration. Therefore, it makes sense to integrate with email clients like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo.
Email management provides the ability to send bulk emails, plan email campaigns as part of a marketing initiative, track email conversations with customers, and send automated emails to customers for events such as birthdays and anniversaries through integration with calendars.
4. Manage attachments and documents
Centrally located attachments and documents with colleagues or clients directly from document management allow you to create, group, store, access and share attachments in the CRM system making it easy for all concerned to access the information. Today, you need the ability to attach images, photographs, PDF documents, and spreadsheets to potential clients that you need to improve productivity.
To improve security, you can set document access and editing rights. Moreover, version history allows you to access previous versions of any file.
5. Workflow automation
CRMs can facilitate optimization by letting you automate repetitive tasks such as following up with leads, raising invoices, and sending emails by creating workflows that lead to actions or sending follow-up reminders for next actions. Once the tasks are completed, notifications are received and reminders alert if you need to enter data manually. Workflow optimization helps salespeople avoid duplicating jobs, saves time, and ensures that the correct actions are completed at every stage of the sales process.
6. Reporting and analytics
Reporting and analytics are key features of CRM software that are required in all major business functions supported by CRM – sales, marketing, customer service, field service, e-commerce, and more. Allows you to get routine summary reports of sales figures or salesperson’s performance (eg, on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, etc.).
Helps sales staff to perform daily tasks better and sales Leadership team to make more accurate business decisions. It also helps track metrics such as profitability, customer retention rate, and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Reports and dashboards provide a high-level view of how the company is addressing various metrics. This feature also allows you to share reports with different teams to make data-driven collaborative decisions.
7. Sales forecasting
Forecasting in CRM Predicts your future sales numbers based on data from your current pipeline based on current and past data trends. For example, do you want the ability to use your existing data to make predictions about upcoming neighborhoods and even new areas? The forecast function powers your data for you, enabling you to make objective, informed decisions about your company’s future. Sales forecasting may also anticipate market changes to mitigate your business risk.
8. Personalization
Every business has its own unique challenges with customers having their own unique needs. Some CRM solutions let you choose which features to include in your package, and others allow you to customize basic areas, such as the ability to add contact fields, choose what data will appear on your dashboard, and let you create custom reports. You can also customize with other add-ons, plug-ins, and add-ons to extend your software’s capabilities.
9. Social media
CRM with built-in tools to perform social media tasks and monitor social media Features It can save your marketing team time as there is no need to switch between platforms to perform the basic task of monitoring your company’s social media.
10. Third Party Integration
Connecting your CRM software to other solutions you already use can save you a lot of time and money. A list of CRM features wouldn’t be complete without mentioning integrations. If you use different types of software such as – ERP, BI, HR, and Financial Software – you’ll want to be able to integrate them with your CRM. Integration of other software into your CRM allows for additional functionality and simplified operation. Most CRM software offers third-party software integrations; The key is to choose one that is compatible with the software you are using and that should be easy to implement.
CRM software can be a useful tool for businesses of all sizes, but it’s important to choose software that really works CRM platform that can suit your business needs. If you look for the above 10 features in CRM software before you buy, you can’t go wrong.