CRM is often placed to the side, when it should be given the best seat at your company's table. For example, according to a study by the Gartner Group in 2002, at least 42% of CRM licenses were unused. Some businesses only use their CRM system for the most basic functions such as a customer database. This management system is customizable and to obtain its full benefits, think of CRM as the most effective marketing and sales hub your business has.
Organize Leads and Customer Data
Business should use CRM to organize leads and customer information. As a sales hub, your team can track which leads still need to be contacted. Your sales team can view which of these leads successfully converted into sales. A CRM system can also generate monthly reports on how well the department was able to pitch customers and the pitch convert. Your customer relationship management software is not just a database of names and addresses of customers, but rather an effective hub to organize and monitor how your business is doing.
Prioritize Sales
Use your CRM system to prioritize sales. The CRM can tell the team which warm leads or customers need to be called first. It can be customized in such a way that the customers and clients that need your attention first can be prioritized. This allows your business to spend more time in the areas that need it, without wasting valuable time on leads that will be less profitable.
Increase Productivity
When your business adopts CRM as a marketing and sales hub, it is able to have better level of coworking between the sales and marketing departments. Business productivity increases when departments within the business can work together. Instead of only looking at the targets they need to hit, your marketing and sales teams can view exactly where someone is along the production line between lead and sale. Tasks within marketing and sales will then go from hitting a target to reaching business goals and developing a customer base that will continually produce results.
Monitor Campaigns
Marketing and sales are the lifeline of any business. A business needs to monitor its overall campaigns to see the areas it was successful. You should use your CRM as a sales and marketing hub because it allows your business to see what campaigns were successful. By reviewing campaigns, businesses can also see in what areas of the campaign the team fell short. Success and productivity only comes from being able to a make a sale, and then replicating this process over and over again.
What Should Your CRM "Hub" Look Like
Your enterprise hub should be built using a great CRM solution that offers a clean user interface that is easy to personalize. The CRM should also have a good API readiness and it would need to be completely integrated with your current architecture. When a CRM runs smoothly and is ease of access, it becomes the central repository for all your company's data. Does your marketing team really need to learn coding to use your CRM? When it is easy to use your CRM hub, all of the data from your sales and marketing teams is readily available.
References
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32495/Is-Your-Sales-Marketing-Team-Ready-for-a-CRM.aspx
http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/News/Daily-News/What-Is-CRM-46033.aspx