Not too long ago, businesses kept track of leads, customers, and clients on pen and paper. Rolodexes, business cards bundled together with rubber bands, and phonebooks were all part of the prospecting process.
With the rise of the internet, it’s little wonder that the sales tools of yesterday have been brought online.
And that’s a great thing for small businesses.
Intro to CRMs
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management Software, is a powerful online address book. CRMs allow you to import your clients’ email addresses, phone numbers, and company information.
From there, you or your sales team can keep track of the last time you contacted your customer, what deals you closed, how much the deal was worth, the number of contacts you’ve had, how you found the lead, and more.
Best of all, this information can be quickly and easily stored in the cloud. That means it’s available via laptops, cellphones, and tablets, whether your salespeople are in the office — or not.
Integrations
The real power of CRMs lies in how easily they integrate with your other software. With a good CRM as your base, you can conduct business more efficiently than ever before.
Email: One common CRM integration is with your email provider. For branding purposes, it’s better to interact with customers via a branded email address. With some CRMs, you can forward your email correspondence to a special email address that quickly updates the CRM logs for customer contact.
VoIP: Another common integration is VoIP. Some CRM companies give your company a specialized phone number to call your customers from. You can then click a button within the CRM software to one-touch dial your customer. And, since the call takes place within the CRM, the date, time, and duration of contact is automatically recorded.
Calendar: Want to schedule clients in one place? CRMs integrate with Google, Outlook, and Apple Calendar to help employees stay on track with customer calls. From there, it’s easy to schedule appointments — and to keep track of when you met with your customers.
Social Media: Track your trends, engagement, and mentions on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, all in one collected suite. While you can’t necessarily capture email addresses from people who interact with you on social media, you can gain more leads by sending them a link to your website when they mention you.
The Best CRMs for Small Business
CRMs are powerful tools your business should be using. Luckily, they’re often inexpensive.
HubSpot is one of the most popular, most robust CRMs for small businesses. Best of all, it’s completely free. While HubSpot will try to upsell you on additional functionalities, the core CRM is still an incredible free tool. You can easily import your email contacts, filter them, keep track of your last contact dates, and more.
Zoho is another popular CRM. While the pricing is hard to find on their website, it’s rumored that the CRM is free for up to three users. Zoho is a better fit if your company is dedicated to using a CRM in their everyday operations, as it provides tons of integrations with other kinds of software. However, because of its surplus of features, it can seem a little confusing for new users.
Agile CRM is available for free up to 10 users. With drag and drop segmentation, custom reporting, and a very low learning curve, it’s a great choice for small businesses with few employees. What sets this software apart from the others is a bold, beautiful, easy-to-understand dashboard that allows you to view sales data at a glance.
The Bottom Line
CRMs and their accompanying integrations can help your small business find, convert, and keep track of leads with greater ease. And, because they’re inexpensive, you can get started right away.Vodigy Software is a trusted custom software provider to the St. Paul and Minneapolis area. We specialize in providing expert guidance and assistance to businesses. If you need help integrating software with your business, contact us today!
