Many start-up entrepreneurs view customer relationship management (CRM) solutions with contempt, believing that they are only useful and suitable for larger corporations and that they are an unnecessary expense for a smaller start-up business.
This is wrong, however.
Start-ups using robust customer relationship management solutions can massively boost their growth and development, and establish themselves as leaders within their respective industries. This enables new start-ups to remain competitive and stay ahead of the curve, something which is particularly important in a market where there are many firms.
When CRM solutions first hit the market, they had a hefty price tag associated with them. This, unfortunately, fuelled the misconception that they are only suitable for big businesses. Early CRM solutions were also hard to integrate, difficult to use and most employees wouldn’t bother using them.
It is safe to say that this is no longer the case; CRM solutions have evolved to the point where they are easy to use and can help start-ups accelerate growth. It is important to use a CRM solution from your company’s earliest days so that you can reap the rewards early on. Also, the more you grow the harder it becomes to implement a CRM solution and integrate it with all your other software solutions.
Good Customer Relationship Management Correlates with Strong Growth
When you launch your start-up, the one thing which should be at the front of your mind is achieving sustainable growth.
Unfortunately, as a start-up entrepreneur, there aren’t enough hours in your busy schedule for you to completely manage CRM and the customer experience. This is where CRM solutions come in. As your company grows, your list of customers, clients, potential leads and prospects will grow, and without having a robust CRM solution in place you will easily lose track of what’s going on… especially if you are still managing things alone or have a small team.
Here are a few reasons your start-up should be using a good CRM solution
1. It helps grow your business
Prospecting is a vital part of scaling up your business and securing new leads, and your CRM can be used to acquire leads through your website, social media, email campaigns and virtually anywhere you come across them. This can all be done using your CRM software, something which really comes to life when you have a small sales team and you can assign specific reps immediately to your leads.
2. You can do more with less effort
The main reason why companies invest in a CRM solution is that they are struggling to keep up with their customers. Don’t be these guys! You should adopt your CRM early on, so it doesn’t get to this stage. Regardless, a good CRM solution will enable you to perform wider-reaching actions with far less effort. This prevents you having to juggle lots of tasks, opportunities, and communications which can lead to you mismanaging customers and forgetting to follow up with leads.
3. It helps build good relationships with customers
Building up intimacy and relationships with your customers is something which is important, but it takes quite a bit of time. Your main goal is to engage your potential customers and leads through a good website and/or good marketing and then seal the deal when they show interest by communicating positively with them.
This can either be through following up on abandoned baskets or emailing somebody who has subscribed to your email list with an automated (but personalized) email, amongst other things.
CRM solutions can do this by capturing highly detailed information about your clients and customers, their behaviors and activities, and generate data which you can use to build up relationships with them. Consumers are constantly prioritizing brands and companies which try to show that they care about them, and this is an ideal way to do this.
Although CRM solutions used to be very expensive and difficult to implement, something which led people to believe that they are only suitable for large companies, this is no longer the case. In fact, they should be implemented from the earliest days of a start-up’s operations so that they can be implemented easily and instantly start gathering key information which can be used to drive growth.
