CRM is a lot more than just a tool to use — it’s a way to build relationships with current and future customers. While it may seem like every sales and marketing manager has their own opinion on how to use it, CRM is one of those things that has a lot of benefits and few drawbacks.
The truth is that CRM is not a waste of time and it will help you get more business. But, you do need to do it right and that means you need to use the right tools.
Choosing the right CRM system can be difficult. There are so many options on the market today that it’s tough to know what to choose. Every vendor claims to have the best CRM system available, but do they really? The CRM industry is full of myths and legends. Below, we’ve taken a look at some of the most common myths about CRM systems to help you try and make sense of them.
Myth 1: CRM is ONLY for the big businesses…
Customer relationship management (CRM) is no longer the domain of large businesses. A small business CRM can be used to organize customer data, help in communicating with customers, and make important business decisions.
A small business CRM is a business management software that provides solutions for marketing, supplies, sales, leads and customer support. It offers features that make it easy to manage the daily operations of a business. Some of the most helpful features include sales lead management, capture time, and sales process automation.
Myth 2: CRM involves a lot of manual data entry.
It’s a Myth you need clear yourself that your CRM updating data manually, like when you have an order for a customer and you have to input all the details, such as customer name, company name, address, contact person, etc and it’s a time consuming. You might have to deal with incorrect or outdated information on the system which can make your work harder and more time consuming.
With automation and electronic capture, CRM becomes an extension of the salesperson’s brain. Luckily, there are CRMs out there that can eliminate the need for manual data entry and help sales reps focus on what they do best. Go for a modern CRM that has built-in automation features.
Myth 3: CRM is expensive
We need to untie our self from this Myth that CRM in expensive. The prices of CRMs have drastically dropped over the past few years due to wide stiff competition in the market.
There are many CRMs that start with a free plan and have an affordable pricing structure on their higher plans. This makes it a lot easier for startups and small business owners to adopt the software.
Myth 4: Difficult to integrate with other systems
Way Back Traditionally, CRMs were difficult to integrate with other systems because were NO open APIs or native integrations to sync with other applications. With the new wave CRMs in the market, it’s now easy to integrate with other applications and provide a 362-degree view of the customer data. The new-age CRMs easily integrate with other applications to provide a 360-degree view of customer Journey from Leads to Deals. Not only do they have native integrations but they also list on a marketplace, giving sales reps the opportunity to complete more tasks without having to leave the CRM.
Myth 5: Maintaining a CRM takes a whole team of people.
Customer relations management software is an incredibly powerful tool that can help you manage a lot of your business processes. CRM software has a bad reputation – people blame it for being inflexible, overly complex and expensive. But the beauty of CRM is that it provides a process and system for managing a large volume of customer information—whether you’re one person or a team of people. Adding CRM actually makes it possible for a smaller team to wrangle a lot more data effectively.
Conclusion:
CRM is only as good as the CRM software you use. If you’re trying to improve your customer relationships, you have to use a CRM that helps you track your successes and failures, and come up with ways to do better next time. No matter what you think about CRM, the fact is that it has been around for a while and it has been proven to be useful. If you are looking for a way to manage your customer relationships more effectively, it may be worth your while to give it a try.