Dust off the Cobwebs: 8 Signs You Need a New CRM

Relationships are likely central to many of your company’s growth initiatives and goals, and with very valid and rooted reasons. To secure continual profits, you must be able to attract a steady stream of new customers. CRM software is a very popular business solution to best manage current and prospective customers and clients.

You must also be able to successfully and personally manage relationships with customers, clients, and partners if you want to meet all of your business goals each week, month, or year.

As your business grows though, these relationship management activities also become much more robust. During previous growth spurts, you’ve probably realized the need for a powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and implemented the solution that made the most sense at that moment.

Here are eight key signs that now is the perfect time to implement a new CRM system to keep pace with your business needs and growth.

Even if you’ve been using a CRM system for years in your company, a clear signal that it may be time to upgrade is that you and your teams are still doing many relationship management tasks manually each day.

This need typically makes itself apparent in the efficiency and productivity of your relationship management team members. If you notice a drop in your team’s effectiveness as your company grows, you can ask your team members for feedback to identify what tasks are taking up the bulk of their time each day. Using this information, you can ascertain if a new CRM system will help ease the strain of manual work your employees are doing and help them focus more time and effort on taking care of customers.

There are always natural ebbs and flows within sales growth cycles within any company, but if you notice that your business is constantly falling short of your sales goals and having trouble executing key initiatives, then it may be time to check that your CRM technology is still serving you effectively.

If your CRM system is a couple of years old, then looking into the latest innovations and features offered by top CRM providers today can help you gain insight into the tools that you can use to begin exceeding your goals once more. Remember, technology is always improving to help manage your business better. 

Leads are an integral part of growth for most companies, and if your lead pool is seemingly running dry despite an otherwise effective sales team, then you may have a relationship management problem. If you are not keeping track of your leads efficiently and maintaining contact while they are warm and interested in your products or services, then bringing new business into your company can become a frustrating and costly struggle.

An effective and powerful CRM platform allows you to track leads from numerous sources, and even automate communications to those people as you move them along in your customer conversion cycles. This means that you can convert more interested leads much more effectively and grow your customer base more easily if you have the right technology and people in place.

If you previously invested in an onsite CRM solution and are struggling to keep up with the hardware storage and maintenance costs, then you may be using much more of your budget than you’d like to spend. Fortunately, there are many extremely secure and value-packed, cloud-based CRM options on the market now that are becoming increasingly popular for business use due to cost-effectiveness and usability. Be sure to go for a new CRM system that will feature the same features as your existing CRM system to ensure an easy transition. 

Customer loyalty can help to propel a company forward to success very quickly. However, if you are unable to maintain long-term customer relationships, then you’ll probably face many challenges and struggles in growing and scaling your company. If you’ve noticed that your churn rate has increased, then a new CRM system could be the solution to help you more effectively manage relationships, communications, and follow-ups that are vital to securing loyal, happy customers.

In addition to loyal customers, your company also needs to cultivate a strong relationship with partners and clients. If you have noticed that your current CRM system is not serving you as well anymore, and your teams are struggling to make deadlines and keep communication flowing effectively, then you could certainly benefit from an upgraded CRM system.

Great communication is vital to a successful business, both internally and externally. An effective CRM solution can help your teams keep track of all their communications as well as the tasks and follow-ups that come from important internal or external meetings. Leading CRM tools are designed to help facilitate and organize your business communications and help you profit from all your business dealings.

If your company relies on a remote workforce or has key members who travel often, then it is very important that your CRM system is easily accessible through remote access.

If your CRM is hard to use or limits tools and features from remote access, then you could be missing out on growth opportunities. There are a variety of CRM providers who offer cloud-based solutions as well as apps that make accessing your CRM easy and effective through a simple internet connection.

Much like your business strategies and tactics, your technological tools must also grow and evolve right along with your business. This means that you could very well outgrow your existing CRM tools and system as you scale your company, and it is important to recognize the signals that it is time to upgrade to the best CRM software for your company.