Finding the best CRM for small business owners is easier than you might think. Look for these 10 essential features that high add value for little cost.
Running a small business may sound fun, but there’s nothing “small” about the challenges. For at least the first year, you’re the operations manager, employee trainer, and marketer. Your most important role, however, is the salesperson. That’s why you should have the best CRM for small business. The right tool can make a significant difference in your sales performance.
You have to know what to look for, too. There are hundreds of CRMs out there today. Small business owners need something easy, intuitive, and customizable. The best CRM for small business will complete tasks that require supreme organization and marketing know-how.
1. Send email newsletters to new and past customers
Small businesses make productive use of email newsletters. It’s an easy method to stay connected with customers. Plus, it’s a versatile tool—you can use it for marketing new products, events, contests, and to share valuable information (such as a blog post). Your small business CRM should manage the creation, organization, and implementation of your newsletter.
2. Assign sales leads to your team
If you’re not the only person who follows up with leads, then assigning those responsibilities to employees is essential. You don’t want to manually remind yourself and other people to contact prospects. The job will never get done in a timely manner.
Let’s say you own a landscaping business. If you’re working and unable to follow-up with a new lead from a third party, your CRM will assign the lead to the next person automatically.
3. Create a customized workflow for your business structure
The best CRM for small business needs will mold itself to your workflow plan. It’s flexible, allowing you to customize a system and make changes along the way.
Are there essential questions you need to ask customers before sending a quote? Do you need to schedule an appraisal or meet in-person before discussing contracts? These are the types of workflow steps you can create within the CRM system to keep track and stay organized.
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Want to see these features in action? Take your small business to next level!. Schedule a free demo of our lead management software and gain loyal customers with less work!
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4. Generate quotes and send them out in half the time
If it’s necessary for you to give customers a price quote, why not streamline the process? Doing each quote manually and sending emails with an attachment is painfully slow. Faster quotes equal faster sales, and the best CRM for small business owners will generate quotes for you. You send it on its way in half the time.
5. Instant notifications for faster follow-ups
It’s difficult to stay on top of your leads without a CRM to organize everything. There are so many tasks to complete during each day, and it’s likely that your calls and emails get ignored at least some of the time. Instant notifications will improve your follow-up efforts. Once a lead comes into the CRM, you’re automatically prompted to take action.
6. Record notes on the status and progress of individual leads
Do you ever contact a potential customer with a specific need or issue you had to write down to remember? Hand-written notes have a way of disappearing. You’re left without that critical information and may need to ask the client for it again. That’s embarrassing. The best CRM for small business gives the ability to make notes within the system. All the details you need to remember are saved and secured in one place.
7. Design a digital representation of your sales pipeline to track progress
Your sales pipeline defines the steps a potential customer takes before buying and continues after the sale. Do you imagine what your pipeline looks like on paper? Consider the follow steps: initial contact, request for a price quote, acceptance of price quote, contract negotiations, and discussing the timeline of the project. You don’t have to keep all of those steps in your head. Pipeline tracking is essential for determining where your leads fall in the sales process, and what steps to take next.
8. Create web forms for your website that uploads information quickly
Websites are usually the first step in the sales process for small business. Your customers read your information, check out reviews, and try to contact you from there. Having these web leads automatically uploaded into CRM system saves a lot of time. Onboarding tools make that transition possible. Once your lead fills out the form, he is automatically uploaded into the system, pipeline, and then you’re notified to follow-up.
9. Pre-schedule emails to send out automatically
Do you ever notice that you send the same emails all the time? If a customer purchases a product from you, it’s not necessary to hand-write a follow-up email every time. The same goes for new leads that just filled out a form on your website. Your CRM should have the ability create and schedule automated emails for these types of situations. That way you can still connect with the customer and save yourself time in the process.
10. Generate reports on sales numbers and lead tracking
How do you know that you’re hitting all of your sales goals for the month? Sitting down with a calculator and crunching numbers isn’t always the answer. In fact, it’s much easier to view your sales performance with visual reports and organized sections. Can you guess what best CRM for small business does? It will generate detailed reports based on performance and help track customers in your pipeline.
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Want to see these features in action? Take your small business to next level. Schedule a free demo of our lead management software and gain loyal customers with less work!
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Do you have any specific feature you look for in a CRM? What can help your small business succeed? Share your thoughts in the comments!