With changing times, manufacturers look for new ways to do business and stay ahead of their competitors. The evolution of technology is happening at a rapid pace and competing with outdated technologies can prove disadvantageous for a business. Digital transformation, adoption of modern technologies, and automating business processes not only improve the efficiency and productivity of a company but also help in identifying and overcoming different challenges faced by the manufacturing industry.
What is CRM?
Customer Resource Management or CRM software is aimed at simplifying various tasks so that the efforts of the sales team are concentrated on lead generation and conversion. With the use of CRM, they can actively track and manage customer information and store it on a single platform. It can be easily integrated into any existing ecosystem and used to grow the business by finding more leads, closing more deals, and keeping customers happy.
While the use of technology can optimize and simplify business operations, it is important to choose solutions that will benefit the organization in the long run. Using different management software for different processes can end up costing more money than they save. Choosing a reliable CRM solution empowers organizations and provides opportunities to avail better outcomes.
Benefits of Salesforce CRM
Salesforce CRM is a widely used solution across different industries and provides detailed insight about customer information, inventory management, order processing, distribution chains, warehouses, and operations. It also keeps track of customer activity and preferences. This data is essential in making effective business decisions that will help in generating more revenue. Some of the major benefits of a successful Salesforce CRM implementation are:
Enhanced Customer Experience
In any business, keeping the customers happy is essential for generating increased sales and revenue. Just fulfilling the demand of customers is not enough as they expect a smooth buying process and prompt after-sales service as well. Inconsistent details about the product, late response to queries, and inefficient handling of grievances not only jeopardize new customer acquisition but can also steer existing customers to stop doing business with the company. Having a good relationship with customers not only drives business forward but also helps in customer retention, quick response, and improving the overall customer experience. Integration with Salesforce CRM helps customer-centric businesses to better serve their users and fulfill their demands. Employees have access to relevant data at their fingertips enabling them to respond to any query swiftly and help customers with service, pricing, warranty, or other product-related details.
Improved Inventory Management and Planning
A single platform for managing product inventory, pricing, billing, and other such functions increases the work efficiency of the manufacturing industry. Salesforce CRM is capable of keeping track of the inventory present in warehouses or with distributors, movement of the product, expiry date, storage regulations, and other essential product information. It can also keep track of customer preferences, their likes and dislikes, past buying behavior, and more to gauge which products are most likely to sell. Integration with Salesforce eases business operations and creates a streamlined workflow for inventory analysis, invoice generation, currency conversion, product pricing, and more. It also connects the distributors, dealers, channel partners, and other teams through a single dashboard.
Increased Sales and Revenue
No matter what the company or industry, product sales are the primary source of revenue. Traditional processes require a lot of manual efforts that are tedious, time-consuming, costly, and prone to errors. Sales representatives have to handle large spreadsheets filled with data about a customer through different stages of the sales cycle which ends up occupying most of their time. Salesforce CRM eliminates the need for monotonous manual work and the employees can focus on converting the lead to order. Right from the first step of identifying leads, Salesforce allows the team to accumulate information in a central location. Everyone has access to this data and a better profile of the lead is created to fabricate a custom solution for them. Transparency in the sales pipeline enables the sales team to make accurate sales quotes to customers and complete more orders, thus generating more revenue. CRM solutions improve the efficiency of the sales team by reducing the time consumed and unnecessary errors.
Expansion to New Horizons
Stagnation is the opposite of progress and never helps a growing company. While business from existing customers might be good, expanding the reach and catering to new clients and demographics is a good strategy. Having a robust CRM system in place will assist in this venture and make it easier to collaborate with a different set of customers or pitch different products. Salesforce CRM is equipped to prequalify leads, target prospects, track the sales cycle, manage communications, and share data among teams. It makes the business process more efficient, improves productivity, and can be integrated with 3rd party software without much difficulty.
Salesforce CRM is cloud-based, making it easily accessible from anywhere and straightforward to use. Application is delivered over the Internet, eradicating the need for any dedicated hardware or software requirement. It can be used from any web browser and is capable of scaling as per business needs.
Conventional sales approach are inefficient as it has a lower conversion rate of efforts put in and the results obtained. Manufacturers are realizing the importance of CRM solutions in a typical sales cycle and the benefits it possesses. Transforming to a CRM software like Salesforce enhances customer interaction at every stage and is becoming the driving force for organizations to market, sell and provide service like never before.