This 2021 is a challenge for SMEs and large companies that aim to implement the best CRM in the market. The task is not easy. A total of 450 customer management tools and a key question that CEOs, CIOs, or sales managers repeat: What is the best CRM for my company? The alternatives? The definitive answer will set the course for the corporation and will be the starting point of an exciting journey of digital transformation.
For this reason, we want to transmit all the necessary knowledge so that you choose the best CRM software for your company. Don’t worry; to be sure, it is not strictly necessary to try the 450 solutions currently around the world. Keep reading, with a little help you will make the best decision!
You already know what a CRM is, what its advantages are and the basic benefits. However, you have been looking for the best solution for a long time, that software truly unites the team for a common goal, to sell more and better. But not by magic, but because you have made the right decision taking into account the following characteristics of the best CRMs:
The best CRMs of 2021: functionalities and features
Adapt to different teams and company profiles
First and foremost: the tool must be adapted to different teams and company profiles. Although it may seem basic, we can find CRMs in the market that are perfectly adapted to sales teams and processes. Still, nevertheless, they are not prepared to provide the necessary information to technical teams in charge of installing, for example, a service.
Why is this functionality so important? That the system allows creating different types of users with access to specific functionalities and ways of interacting with different information allows giving a correct response to the customer throughout the customer journey. And not only is it the basic pillar of the customer experience, but it is also the basic pillar of productivity and time management. It is not about looking for data but about processing it correctly to receive the exact information at the right time.
Process automation
The priority for CEOs and CMOs: the automation of sales, customer service, or loyalty processes, from prospecting to closing sales. Geolocation, activity reporting by voice or notification of the next task are basic functionalities for day-to-day business. The tool must become the impetus to get to the next phase of the sale.
Here simplicity is the winner. Anyone who starts using the mobile application or the web platform has, in a short time, to work perfectly with the tool. If your team spends more time reporting calls, visits, or tasks, the software puts more impediments than facilities. Do not delay in looking for a solution!
Real-time analysis
The real-time. This buzzword is true in CRM? Just as the activity report and communication with the client must flow, the analysis obtained must be in real-time. It is useless to see how the sales of a product have fallen three months after that fall occurred. That is why it is so important that the reports provide real-time data, are immediately accessible from any device, and adapt to different profiles.
A CRM linked to an ERP
Can a CRM, in turn, be ERP? Payments and collections. If you work with a CRM, on the one hand, and an ERP, on the other, you are paying for two tools when there are systems on the market that combine the best of a CRM with the functionalities of an ERP. Here also comes the automation of processes. Seeks that the system sends invoices to the client at the correct time and makes the necessary payments.
The best ally of marketing
A tool to empower marketing? The CRM systems that exist in the market are usually the best commercial tool, and the marketing departments have to support them in their sales process. But this department is no longer what it was. Digital strategies prevail, and to streamline the management of leads that arrive from websites, online stores, or different campaigns, those leads or contacts must be automatically registered in the tool and reach the consultant who will accompany the client in the purchase process.
Artificial intelligence to predict all events
Artificial intelligence, is it reality or a thing of the future? Predicting events such as the impacts necessary to close a sale, customer preferences, or the sales of a certain product are functionalities of CRMs that begin to incorporate AI into their system. The best CRMs only incorporate this functionality on the market.
Adapt to any company
Be scalable. If your business is not static, why should the central tool be? It must be designed to adapt to the processes of any company and sector. From a multinational to an SME. And you must do it without great effort, in a way as quickly and easily as possible. The company should never be the one that adapts to some processes previously set in the tool.
The best of the best CRMs: the winner for years
Analysts at G2 Crowd, a software comparator based on the independent opinions of various users, have concluded for another year that Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the best CRM.
What are the best CRMs for my company? The final decision.
- An easy-to-use, intuitive CRM program in Spanish. For traditional teams that use this system for the first time, it is of utmost importance that they start working with it without great effort.
Leaving the spreadsheets aside is not an easy task, but if you love the tool, you will forget that excel existed before.
- Opt for the company in which the tool is not only marketed but also develops. In this way, the consultants will adapt the tool to the business processes correctly. In addition, the support team will know all its functionalities perfectly to help you, not only in the implementation process but also during necessary future developments.
- Companies need a platform that transforms with the business without having to rethink the entire system. That adapts without great effort to a specific sector that is evolving. In addition, that it does so together with the needs of the different departments and profiles involved in the entire customer journey.
Put aside the prevailing multi-channel approach today, towards an omnichannel approach in which it is straightforward to give the correct and fast response to the customer. In this sense, integration with the tools involved in the process must be simple, without great effort.
All this information would be if it didn’t help to increase your sales — because the objective should always be to sell more. Of course, you want to sell better than your competition. Are you ready to choose the best CRM system for 2021?
Center Image Credit: from author; thank you!
Top Image Credit: anna shvets; pexels; thank you!
