Top 5 best practices to get the most out of your CRM

The 5 CRM best practices are:

1. Know what you want from your CRM.

2. Make the most of CRM integration.

3. Invest in the training of your team.

4. Benefit from automation.

5. Take advantage of analytics.

1. Know what you want from your CRM

It all starts here: know what you want and which CRM is right for it. Ask yourself: is it primarily a sales tool, or will other teams benefit? Are you interested in upselling to existing customers or creating new leads? Do you want to deepen your relationships with loyal customers or improve your email campaigns to all buyers? Do you need to improve internal communications?

Define your goals and then find a CRM solution that helps you achieve them. This also makes it easier to track your progress once the CRM is integrated, because you know what results you want.

Top tip: Many CRMs will have packages configured for your business - for example, CRM solutions for call centres, travel agencies, financial brokers or insurers - but if your business does not fall into a specific type, you should be able to plan and customise your CRM according to your needs.

2. Make the most of CRM integration

With good CRM integration, data from all systems must be collected, stored, organised and analysed in your CRM. This includes your programmes and applications, for example, email and calendar integration, which will now be in one streamlined place.

In this phase, make sure you understand what is integrated, why you need it and how to use it. While it is tempting to install all available integrations, make sure you focus on what is important to your business. In addition to email and calendar integration, examples of CRM integration include team communication, contact management, forms and data collection, and live chat and call software.

"The improved accessibility of data offered by CRMs can reduce the complexity of the sales cycle by 8-14% on average. CRM decision makers also report benefiting from a 14.6% increase in productivity when using social and mobile CRM. " Nucleus Research, 2015.

3. Invest in training.

Train your teams, and train them well. There is no point in a CRM if it is not understood and/or used correctly throughout the company. Make sure all staff know which tools to use in their department, and how and when to use them.

You also need to think about customer data and metrics. Set a standard for each department to follow to ensure that data entry standards are met across the board.

4. Take advantage of automation

Perhaps the biggest advantage of a CRM is automation. CRMs aim to manage and automate the minor tasks that your teams have to complete on a regular basis in order to be more efficient and productive.

As indicated in the CRM, mass producers and distributors like Coca-Cola benefit from automation. It can monitor inventories and production lines to replenish supply shelves and anticipate machine repairs, as well as automatically reopen orders, send invoices and process payments.

5. Take advantage of analytics

With a CRM, you can measure, analyse and manage real-time metrics on every element of your business. From phone numbers called and costs, to inbound and outbound queue metrics, leverage these analytics to inform future business decisions. Your data will let you know whether your efforts are agile and effective across all departments and, if not, what needs to change, whether it's through better task allocation, budget adjustment or something else.

Datalyse is a CRM that allows you to unify your business needs, centralising all your operations in a single application. Find out how a CRM can help your team on our website and blog, or get in touch with us.s.