CRM basics: A beginner's guide

The basics of CRM

In Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, businesses must understand the fundamentals before leveraging their more advanced capabilities. Working from the bottom up can assist in gathering a better understanding of the software as a whole rather than just utilizing specific features. With a comprehensive understanding of CRM features, organizations can mold the software to fit their unique needs and become true CRM artists, using the platform as their canvas.

Today, we’re taking it back to the CRM basics, examining some of the integral components of CRM and how they can be utilized to optimize your company’s processes.

What is CRM?

Simply put, CRM is a strategic approach that focuses on building strong relationships with customers. At its core, it involves the management of communication between an organization and consumers throughout their entire lifecycle, from initial contact to post-sale support. CRM encompasses a variety of practices aimed at understanding user needs to deliver tailored interactions that enhance their overall experience.

It routinely involves the use of specialized software that centralizes data, automates routine processes, and streamlines support interactions. These CRM platforms also enable businesses to capture customer information more easily, track interactions across multiple channels, and analyze data to gain valuable insights.

CRM has become an operational standard in organizations of all sizes and across various industries. Sales teams have found the software to be particularly beneficial–70% of sales reps believe that CRM helps them close more deals.

What are the basics of CRM?

CRM systems aim to enhance a business's relationships with its customers by providing a unified platform with interdepartmental utility, building transparency and collaboration across various teams.

The software can be customized to fit the specific requirements of your company, but its core functionalities typically center around:

Contact and lead management

Contact and lead management components allow for the storage and organization of lead, prospect, and customer information. They often include details such as names, phone numbers, email addresses, and other similar data. For customers, these comprehensive profiles enable the distribution of segmented promotions and personalized recommendations based on past purchases. With prospects, it may involve capturing leads, qualifying them, and assigning them to relevant reps.

Sales automation

Tools for automating sales-related tasks are among the most sought-after features of CRM systems. Capabilities such as are generally included. Automated workflows can trigger actions based on predefined criteria. For example, when a lead fills out a contact form, the CRM software can automatically assign the lead to an appropriate representative, send a follow-up email, and schedule a follow-up call.

Marketing automation 

Marketing efforts such as email campaigns, scheduling social media posts, and lead nurturing can be expedited when using CRM software. These systems can also track website visitors' behaviors, later using this data to personalize outreach based on individual interests.

Customer support

CRM platforms usually offer tools for managing support inquiries, tickets, and feedback. These features may include routing and distribution software that assists in guiding inquiries to applicable agents, as well as chatbots and virtual assistants that can deflect routine interactions.

Reporting and analytics tools provide insights into sales performance, customer behavior, and other business metrics. For instance, companies may realize they’re allocating significant resources toward lead generation in a specific territory that isn’t resulting in a proportional number of conversions. Using these insights, they may refine their strategies or redirect their assets toward another region that may prove more fruitful.

What is the backstory of CRM?

The birth of CRM is generally thought to have occurred sometime in the 1970s, although its modern iteration emerged in the 1990s with the introduction of digital technology. Initially, it was primarily utilized for database marketing, which focused on using consumer information for targeted campaigns. Early versions were exclusively employed by large enterprises to manage data and automate sales processes.

In the ‘80s, companies began to adopt more sophisticated CRM tools that integrated sales, marketing, and customer service functions into a single platform. These systems allowed them to optimize communication and improve coordination across departments. However, the technology remained prohibitively expensive and complex, limiting its adoption to businesses with substantial resources.

The widespread embracement of the internet in the late '90s transformed the CRM landscape into something with a semblance of how we know it today. Cloud-based solutions emerged, offering greater accessibility and affordability for organizations of all sizes. The rise of social media and mobile devices further reshaped the software, enabling improved user engagement through new channels, while providing useful data from social interactions.

As its capabilities continue to expand, the utilization of CRM in business environments continues to grow exponentially.

 Why is CRM important?

Optimal employment of CRM systems can expedite and refine nearly all company processes across every department. It’s arguably the most important technology that businesses can leverage to enhance operations and remain relevant in today’s ultra-competitive landscape.

