There are several low-cost CRM tools in the market that will meet your basic requirements as a sales tool. They’ll help you keep track of your customers and organize information, but that’s about it. If you want to find, win and support customers, it’s essential to choose a business platform that has the ability to function beyond its traditional role as a sales tool.
Salesforce goes way beyond that role, acting as a hub that supports the cross-functionality of all your departments or teams, ranging from sales to marketing to customer service to human resources. It evolves with your business, by removing silos and creating transparency and communication between departments, projects and ERP systems. The AppExchange and its robust suite of complementary business apps, ensures that your company is set up with a platform capable of improving all aspects of business performance, not just your sales funnel.
Here are four reasons why you need to choose a premium, dynamic CRM tool like Salesforce:
You Need to Be Ahead of the Curve
Customers have access to a greater variety of solutions and better technology than ever before. A business that can’t keep up is quickly abandoned in favour of one that can. An advanced, cloud-based CRM software evolves with the technology landscape, and the growth and pivots of your business. Salesforce’s Wave Analytics, for example, delivers sales, marketing and service insights in real-time. You can access the data on any device and use it to instantly make a business decision and to address a question or concern, giving your customer confidence that your company is using technology to improve their experience.
Customers Expect You to Know It All
Customers demand employee knowledge and business efficiency. They don’t want to be transferred numerous times for basic questions, or be asked to supply the same information over and over again. Your ability to answer questions quickly and to be aware of information owned by another department are critical to successful interactions with customers. A dynamic business platform allows real-time, cross-departmental information to be viewed by all team members who need access. It puts the customer at the centre, ensuring calls and follow-ups go smoothly. More information and less friction equals a better customer service experience, and a better bottom line.
Your Employees Need a Deeper Understanding of the Company
No good employee wants to look unprepared in front of a customer or stakeholder because they “don’t know” the answer to a basic question from another department. When your CRM software serves as the hub of your business, employees become experts with a whole — not siloed — picture of the company. It empowers all team members to think like a CEO, by providing them with details that allow for better informed decision-making and customized customer service. The result? An engaged, motivated workforce, higher employee retention, and a better customer experience.
You Need All the Information to Improve Your Business Practices
When you’re using a robust business platform like Salesforce, you always have a 360-degree view of your company. There is cross-pollination between departments, and employees are able to see relationships between different business activities. As a result, you’re able to naturally crowdsource problems and solutions. You can spot gaps and areas of concerns in your systems from perspectives that might not have been apparent had departments remained siloed.
