This is our first Guest Blog – something new and we hope you enjoy it!

CRM systems are a way for companies to easily organize their contact databases into one, easily accessible list, with the main goal of keeping these contacts up-to-date, in order to provide said customers with the best possible experience. Positive customer experiences lead to repeat business, an increase in customer retention rates, and ultimately, an increase in sales.  However, CRM systems, like all technology, have advanced in the past few years to be able to do so much more for its users. Through the recent addition of analytic tools to many CRM systems, with variances in function from system to system, CRM’s can now help out with more tasks than they were ever able to before. From increasing your ROI to providing sales managers with a way to monitor all of their staff’s sales-related activities, CRM analytic tools have it covered.
Analytic tools can now increase a company’s ROI by properly interpreting their charts and graphs. Having all of your clients’ information in one place allows you to see exactly who your best customers are. And even more importantly, through studying  their personal information, you can determine their demographics and better define your target market. Defining your target market allows you to properly allocate your advertising budget in a more cost-effective manner, and focus your advertising efforts where they will receive the most attention, and consequential reaction; resulting in an increase in sales.

For sales managers, CRM systems’ analytic tools are the perfect way to monitor and keep track of all of their employees’ sales-related activities, without actually being present for every single one.  Thanks to the detailed reports that are created by entering the customer and sale’s information into your CRM system, and through use of the analytic tool’s reporting feature, managers can see exactly who handled which account and when; Effectively increasing accountability of their sales team across the board.  Managers can also take advantage of the system by assigning tasks to specific employees, so when they are out the office, there is no idle time. Each employee is already aware of what they need to do, and signs off on it when it’s completed. Eradicating idle wastes of time, and increasing accountability are just two benefits of analytic tools in a CRM system.

Another huge benefit is the sales funnel that many CRM providers are incorporating into their system’s analytic tools. One such company, a new one to the CRM scene, is amoCRM. With the ability to title your status labels anyway you want when using their system, their funnel can show you exactly where, in your negotiation or sales process, your weak points are. A sales funnel shows where, in the sales process, you are losing customers, identifying any weak points that need your attention, giving you an opportunity to correct such flaws and improve your numbers, by improving the customers’ experiences. For example, if you are losing a lot of customers during your negotiations of the contract phase, maybe you need to be a little more flexible with your terms. Identifying these weak points is important, because they are the main thing standing between you and a successful sale.

While the incorporation of analytic tools to CRM systems has done a lot for its users, it is not the end game. Many companies are still incorporating more and more features in an attempt to stay current, as well as gain a holding position in the market. Other features include amoCRM’s Deals Management tab, a way to improve sales for those companies with long negotiation processes. Or the recent trend towards cloud technology and hosted systems, allowing its users access to the system from anywhere there’s an internet connection. Meanwhile other systems are choosing to integrate Google apps, such as contacts and their calendar, as a means of competing, on something other than price, in an already heavily populated and very competitive industry. One thing is for sure though, these companies are still not done, they will continue to evolve, adding features and tools as they see fit.

Guest Blog by Trevor Berman, Marketing Manager, amoCRM.com