If you’ve been researching CRMs recently, you’ve probably been left with the impression that every business needs one, and the only real question is which one the right one is for you.
Whether you’re lured in by the prospect of generating more leads, being more organised, saving time, automating parts of your role or quite simply increasing sales, figuring out which CRM is right for you (or if you actually need one) is easier said than done.
And whilst CRMs can absolutely help with all of those things, the reality is that many businesses operated perfectly successfully before CRMs became commonplace…
Absolutely! Many begin without one and there are plenty of businesses that get their best leads and best work outside of a CRM.
But that doesn’t mean that you should operate without one. A CRM allows you to communicate regularly with your prospects and your existing customers, giving you the best chance of being top of mind when people are in a position to buy what you’re selling.
That’s true in both a B2B and B2C setting, where the principle of communicating regularly to as many people as you can pays dividends.
So, What Does A CRM Actually Do?
Put simply, a CRM helps you organise information about prospects and customers and allows you to contact them.
The value of that is with it being en-masse, meaning that you can communicate one-to-many rather than having to manually email or contact people individually or in batches.
Most CRM systems allow you to:
- Store contact details
- Track conversations
- Record sales opportunities
- Schedule follow-ups
- Create reminders
- Generate reports
But beyond that, most CRMs (unless entirely focused on sales), will include functionality for emailing, automations, lead nurturing, segmentation and tracking customer journeys.
The key thing to understand is that a CRM doesn’t generate leads by itself, the goal is to help you manage them more effectively.
For many businesses, there comes a point where spreadsheets and memory stop being enough – and you may well be at that point. The question might be better framed as ‘what would a CRM help me achieve?’ rather than whether you need one or not.
If you feel like you’re either neglecting or not dealing with follow-ups properly, enquiries are taking too long to be answered or there’s confusion over who’s responsibility dealing with prospects, then it’s probably time to embrace a CRM.
At that stage, a CRM can become incredibly valuable because it creates organisation and consistency (and responsibility), allowing you and your team to focus on the important stuff.
What Happens If You Don't Have A CRM?
The biggest risk with not having a CRM isn’t necessarily losing every prospect, it’s losing some of them.
Think of it like a leaky bucket… you’re going to catch some things before they drop through the hole, but you won’t catch them all.
Getting the right CRM (and systems, automations and data) in place mean that you give yourself the best chance at converting prospects into customers.
Think of it this way – maybe someone fills in a contact form and you forget to call them back… or maybe you had a good conversation a few months back and now they’re in touch again, but you can’t quite recall what was said.
And the biggest place where CRMs can help is for those prospects who either aren’t ready or aren’t in a position to buy right now. But that doesn’t mean that they never will be, the important thing is that they continue to receive communications, nurturing them and ensuring that when the time does come, you are top of mind and they convert into a customer.
Most businesses don’t lose opportunities because they don’t care, far from it. They lose them because they’re busy running their business and things can naturally fall through the gaps…
Which is where a CRM can be invaluable.
Depending on the size of your business, you may not need a full CRM immediately, though. Although, you will definitely need something that you’re able to send emails from.
That might not mean an all singing, all dancing CRM that costs the earth, probably the opposite – you simply need to be able to store data and communicate regularly, which pretty much every email CRM should be able to help you achieve.
So, Do You Actually Need A CRM To Reach Your Prospects?
For some businesses, the answer might appear to be no… but we’d like to change that to another question (I know, answering a question with a question!) – which CRM?
If you’re generating a small number of enquiries and have a straightforward sales process, you can still benefit from building up your prospect database and communicating regularly with your list, so that you always have a pipeline of potential customers ready to go.
Once leads start increasing, multiple people become involved, or marketing automation becomes important, a CRM can quickly become one of the most valuable tools in your business.
The mistake many businesses make is assuming the software IS the solution, but the reality is that the process behind it is the solution, the CRM is simply helping you get there.
The businesses that get the most value from a CRM usually have a clear understanding of how their prospects arrive, what happens next, who is following up, what communications are sent and how leads are tracked.
Once those foundations are in place, choosing the right CRM becomes much easier.
And the results tend to be much better too.
Who Are 3XM?
We’re 3XM Marketing, our goal is to generate you more leads and get more customers.
Simple, right?
The 3XM Marketing team with the ‘Best Strategic Marketing Firm’ Midlands Enterprise award from SME News.
If you’re looking for a strategic marketing partner to work with and ensure you’re doing the right stuff (and getting it to the right people) and you want to make sure it happens… consistently, then we can help.
Across our team, we’ve got most marketing bases covered, from strategy to copywriting, from paid traffic to CRMs, and we can work closely with you to:
- Get more marketing out the door
- Improve the quality and results of your marketing
- Enjoy your life and your business more
Get help to grow your business, for FREE
Book a free 3XM Business Growth Call, and spend 30 minutes with a member of the 3XM team, where we’ll help you outline some straightforward actionable things you can do to improve your marketing and grow your business, no strings, no tie ins, and no purchase necessary.
During your Business Growth Call, we’ll:
- Take a look at the marketing you’re doing, and give you our two cents on how to improve it
- Tell you what we’d be doing if we were in your shoes
- Give you actionable tactics and strategies we’re using right now to get leads and customers for our clients
- Make sure you walk away with something you can take away and use straight away
Click the button below to book a slot, and we’ll see you on the call:
