Is it possible to manage a business without a CRM

You probably heard somewhere that it’s useful, and it could improve your company’s performance. But maybe you are still asking yourself – what is a CRM and how can it help your business. Don’t worry, we did research for you. We asked certified CRM experts to share their opinion if it’s worth to adopt CRM management system, especially if we talk about small businesses. The discussion took place at the “Freelancing and CRM development” webinar ran by SoftwareSupp team.

Carla Rodriguez | Pipedrive Expert | Automation | Onboarding training | Lead generation

Divya Sundaraju | Zoho CRM Admin​ /​ Zoho Apps Specialist

What is a CRM and how does it work?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a cloud-based tool, system or software, that helps to organize and manage the communication processes between your company and customers. It accumulates all client’s activities in one place, what makes it easier to analyze it and make improvements if they’re needed. It gathers data such like: e-mails, social media interactions, phone calls, web browsing.

We can compare a CRM to the big, smart warehouse, but instead of physical products, it stores every past and current information about customers, their preferences and questions along with the notes and goals established by the company. On the market, there are various CRM software products and platforms providing key features that your business need. They usually give the opportunity to:

• manage contacts and leads you gathered
• track emails and integrate with Gmail and Microsoft Outlook
• forecast sales and estimate the income
• handle internal communication smoothly
• get analytics on easy-to-use, clear dashboard

Is it possible to manage a business without a CRM

#1 Digitalization gives the advantage 

Nowadays, it’s impossible to not put into your business any technology at all. Not only medium and big companies need it. Even if you are running a small business, if you want to compete, you need to digitalize it. At least a little at the beginning.

“Now you have LinkedIn, you have all your contacts talking on social media and different communities that are digital. So the source of your business is also digital. And from that point you need to start digitalizing and automating. It’s not possible anymore to not have even one tool that works”. – Carla Rodriguez, Hubspot & Pipedrive CRM partner

#2 Business needs and a budget first

You don’t have to start using all available tools at once. First, think of your goals and budget, then try to find tools that respond to your needs the best.

“The important thing is which tool you need and for that you need to define your processes, business needs and a budget. You’re not going to go, for example, for a HubSpot or a Salesforce if you need something smaller”. – Carla Rodriguez, Hubspot & Pipedrive CRM partner

#3 Focus on KPI’s instead of wasting resources 

If you’re at the beginning of developing your small business, and you think that you don’t need a CRM, that’s okay. You know your capabilities the best. But you need to know that CRM is for sure helpful, and it’s considered a must-have for most companies. Your biggest resource is time, and time equals money. By using the CRM, instead of wasting it, you can focus on how to reach your key business objectives.

“At certain times, a business doesn’t need a CRM, but that will be for a very short time. A conversion from a hot lead to a warm lead, the time frame itself, is a change of lead. So in that scenario, for a sales person to handle a lead with proper follow-ups, a CRM would manage it. With Excel Sheets, they might not be able to respond to a reminder, or they would even forget to set up a reminder to reach out to that particular customer”. – Divya Sundaraju, Zoho CRM Admin

#4 Don’t miss opportunities

CRM is still growing, and it has a huge product development. It depends a lot on new technologies entering the market, trends, customer’s changing needs and behavior etc. CRM can support the business with easier processes, like lead generation and e-mail automation, or more complex mechanisms (e.g., management of interaction history and escalations). If you feel your business can grow more, don't miss the chance. CRM might help you to save the time in certain areas while you focus on advancement and new goals.

"When the business is going to look out for the CRM, it's good to engage with the CRM expert, so they can give them the right inputs. That's when the business is going to make the right decisions, because some applications might be too much or too little for them". – Divya Sundaraju, Zoho CRM Admin

Hear what certified CRM experts say