The consolidation of data into a single, comprehensive customer profile serves as the foundation of the system; this capacity lays the groundwork for nearly all of its other features to build on. Sales teams pull from this unified information to personalize communication and relate unique value propositions (UVPs) to distinct leads, marketing agents use it to send targeted offers and recommendations, and support representatives employ it to more efficiently resolve issues based on past user experiences.

In addition to enhancing interactions with consumers, CRM software can also enhance internal interaction among team members. Communication across different departments is enhanced by centralizing all coordination onto a single platform. The sharing of real-time information enables teams to work together more effectively, facilitating the coordination of activities, alignment of strategies, and consistent user experiences (UX) across all touchpoints.

CRM’s proclivity for promoting a better understanding of customers while improving internal communication allows for more tailored interactions by utilizing the collective expertise of a team. Optimizing strategies in this manner permits businesses to allocate resources more efficiently and increase the likelihood of conversions.

What are the benefits of an effective CRM software?

What your business stands to gain through the use of CRM systems is dependent on how you specifically utilize them and what you hope to achieve.

Common efforts that many of our clients aim to improve with Freshsales CRM include:

Customer insights

The advanced data gathered through the use of CRM software can be used to fine-tune marketing and sales campaigns, as well as improve customer retention.

Through its extensive data-gathering capacity, CRM technology enables the creation of personalized marketing campaigns tailored to specific segments. This reduces the time and resources that are wasted on low-quality leads while driving engagement and conversion within the targeted groups. For sales teams, these systems permit agents to customize their approaches based on individual needs, leading to more meaningful conversations and increased sales opportunities.

By tracking satisfaction scores, feedback, and retention rates, CRM solutions provide insights into customer sentiment and loyalty. Businesses can then utilize this information to identify at-risk users, proactively address their concerns, and implement strategies to improve overall fulfillment. These systems may also provide loyalty-enhancing features through gamification elements, such as repeat-visitor incentives, referral programs, and customized discounts.

Communication and collaboration across teams

CRM technology often includes features for task assignment, workflow automation, and real-time notifications, enabling employees to collaborate more efficiently with their team and across multiple departments. 

For example, sales teams can assign leads to specific representatives, track pipeline progress, and collaborate on deals with colleagues. Similarly, marketing teams may coordinate campaigns, share assets, and work to expand outreach in real-time, ensuring that everyone is working towards common objectives.

Furthermore, CRM systems typically provide tools for internal messaging, team calendars, and knowledge sharing. Channels such as chat, email, and integrated third-party apps allow employees to discuss ideas and seek input from each other without leaving the CRM environment.

Quality and accurate data

CRM technology not only enhances your organization's data-gathering capabilities but also improves the accuracy and integrity of the information that you collect.

It often includes built-in validation rules and integrity checks to ensure that data entered into the system meets predefined criteria. This helps prevent inconsistencies upon entry, ensuring that only accurate information is captured. Many also employ algorithms to identify duplicate records. Eliminating repeat entries limits redundancy and ensures that each customer is represented by a single, accurate record.

Moreover, CRM systems can integrate with third-party data enrichment services to supplement existing customer profiles with demographic information, firmographic data, social media profiles, and more. These advanced insights can provide an even more robust profile for your agents to pull from, further strengthening personalization efforts.

Is CRM right for your business?

As long as your company can manage the upfront costs associated with implementing the software, the benefits of CRM greatly outweigh any potential challenges you may face. Of course, you’ll have to do your part by identifying your business’s unique pain points, assessing your existing infrastructure, and training your staff to utilize the full potential of your new system. 

Freshworks’ Freshsales serves as one of the premier CRMs available today, providing teams with full-feature software that offers 360-degree customer profiles, wide-ranging automation features, extensive multi channel capabilities, and much more. Our client, Humn, decided that Freshales’ was the best fit for its unique needs, and has since acquired 10 times more customers while reducing time spent on administrative tasks by 20%.

We could spend all day discussing the benefits that Freshsales can offer your organization, but we prefer to let it speak for itself–sign up for a free trial or request a demo today!