Your CRM Tool Should Offer the Right Solution and Features
Posted by Len Diana on Fri, Apr 16, 2010 @ 03:23 PM
Does your CRM tool offer the right solution and features?
Not all CRM tools are created equal but whether you are using a hosted or on-premise CRM tool it should include the following 10 features:
Lead Management: If you allow a lead to fall through the cracks, can you afford the lost revenue right now? The lead needs to be routed to the right sales person and managed throughout the entire sales cycle.
Feedback Management: How can you optimize the customer experience if you are not capturing feedback from all channels of communication? Your sales person can now capture a better understanding of the customer's needs, wants and buying patterns.
Order Management: With multiple departments handling an order the chance for human error grows and so does the paperwork. However, order management allows for quotes to be converted to orders, modified and then saved into a single system.
Territory Management: No sales rep should be stepping on another's toes when you have created sales territories and manage territory-based processes with workflow rules and reports.
Email Management: You customers are using email these days to communicate their complaints, issue requests and offer feedback. If you want to anger your customers, don't respond to their emails or your CRM tool can chronicle customer-related communications with automated tracking of customer emails.
Contact Management: If you're using MS Outlook, it is simply an ineffective way to track your contacts. With a 360-degree view of their customers, sales people can view contact and account information, and purchasing history all from a central location.
Reporting: CRM tools have many varied formats for reporting from standard templates to customized documents. Reports can have detail providing contact information, opportunity pipeline, lead-status analyses and case studies.
Opportunity Management and Forecasting: You need to quickly view the sales and production pipeline so that your business can handle the orders they're generating.
Marketing Campaign Analysis: How can you know if you're getting the best bang for your buck if you're not monitoring and analyzing the advertising and marketing efforts? CRM solutions help track activity from trade shows to direct mail so that every dollar spent is productive and leads to future profitability.
Marketing Revenue Tracking: Wouldn't it be nice to have every sales dollar linked back to marketing activities? With marketing revenue tracking it's easier to convince upper-management that a costly campaign produced results.
If you're not currently using a CRM solution or are thinking of changing tools, the features listed can be of great help in that decision. Whether you are using a hosted solution or on-premise tool, CRM has become increasingly vital to all businesses.
