By Have you been thinking about new customer relationship management (CRM) software for your agency? If so, you’re not alone. Almost 60 percent of business owners see CRM as the most valuable technology they can invest in (Finances Online). As a result of the benefits of CRM, this software is one of the fastest-growing areas of investment.
What do hundreds of agencies say about the challenges they face and how to solve them? Download the insights report “Challenges agencies face” to find out.
You might still wonder if a sales CRM is right for your agency. These five benefits of CRM make the case—investing in CRM is one of the best things you can do.
1. Clients want personalized experiences—and it’s one of the top benefits of CRM
Let’s start by looking at what your clients want from your digital agency. Close to 75 percent of customers say experience matters to them (PWC). More than that, today’s customer wants a personalized experience.
What does that mean for your agency? You should aim to deliver an outstanding experience your prospects and clients can’t get anywhere else.
How does better CRM deliver the personalized experiences your customers crave? Better reporting, more accurate data, and sharper insights make it easier to deliver what the prospect needs.
In short, your team can better support the customer anywhere on the buying journey. Your team can follow up with hot leads at the right moment with the right information.
This ability to better connect with your prospects and clients lets your team build better relationships. They know when the client was last contacted, as well as what content they’re interacting with. In turn, they know what others have already sent to them—and what the client might need to see next.
Better relationships = higher client retention
Better CRM usually translates to better relationship building with your clients. When you deliver a better experience, your clients are more likely to stick with you for the long haul. As a result, the benefits of CRM usually translate into higher customer retention rates.
Clients want to stick with the businesses they already know and trust, and the connecrtions created thanks to the use of a CRM makes them feel like part of your community.
Satisfied clients are often more profitable for your business, too. They're also more likely to refer their colleagues, who are more likely to convert.
2. Financial benefits of CRM
We’ve just discussed that using a CRM can deliver a better experience for your clients and improve your retention rate. In turn, this leads to financial benefits of CRM. You get to keep your most valuable clients. They’re more likely to be fanatics, who recommend your business to other people they know.
One reason you may not have adopted that new CRM tool, though, is the cost. Even if you keep your customers, will your investment in CRM pay off? Will you see enough benefits of CRM to make the cost of software worth it?
The answer is a resounding “yes.” Generally speaking, companies make almost $9 for every $1 they spend on CRM tools (MarTech Zone).
Client retention and satisfaction is a big part of that. So is getting the right message to the customer at the right time.
How will you benefit financially from a CRM? There are four main ways:
- The benefits of CRM extend to your team’s ability to close, which can boost both sales and revenue.
- Further, it can also lead to reductions in the sales cycle, which means your team takes less time to close a deal.
- You can also reduce lead costs—which means each new client costs you less to acquire.
- CRM also improves your team’s ability to cross-sell and upsell. Happy customers tend to buy more, making your current customers more valuable.
3. Benefits of CRM for your team
Investing in a CRM boosts your team’s ability to close, which is good news for your bottom line. It’s also good news for your salespeople, who are much more likely to hit their quotas.
That, in turn, can improve employee satisfaction. You might even see lower turnover, which has its own financial benefits.
The benefits of CRM go beyond your sales team, though. The right CRM tool can help all employees, across departments, with administrative tasks. Data entry, for example, takes up an enormous amount of time for most sales teams. The right CRM platform can reduce the amount of time your team spends on entering data. In turn, their productivity will increase.
Sales CRMs often connect with a wealth of tools, like scheduling apps and automation. Automating email responses and making it easier to schedule demos can improve productivity.
Lead scoring and other tools can help your team decide which prospects to focus on at any given time. In turn, your team can ensure they’re putting their effort in when and where it’s most needed.
4. Improve communication across the board
An investment in a CRM for digital agencies usually improves communication as well. Better communication, especially between sales and marketing, can also grow your revenue. It also increases productivity and efficiency.
Better communication can extend to your client relationships as well. Your team reaches out to prospects at the right time. They also send the right messages, which means clients are more likely to respond. Even offering a valuable insight—thanks to better data analytics—can kick off a productive conversation.
The right sales CRM platform can align more than sales and marketing, though. Some platforms enable integration with a billing platform. Your customer service team may be integrated as well. In turn, your finance team can connect with your sales team instantly. In this way, CRM results in more accurate data entry, reduced errors, and smoother handoff between sales and the finance team. That makes moving from closing the deal to sending invoices seamless.
5. Grow your agency with CRM data
An investment in CRM means building better relationships with your clients. Better tools give you access to more data, so you can learn to deliver exactly what those customers need.
Once you have that data, you can also uncover trends in your market. Is there an area that your team excels at serving? Maybe you have quite a few veterinarians on your list, or you might be a favorite for all the automotive shops in town.
With that insight, you can focus on serving those customers better. You can also discover smarter ways to grow. If your team knows the automotive industry inside out, you could look at related industries. Right now, you’re helping most of the local repair shops. What about automotive dealerships or insurance agencies? These are adjacent industries that you might be able to serve.
You might also think about other repair services. Are there other businesses that offer repair services that make sense for you to serve? What you’ve learned from your mechanic clients could translate to helping an appliance repair service. It might even work for a computer or electronics repair shop.
This data can also help you decide which industries you don’t want to serve.
This knowledge can help you decide on the right way to grow your agency. It can also help you spot weaknesses or gaps and look to correct them. In short, better CRM not only helps you know your customers—it helps you find them too.
Make the most of the benefits of CRM
As demonstrated, CRM has plenty of benefits for digital agencies. If you’re thinking about investing in a new platform, the first step is to do some research. There are many sales CRM tools, but not all come with the features you need and want.
With the right tools, you can deepen your relationship with your clients—and grow your agency the smart way.
