THINK YOU’RE TOO SMALL FOR CRM? THINK AGAIN

Customer relationship management solutions are essential for—and accessible to—growth-oriented small and midsize businesses.

Many small and midsize business (SMB) owners struggle to make the most efficient use of their time and focus on activities that return the highest value to their companies. A recent Salesforce survey found that two-thirds of small business leaders are personally responsible for three or more areas of their businesses, ranging from sales to finance to customer support. At the same time, they spend 23 percent of their workdays on manual data input— more than a full day every week! It’s a recipe for disaster that a customer relationship management (CRM) system can easily help avert. Ironically, awareness levels around CRM’s benefits are high among small business owners, but adoption rates remain low. “One reason is that some SMB owners find the prospect of implementing CRM intimidating,” says Karrie Sullivan, a principal in Culminate Strategy Group. “They often lack access to technology expertise and resources.”

In fact, the Salesforce study found most SMBs don’t have even a single information technology (IT) specialist on staff. “So while most small business leaders understand that technology can make their lives easier, they simply don’t have time to vet and implement technology projects,” says Marie Rosecrans, Senior Vice President of SMB Marketing at Salesforce. “But there’s a huge opportunity for them to use the right CRM technology to focus on three critical processes: finding customers, selling to them effectively, and keeping them for the long term.”

ENHANCED CUSTOMER VIEW CREATES OPPORTUNITIES

Those three points are at the heart of sustainability—and growth—for any business. To focus on them effectively, SMBs must be able to consolidate all their customer information in a single place. “Bringing your data together lets you understand your customers better, so you can develop closer relationships with them and turn them into loyalists and advocates for the long term,” Rosecrans says. “It also provides the kind of reporting you need to take your business to the next level.”

An estimated 40 percent of small businesses still use informal methods like spreadsheets, email, and even sticky notes to store customer data. Because such methods are disparate and lack connectivity, SMBs using them are not able to provide a rich, consistent customer experience. They end up paying a steep price in lost productivity and missed opportunities. Many recognize that technology can help solve those problems, but they’re concerned about cost and the ease of setup, use, and maintenance.

Salesforce recently launched a small business offering designed to address all those issues. “Salesforce Essentials is geared to CRM first-timers and focused on bringing all their customer data into one place, making sales and service processes vastly more efficient,” Rosecrans says. “Setup and onboarding are super simple, and we’re providing a fun, interactive training experience through Trailhead, our online learning environment, which is free to everyone. Salesforce Essentials is built on the same underlying platform as that used by Amazon and Coca-Cola, both of which are Salesforce customers, so you can be assured that you can grow without worries.”

With affordable, easy-to-use CRM systems that are easy to learn and implement, SMBs have a ready solution to take back their time while improving customer experiences.