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CRM or Customer Relationship Management is a method of managing the relationships and interactions of a company with its customers or potential customers with the obvious goal of improving business relationships and customer experience. A CRM system is a tool that helps the companies to stay connected with its customers in an organized manner, identify their needs, work on them and thus, improve profitability.
An effective CRM software does not just help the sales and marketing team but every possible line of business from customer service, recruiting, to business development to manage their customer relationships and gain success. They are increasingly being used to convert leads into sales.
The Benefits of a CRM
• One of the biggest benefits of using a CRM is customer retention. Customers remain the top most priority of any business, irrespective of the industry, organization or the products or services offered. As per a study, CRMs are known to improve customer retention by as much as 27%.
• A CRM helps to make the best use of data that is available to an organization. If a company uses a CRM tool, they will never have to bother about losing revenues or customers due to lack of data or incomplete data.
• A CRM helps by providing complete information of customers and potential customers to a business. It is definitely better to know more about your customer since the better you know about them, the better you can serve them too. It also makes it easier to convert leads into sales.
• Some of the best CRM tools are designed to automate the daily and repetitive chores in an organization and make it much simpler for the employees. This means they can focus on more important issues such as lead conversions and customer satisfaction.
• The fact that a CRM organizes all the details at one place where it is easily accessible and that it automates the repetitive chores directly improves the efficiency of the employees. The different teams can share data and work seamlessly.
• While we cannot deny the importance of data, it is the correct analysis of that data that makes a lot of difference. Since CRM systems store data at one place, it helps in the improved analysis of that data as well. The data is easily integrated with different tools that help to generate automatic reports and helps in making a powerful analysis. Such analysis and reports help in making effective decisions for an organization that are clearly visible in either long-term profitability or customer satisfaction or even both. If you are still not convinced of how much a CRM can help your business and sales, sample this…
- More than 90 percent of the companies that have more than 11 employees, currently use CRM.
- As per a study by Annuitas Group, Businesses that use marketing automation witness an increase of 451% in their qualified leads. And the purchases rise by a whopping 47% if the leads convert into sales.
This is how you must effectively use a CRM Software to convert leads into sales.
Now, let's have a look to the different ways a CRM Software helps to convert leads into sales...
#1 Use Leads That Are Data-Driven
If you think information such as the name of lead and their contact number is enough to get to them and convert leads into sales, think again! To be able to convert your leads effectively, you need to understand them first and that is exactly where a CRM comes in.
Having an effective CRM software leaves the sales representative prepared with handy information about the lead such as the company they belong to and the similar solutions they have been using previously (if any). Such data is quite helpful for the sales team since it gives them ideas to put forward their sales strategies accordingly.
#2 Distinguish Between Qualified and Unqualified Leads
Lead scoring is important to understand at what stage of the funnel your leads are and what kind of content to share with them. By creating and sharing the right content at the right time, it will help you drive your prospects to the purchase decision.
It is also a common mistake that most of the marketing and sales teams indulge in a CRM software. Since a CRM helps to collect accurate data about leads, the marketing and sales time can easily distinguish between qualified and unqualified leads and ensure that only the qualified ones are regarded as true potential sales leads that have a guaranteed purchase.
A CRM software uses a scoring technique that is based on different parameters. Depending only on the scores, the marketing team qualifies the leads or disqualifies them. There can be different parameters such as opened email, downloaded content, clicked on the link, etc. It can vary from company to company as well.
#3 Be Quick (possibly the first one) to Respond to the Qualified One with an Intuitive CRM System
If you have your marketing strategy in place, it would not be much of a surprise to get an influx of leads or significant web traffic. But the real challenge lies in attempting to convert leads into sales. What is important here is to respond to such leads on a priority basis and not to take them easily. The potential clients will not just stack their bet on a single agent, nor will they wait for days before they get a reply.
So the wisest thing to do is to do a follow up on the leads ASAP. If you think that is a difficult thing to do considering the busy schedule you have, make use of an auto-responder via an intuitive CRM system. Do not forget, it is important to be fast and first!
#4 Continue the Process with the Follow-up Calls and Texts
Remember you cannot just stop at responding to the leads once. There are a lot of chances that your first attempt goes unanswered or is not responded to. Most of the times, an unanswered lead is not necessarily the sign of lack of interest; it can be the lack of time as well. As surprising as it may sound, as per a survey, 40% of the agents make just the first attempt of responding to the leads and then move ahead.
Just on the contrary, it has been noticed that at least six follow up attempts are required in order to obtain a response from a potential lead! It definitely takes much more than a single attempt to convert leads into sales. Make use of your CRM for an efficient follow-up.
#5 Choose Different Methods of Communication
When it comes to responding to the leads, it is a good idea to make use of different methods of communication. By hiring experienced and qualified sales people, you'll be able to close more deals. Outstanding sales reps are using many sales negotiation tactics to be successful.
Choosing different methods of communication is a wise strategy to do so since there is little that you know about the leads you got from your website. Different individuals have different preferences so it is very likely that your lead prefers receiving emails (so they can respond to it when they wish) while you are interrupting them often with a call.
Communicating with your lead using the different methods not only makes your presence felt a little more but it also allows them to choose to communicate in the way they prefer! Remember there is a very thin line between polite persistence and almost stalking your web lead.
While choosing the right method of communication is important, it is equally important to know the right content in your communication. For instance, How to close a sale on Email? Who knew choosing the right closing lines in your emails can also help you convert leads into sales!
#6 Keep it Organized with a Comprehensive CRM
Receiving an influx of leads, reaching out to them via different methods of communication and then doing a follow-up… that’s a lot of information and it definitely needs to be organized if you do not want to goof up and look unprofessional before your client. If you think, you can do it all by yourself, think again…
A comprehensive CRM is an answer!
With it, you cannot just record every single detail but also be reminded when it is time for a follow-up. With all this and more, CRM and marketing software also helps you to gauge the effectiveness of the strategies used and not to mention, convert leads into sales.
#7 Use a CRM for Regular and Timely Interactions
In this competitive era, it is important to be in regular touch with your leads and constantly make them feel your presence. A good CRM comes to rescue here as well. With its help, scheduled emails can be sent to the qualified leads at regular intervals.
A CRM also helps to monitor the web behavior of the leads and then analyze the resultant reports. All of this not just keeps you alive in the lead’s memory but also helps to know and learn more about them which definitely makes it easier to convert leads into sales.
#8 A CRM Offers Mobility
There is a lot that needs to be done both inside and outside the office and it gets difficult for the Sales and Marketing team to be present everywhere at the same time. But thanks to a CRM that offers mobility and allows the team to be in contact with the leads or the other team members at any point in time. a CRM software does not just allow making calls, sending emails or scheduling meetings while on the go but much more than that. The lead conversion should not have to wait for any reason that is what a CRM is for!
So, how to make the most of your CRM to convert leads into sales?
By using a CRM, you will be able to build automate your processes and build high-converting marketing & sales funnels. Sales and Marketing technologies have seen a major revamp in recent years. This makes it quite easy to integrate CRM software with them and easily convert leads into sales and have better customer experience as well. If you follow our tips above, not only you'll improve your company's marketing and sales teams organizations, you will also help them to be more efficient and productive with their processes.
When you implement a CRM to your company, the main goal is to grow your business, filter out the unqualified leads, segment your audiences, share the right content to the right leads, improve your sales funnel and, eventually make more sales.
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