What is CRM?

Mark Bradman, 21 April 2012

If you’re happy with your sales team doing their own thing without ever knowing what promises they’re making or to whom, then you probably don’t need CRM.

If you’re happy with your sales staff recording their customer calls on bits of paper or excel spread sheets that no one else ever sees, then you probably don’t need CRM either.

If you’re happy to have your customers calling your sales staff multiple times per day about problems that never get resolved, then you definitely don’t need CRM.

But if you want your business to work smarter, get results, build on-going relationships with your customers, then you owe it to yourself to find out more about what CRM can do for you today .

What is CRM?

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is:

• a company-wide business Strategy
• for bringing together information
• from all data sources
• to provide a holistic view of each customer
• in real time
• to make informed decisions
• that allow you to reduce costs and increase profitability

What CRM does

CRM is a business process that allows you to:

•  Manage your customer information
•  Manage company-wide interactions with your customers
•  Manage the customer relationship process
•  Bring lots of pieces of information together about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends
•  Capture input from all different channels - direct channels (self-generated information), web channels (Internet enquiries), partner channels (referrals from your partners), and more
•  Provide you with a 360-degree view of your customers
•  Provide you with the means to track sales leads and opportunities
• Manage the steps your sales process
•  Combine Sales Force Automation (SFA) with Contact Management
•  Provide instant reporting
•  Keep track of sales and leads, campaign successes and sales pipelines
•  Provide a clear picture of your customers
•  Acquire, manage, nurture and maintain the relationships between your organisation and your customers

What CRM doesn’t do

CRM helps your team to work smarter, so don’t expect it to

•  Slice Bread…
•  Make phone calls
• Ask for the business
•  Handle objections
•  Build rapport
•  Target the right people
•  Present proposals
• Arrange the demonstrations

You still need quality people to perform these functions. CRM will better equip them to perform most of their functions with efficiency and ease.

What are the Benefits of CRM?

When implemented and used correctly, CRM can

•  Increase your Revenue
•  Reduce your Costs
• Increase your Profitability
•  Shorten your Sales Cycles
• Improve your Customer Acquisition & Retention
•  Maximise Efficiency among your Staff
•  Provide Higher Sales Yield
•  Decrease Time & Cost you spend on Administrative Tasks
•  Improve Visibility across your entire Organisation
•  Enable more-Informed Decision-Making
•  Improve your Customer Service •  Provide your Organisation Greater Connection across your Organisational Teams
•  Increase your ability To Cross-Sell & Up-Sell
• Provide you Decision Support
•  Increase Call Centre Efficiency
•  Improve your Sales Closing Rates
• Streamline your Sales & Marketing Processes
•  Improve your Customer Profiling & Targeting
• Increase your Market Share

What is xRM?

An eXtended Relationship Management solution could be defined as Anything Relationship Management as it can manage more than just relationships with customers. For example, it can manage:

•  Financial Management
•  Supply Chain Management
• Recruitment Services Management
•  Health Service Management
•  Training Management System
• Volunteer Management System
• and more…

Just about anything else your company might wish to manage in a relational database.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

At Magnetism, we recommend, support, train and use, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 because:

• Real Time online reporting using self-maintained Dashboards
• Process management using self-maintained Workflows
• Full integration with MS Outlook and other Microsoft products
• Extensive Out-of-the-Box functionality enabling seamless deployment
• Microsoft’s commitment to on-going development releases
• Stable Platform for providing expanded functionality underlined by .NET Framework
• Ability to reapply customization to new releases
• Extensive support available online from Microsoft and its Partner Network
• And more…

For more information and/or a 30-day Free Trial, contact us