66% of small businesses in US don’t use a CRM. The most common reason heard from small business owners is that they are too “small” for having a systematic process of managing their sales. They also view the time spent setting it up the sales CRM, training themselves on it and entering data as lost time that could be spent on more productivity activities like selling. After all, who has the time or money in a resource strapped small business?

This is actually a valid viewpoint. CRM software is a $20.6B dollar market but 95% of this spending is by enterprises. This means all the top players in the market have built CRM software for large Fortune 5000 organizations which have huge armies of dedicated salespeople.

The drawback from the focus on enterprise by customer relationship management software providers has been most tools in the market are so complex that they are intimidating for these time strapped small business owners and teams to understand.

However, research shows that even using a large, complex CRM software can increase the win rate by 29% when used by small businesses. There are several advantages to having a small business CRM software that result in a higher win rate and productivity.

To put it simply, there is no debate on whether you should embrace modern technology such as sales CRM solutions in your organization as these following reasons outline:

Advantages of using a CRM

Save Precious Time

A small business owner would pay $500 for every extra hour of time in a day. With the US average hourly earning at $24.30 per hour, thats equivalent to hiring two full time employees! For every hour a day he loses, whether its in hunting down information in his mailbox, following up with his team on the status of the leads or searching for a relevant document, he loses precious time worth to him in far excess of $500!

Small business CRM solutions provide a centralized source of information where everything - deal sizes, contact information, pending tasks, current state of leads in the pipeline, assignment of work and everything else is stored.

Today’s online sales CRM apps have the ability to integrate to automatically get leads from a variety of different sources such as online forms, emails and live chats to reduce data entry time and collect information at one place for easy lookup and analysis later. You can get your business a well defined sales pipeline within a few days!

Track Sales Team Performance

I know which of my sales guys are killing it. I know which of my products are selling the best. Why do I need a tool to tell me the same? This is the line of reasoning you are likely to hear from several small business owners who manage small teams.

It is true that features such as minutely detailed sales reports, sales automation and gamification offered by traditional CRM software are overkill.

However, there is only so much that human brain can hold and it is very susceptible to perception bias. Are you missing an opportunity by not pushing a product whose leads have a very high conversion rate but sell low because you don’t actively seek out leads?

Does your lowest performer actually have the highest conversion rate and you’re actually passing on leads with low deal sizes to him which affects the sales amount value? Tracking these metrics mean a healthy sales funnel and efficient lead management.

Build a Better Sales Process

People get sick all the time. People leave companies. It happens all the time. How do you transfer knowledge from a team member who is unavailable to one who is available? By making sure that data doesn’t leave with him in the first place.

Having a record of all the information and interactions with a potential customer is the best way to ensure that the handover of a lead is goes without a hitch. Such a system will lay a foundation for a sound business process.

Automate Your Sales Force

Leads generated are usually stored in clunky and outdated databases. It could be a spreadsheet, a personal notepad, a folder on a laptop or a mobile phonebook. This usually results in data entry as the lead information is transferred from the originating source such as an online form or a business card to a destination such as those listed above.

Similarly, for tracking leads, the information needs to be transferred from one person to another, such as from a salesperson to the accounting department for generating a quote or to the marketing department for preparing a business proposal.

Customer management software usually have integrations with a variety of other web applications such as online forms, live chat applications, email mailboxes and card scanners which can eliminate data entry of contact information and other details. Integrations with web applications such as mailing lists, calendars, invoicing applications and team collaboration tools means that tasks such as emails, scheduling, billing and communication can be automated.

Focus on Closing Deals

Small businesses can’t really afford the luxury of lead nurturing and long sales cycles. With cash flow being the most important part of their business, once a lead enters their sales pipeline, the focus should be on closing the deal as soon as possible.

Sales software helps a person to do just that. When he opens up his small business CRM the first thing in the morning and sees the list of leads and the current state, his mind immediately focuses on what he needs to do to move the lead to the next stage in the sales cycle or mark the lead as won.

These productivity gains are not present when the lead is buried as a conversation in his email mailbox or as a contact in his mobile’s phonebook.

Enhanced Team Collaboration

Often, more than one person might need to work on a lead. As a lead moves through different sales pipeline stages, it might need to be handed after to another person.

For example, a legal specialist might need to take over the lead if the client wants an customized legal agreement. Rather than having a lengthy one-on-one meeting to bring the legal specialist up to speed, the salesperson can simply assign the lead to the legal specialist and she can see the entire history of conversation - notes, emails, files and other related information.

It is not just centralized storage of information that enhances sales team collaboration. Teams can use online CRM software to see which of the salespeople already have too many leads in the pipeline or too few leads in the sales pipeline and assign or redistribute leads to improve efficiency.

Tasks can be assigned and marked done and the resulting notifications to team mates can keep them updated. Using a centralized sales dashboard, a manager can track the progress of the entire sales team.

Better Customer Relationship Management

Having a small business CRM allows you to pursue a customer centric business model. By bringing your entire team onboard the sales management software, the entire focus is on satisfying the needs of the prospects and customers. No matter whom the customer talks to on the team, the customer management solution ensures that everyone is up to date.

A systematic approach of moving the prospect through different sales pipeline stages and eventually converting the prospect into a customer makes your sales process effective.

An online CRM with the ability to set and assign tasks and sync with your Google Calendar ensures that this systematic approach keeps your sales funnel full at all times!

Conclusion

Convinced that you need a sales CRM solution? If you are a small business owner, do share with us what you look for in a small business CRM.