But there comes a time when a CRM package no longer helps you generate leads, manage contacts, and generate sales. At that point, you may need to find other ways to increase sales, and those other ways usually involve an outside source that creates new opportunities for you. Let's take a look at the most popular CRM features you'll find in leading CRM products today.
Lead generation is easier with CRM
Lead generation is essential to sales. The lead generation features within a CRM product help you build relationships with customers who are already in your sales funnel. This can help you move customers through the sales funnel faster and close more deals. However, the leads are generated by another function within the CRM product. This function is called prospecting. When you use lead generation within your CRM product, you pass the responsibility for generating the leads to a third party, such as a lead generation agency or your company that provides the CRM features.
Set up marketing campaigns that work well
Once the prospects are captured, the next CRM functionalities in your CRM system will help you close the deal. You can do this by Marketing campaigns do, which are basically opportunities for you to sell more of your product or services to prospects. With lead nurturing, you can set up the marketing campaigns that will attract those leads.
Direct marketing is one of several CRM functions
In addition to lead generation, there are two other CRM features you'll find in leading CRM products. First, there is the Direct Marketing. In this feature, you send messages to targeted leads. These messages are used to market your CRM opportunities. In addition, they can be used for sales-related communications and promotions.
Next, you have direct response functionalities. This is where you can use CRM products to respond to customer needs. For example, you can offer a free product if someone buys a certain number of tickets at your box office. This is considered responsive advertising. You could then provide information about how many tickets were sold at each location, when they were purchased, and so on.
Advertising and service functionalities
Another CRM functionality that you will find is marketing and Advertising functionalities. These are ways for you to promote your CRM offers through different mediums. You can use email, telemarketing, direct mail and so on. Again, the point is to get more people to contact you about your CRM solutions.
Finally, there are the service functionalities. If you're a sales or service-oriented company, you'll find that these are ideal CRM functionalities. For example, you could use these roles to analyze your customers, set up follow-ups, collect data on your prospects, and so on. You could also use these roles to train your salespeople, conduct surveys, and so on.
As you can see, CRM is very complex. There are numerous roles and functions involved. So, if you want to make sure that you maximize your CRM profit, you need to pay attention to the different functionalities that are essential for your CRM. Then you will be able to maximize the value and potential of your CRM software.
The support of Excel files will facilitate your daily routine
One of the first functionalities that many CRM systems offer is support for Excel files. If you work a lot with spreadsheets in your day-to-day business, this is probably not essential. However, if you want to make sure that your CRM solutions are as efficient as possible, then good Excel support is very important. This means that you don't have to worry about losing all of your important spreadsheets, and it also means that you can have great looking charts and graphs.
CRM also offers sales contact management
A second group of functionalities that are essential for your CRM are those that allow you to manage sales contacts. Of course, you want to tell your prospects everything they need to know about your product. Therefore, the ability to collect data from these leads should be included in your CRM solutions. In addition, quality CRM features allow you to manage the contacts and the information associated with them so that you can make sure everything is up to date. This means that your CRM solutions will help to keep your business top of mind with your customers, so they can be sure that they are working with an effective system.
Keep master data under control with CRM
Finally, there is another group of essential CRM features that will help you build your CRM database. Obviously, your database will grow as you have more leads. Quality CRM features will help you keep this under control so that your database doesn't become too full or unstable. In addition, the leads generated by these systems will always be consistent, so you can always provide your customers with the information they are looking for. Therefore, good CRM functionality is essential to your own success as a business.
