If you have decided to add a CRM to your business, chances are you have discovered hundreds of different solutions available. How do you know which CRM will fit your business needs? What CRM functions does your business needs? Here are some common CRM features and benefits.
Core CRM features
Core functions are those you can expect to find in just about every CRM tool on the market. These are the functions that are essential in making a CRM, and any reputable CRM tool will have these three functions as a core part of its program.
1) Contact management
As you would expect with a customer relationship management tool, every CRM will have a management system in place to manage your customer and contact information. This will include the storage of information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and social media accounts. In more robust contact management, you can also store purchasing history and more.
When considering the contact management tool in a CRM, look for the functionality you need as well as a layout that is easy for you to manage and understand.
2) Lead management
Lead management focuses on managing leads through the sales pipeline through identification, scoring, movement, and sales conversion.
When considering the best CRM for your business, you want to find a lead management feature that fits the flow and transition that your leads follow through. In many cases, it may be good to bring in sales team members to get their feedback on the best available lead management function.
3) Interaction tracking
Interaction tracking enables all team members to create notes and track customer interaction with your contacts, ensuring that all information is shared and understood by everyone. An important thing to consider when evaluating this function is how many times a contact will change hands as they travel through your sales funnel. Interaction tracking allows for better collaboration between all of these interaction points, allowing for better collaboration between team members.
Common CRM features
Common features are found in a majority of the more robust CRM tools and complement the core features. This is where you will start to see the major differences between the different CRM tools available on the market and can really customize the CRM to meet your business goals.
1) Campaign management
The campaign management function allows you to plan, execute, track and analyze your marketing campaigns at the touch of a button. This can include everything from large marketing campaigns designed to launch a new product to small promotional drip campaigns.
2) Task management
The task management features allow you to create tasks, set due dates, priorities, and reminders, and assign them to the appropriate team members. Team members can check their daily tasks and you can check to ensure that these tasks are completed in real-time.
3) Customer segmentation
Customer segmentation allows you to organize your contact base into different categories, such as demographics, purchase history, or other categories that you create that are unique to your business and marketing needs.
4) Email integration
An email integration function allows you to integrate your CRM with your existing email software, such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo. This feature also allows for the management and segmentation of contact lists and internal cross-collaboration between team members. If your team members are comfortable with existing email platforms for internal collaboration, you might want to consider a CRM with this option.
5) Workflow automation
Repetitive tasks can take up hours of your team’s daily routines. Workflow automation allows you to automate many of these repetitive tasks by creating workflows that trigger specific actions, such as follow-up phone calls or emails. This feature helps to free up time for team members to focus on other areas of the business without neglecting these repetitive tasks.
6) Document management
Document management allows you to upload, store, and share documents within a single platform, making it easier for team collaboration. If you have large marketing and sales teams, this centralized hub for document storage and access can help to streamline your customer experience throughout the sales funnel.
7) Quotes and proposal management
This function allows your business to create and send quotes or proposals to your clients. If contracts make up a big portion of your business, this feature can be very beneficial.
8) Analytics and reporting
Analytics and reporting interpret all the data within your CRM to reveal valuable insights into your business. These reports can help you better understand your customers, how well your sales teams are connecting with your customers, and analyze your customer’s habits in order to generate better leads.
Optional CRM features
Optional CRM features are those that are not always found in CRM tools because they may be more targeted to specific business types or specific business needs.
1) Sales forecasting
This is a valuable tool that allows you to generate predictions of future sales and projected revenue based on past and current data and trends for sales businesses.
2) Billing and invoicing
This CRM feature allows you to bill and invoice customers, employees, and external service providers as needed. Invoicing can be created based on milestones, partial payments, scheduled billing, and more.
3) Customization
Because no two businesses are the same, the ability to customize a CRM to match your needs allows you to get the functionality that you need without the features you don’t.
4) Third-party integration
If your business uses third-party software, such as QuickBooks, DocuSign, or MailChimp, having a CRM that integrates with these platforms can help bring together everything in one centralized location.
5) Social media management
Social media platforms are a big part of many business marketing strategies and social media monitoring is essential to ensure social media campaigns are successful. A CRM with built-in social media monitoring features can help save your marketing team valuable time.
CRM offers a wide range of functionality for your insurance agency
No matter what features your insurance agency needs, our CRM is the best on the market that will meet those needs. The most important thing to consider when looking for a CRM is that you understand every aspect of your insurance business and which of these features are essential. It may be good to sit down with your sales and marketing team members to determine which features will best help them achieve your business goals.
Quality CRMs deliver a more efficient way to manage your customer interactions and information.
To learn more, schedule a call with us today.