Hassle, fuss, haste, low energy levels and never-ending tasks—these are the regular parts of Monday blues we face every week. Talking about work makes some people sick and actually working, well I better remain silent on the subject. For most people, the don’t go back to work in a happier mood than they were in during the weekend. The scale of despise towards work varies but it is always there. Even if you like your job, there are one or more tasks that you despise.
For many entrepreneurs and marketers, keeping track of all the leads and clients, managing to connect with them at the right time, and recording the deals and searching out new sales prospects can be much disliked tasks. Along with these, the internal processes of tracking the results of these efforts are a source of constant anxiety. Nobody likes to keep working without having a clue of what their work results in and how they are going to benefit from this endless effort.
Suppose you do your best to follow your clients, you go an extra mile to connect with them, and after much effort, you still wonder how many deals you closed as a result of those efforts and how to maintain your relationships with them so they don’t forget you. Entrepreneurs and marketers need to know the outcomes that are produced by his efficient performance in order to stay motivated.
Marketing and selling are not the same anymore. As kids, we saw traditional campaigns advertising a product in the simplest ways. Although this approach was successful when there was less or no competition and people did not mind being addressed as masses, the world has undergone some major changes. The marketplace is filled with tough competition which only the best product with the best customer relationship strategies can survive. Along with that, consumers have become smarter and busier than ever before. Now, nobody wants to wait and they don’t have to since there are many similar products that are easily accessible.
Today, it’s both an opportunity and a chore for marketers and entrepreneurs to reach their clients and stay on their priority lists through personalized communication. Maintaining personalized connections with the clients is not an easy task and as I mentioned above, it can be a tiresome chore. Fortunately, customer relationship management (CRM) software has made their way in the markets all over the world and are serving the business community in an incredible way by shedding much of the stress caused by manually building and maintaining relationships that lead to sales.
CRM software too was introduced with an objective to automate most of your business procedures and tasks involving customer relationship management. A CRM software not only automates your marketing and manual tasks like data entry and communication but it also streamlines the internal procedures of your organization. You can use CRM on two levels:
- As a manager to take care of the internal organizational procedures by providing alerts, notes, scheduling, assigning tasks, and a number of other useful integrated tools on a single communication channel.
- As a business engine to automate your communication with clients to create and close deals for you.
The good news for entrepreneurs and marketers is that many CRM tools now come with enough flexibility in features and pricing to adjust with your business size. Customization is one of the key features of a good CRM tool so you can easily integrate it into your traditional business procedures. Nearly all CRM systems offer a free trial for a certain amount of time so you can subscribe and determine if a specific CRM suits you or not before you spend any money. Based on your experience during the free trial, you can make your purchase decision. This reduces the risk involved with giving CRM a try.
About the Author
Rebecca Johnson is an analyst of business information technology with special emphasis on CRM. Follow her on Talkcrmnow.com.
