Article by Growth Stack, the best software company in Abuja. What is Customer relationship management (CRM)? It’s a technology that companies use to manage and analyse customer interactions and data throughout the customer life cycle, with the goal of improving business relationships with customers, assisting in customer retention, and driving sales growth.

• With CRM systems you can compile information on customers across different channels — or points of contact between the customer and the company.
• With CRM you can easily store information about your customer, you can store the company’s name, address, website, telephone, live chat, direct mail, marketing materials, employee data, annual income, and social media.
• CRM systems can also give customer-facing staff detailed information on customers’ personal information, purchase history, buying preferences, and concerns.

WHY CRM IS A MUST FOR YOUR BUSINESS

• It is pertinent for you to use CRM to support your business especially if you have salespeople and supervisors.
• There is no way you can analyse and access their performance without a system like CRM.
• The other main reason is; most salespeople take up sales jobs on a temporary basis and as they move along to work in other companies you will not really miss them as you can employ a new salesperson to start from where the previous salesperson left off using the contacts generated by the previous salesperson.

SOME FREE CRM YOU CAN START USING TODAY.

1. Hubspot CRM
2. ZohoCRM
3. Bitrix24
4. SuiteCRM
5. CapsuleCRM
6. Insightly
7. Really Simple Systems
8. FreeCRM
9. Raynet
10. vTiger
11. Zurmo
12. InStream
13. High Rise
14. 1CRM

SOME TERMINOLOGIES YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE USING CRM

ON-PREMISE CRM

On-premise CRM is conventional software – what we’re all used to. It involves installing software on your own servers in your computer room and using your own IT staff to manage it. There is no limitation in data storage.

ON-DEMAND OR CLOUD CRM

Cloud CRM or SaaS is hosted by a CRM vendor and stores the company’s data online. It provides the software as a service because the client doesn’t need to install or maintain anything, they are simply provided with a link to begin using the service.

LEADS

Leads are the potential prospects or customers who are interested in your product or company. They are unqualified contacts or sales opportunities in your business. They are the raw details gathered about individuals or representatives of organizations collected from trade shows, seminars, advertisements and other marketing campaigns. A lead goes through the follow-up process by sales reps and when qualified, they’re converted into contact and an account within 1CRM.

CONTACTS

Contacts are the people in an organization with whom your company communicates with in pursuit of business opportunities. Some of these contacts may belong to different departments in a company or multiple contacts of the same company. CRM contacts are typically converted from qualified leads, imported from an existing list or added individually.

ACCOUNTS

Accounts are the companies or departments within a company with which you have business dealings. In CRM, single or multiple contacts can be associated to an account. In a typical B2B scenario (one business selling products or services to another business) accounts play a major role in keeping track of the important company information.

CONVERT

Clicking on a button or link that allows you to convert a qualified lead into an account, contact, and, optionally, an opportunity. Information from the lead fields is transferred into the appropriate account, contact, and opportunity fields.

CAMPAIGNS

A CRM campaign is a targeted email marketing campaign designed to increase sales & interest. They could be newsletters, follow-up emails, or special promotions. 1CRM provides a platform to create, organize and record the overall cost for marketing campaigns.

OPPORTUNITY

An Opportunity is a contact or an account that has been qualified. This person has entered into your buying cycle and is committed to working with you. You have already contacted, called, or met him and know their needs or requirements. When a contact/account shows interest in your business, you can create an opportunity that represents a potential sale. You can then easily track your various opportunities according to their sales stage through generated charts.

EXPANDING YOUR CRM

When your business grows you will discover that you need to empower your sales people to be able to generate sales orders, have access to inventory for the stock level to avoid selling out-of-stock products. Also, you will need to apply commission or bonuses to reward your hardworking people. When that happens you need to upgrade to an enterprise resources planning (ERP) system.

Fortunately, Growth Stack the best software company in Nigeria has found a way to reduce the cost of ERP implementation for medium and small businesses in Nigeria. Contact us for your ERP needs.