Problem 5: Uncoordinated processes between sales and marketing departments
Despite the fact that sales and marketing departments are working towards the same goal, to increase sales for the business, they use different methods. It’s a standard business practice, but it can often lead to business failure if these activities are at odds with each other.
Have you ever had the marketing department complain that the sales department doesn’t close leads effectively, and the sales department says that the leads are bad? We know it has! Who hasn’t!
How does a CRM system solve this problem?
With a CRM solution, your sales and marketing departments work together and have access to the same customer data that is updated in real time. This makes it easy for them to track every lead generation and sales channel, and they can ditch ineffective marketing channels and scale up the ones that work well.
Problem 6: customer churn
It costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. As a business, you can’t afford to lose this money by not paying enough attention to minimizing customer churn. Many strategies can help you increase LTV and improve customer retention. What they all have in common is that they require a CRM solution to achieve the best results.
How does a CRM system solve this problem?
To keep your customers loyal and continue to buy from you, you need to build strong relationships with them.
A CRM system helps you stay on top of your customers’ data and know when it’s time to reach out to customers to strengthen relationships or preserve those that are hanging in the balance.
Using a CRM solution, you can set up alerts for customers who have been inactive for a certain number of days, track them and contact them personally or set up automated emails.
Similarly, you can set up automatic reminders for customers who have not responded to emails in a while. You define the number of days of alarming silence, and then create an automatic task to contact the customer.
Problem 7: Missed upsell and cross-sell opportunities
The sales process doesn’t stop when the deal is closed and you get paid. Even after the customer has made a purchase, you can still earn extra money. You should try to increase the check by selling additional services that may be useful to the customer.
Sending out emails with an impersonalized offer to existing customers will not do any good. Inattention to customers and their needs can deprive you of the chance to increase sales and ruin the relationship you have managed to build with them so far.
How does a CRM system solve this problem?
If you want to increase your sales by upselling or cross-selling to existing customers, you need to offer them something that would be interesting to them; something they will find useful. To do this, you need to know their needs first and foremost.
With CRM, you can create special tags for customers with the necessary features or any special requests. In this way, you can segment your customer base and send them personalized offers that increase the chances of conversion and additional sales.
Problem 8: Inaccurate sales planning
To effectively manage your finances, you need to make sure you adequately assess your current situation and make accurate forecasts of your expenses and income. If you don’t, the risk of bankruptcy will quickly loom on the horizon.
If you don’t have a clear understanding of your financial situation and where your business is headed, you won’t be able to grow it effectively. If your project’s revenue is too low, you won’t have enough money to cover your expenses. At the same time, underestimating your sales won’t do you any good either. It is better to invest in the development of your product and business growth than to sit on a pile of illiquid money.
How does a CRM system solve this problem?
Most good CRM solutions offer sales forecasting functionality that allows businesses to see the projected revenue from their deals that are about to close. In addition, with the help of a CRM system, you can see which customers you generate the most revenue from and thus be able to diversify your risks. Moreover, you can observe which managers close most of the deals, which ones close small deals, and which ones close more profitable deals and use this information for training and coaching managers.
With accurate forecasts, you can make financial plans and know how much of your investment can be reinvested in marketing or product development.
Problem 9: Poor communication with customers
These days, even product-oriented companies sell services: customer service. When the competition is so high, you need to satisfy customers as much as possible and ensure that you provide them with the highest level of service.
Otherwise, customers will quickly choose your competitors over you.
Customers today don’t want to wait hours, let alone days, to get help. They want effective communication, useful and quick responses. Unfortunately, this is difficult to organize if you store all your customer data on dozens and dozens of different platforms.
If you fail to ensure continuity of communication and forget about the details of past interactions, you will quickly lose the trust and respect of customers.
How does a CRM system solve this problem?
With CRM, you have all the data aggregated. You have a complete overview and details of the contact and communication you’ve ever had with your customer. You can see all your comments, the initial customer concerns, and the results they wanted to achieve with your product or service. Knowing all this information, you can ensure customer loyalty by providing information that will be useful to them directly.
After all, what could be better than being able to solve the customer’s original problem and give them what they came to you for?
Business should go hand in hand with a CRM system. But, of course, only if it’s a good system. If you want your CRM solution to be a useful investment that will help you solve problems, you need to make sure you choose the most suitable tool. There are many options available on the market, so before you choose one, make sure you know what you’re looking for.