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Why CRM is Critical for Small Businesses...

Written by: Carol Smock

Article Overview: Small business owners face challenges with why it is important to implement a CRM strategy. The basic reason is simple - the business retains more cusotmers. But the long-term reason is to position the business in a position to purchase CRM technology, which helps save money and increase revenue at the same time. This article looks at the reasons for a small business to get started today.

Why CRM is Critical for Small Businesses...

Customer Relationship Management - sometimes called Customer Retention Management, Client Relationship Management - it doesn't matter what the acronym stands for, it means the same thing - managing the relationships your business has with its customers/clients. Let's take a look at the Top 10 Reasons to Manage Customer Relationships.

10. You don't have to work as hard to sell a customer who has already bought from you. Implementing a communication strategy that reminds the customer to spend their money with you is easy, and not necessarily costly. Email, blogging, interactive communications on your website, YouTube videos, phone calls - just a short list of ways to stay in touch with with your customers that don't have to put your business in the poor-house.

9. Customers who are satisfied with your product or service tell their friends, neighbors and colleagues to spend their money with you. A referral program is essential to any business and is as easy as providing a good product, great service and never forgetting your customers are the key to your success.

8. A loyal customer continues to "buy" from your business. Customers aren't just loyal because you are a nice guy or gal. They develop loyalty by believing in your business. And, your business has work to do to prove that it is worth of that trust.

7. When they continue to spend, your profit margin improves. Acquiring new customers can be very expensive, leaving your profit margin a little thin. Focus on encouraging continued purchases by existing customers explodes your profit margin.

6. Selling to existing customers decreases the amount you have to spend on Acquiring New Business (Advertising, Marketing, etc.). Most businesses use dollars normally allocated to Advertising to start their retention efforts. After the first year, these efforts will fund themselves.

5. It's more fun when your business is a "community"! And, Starbucks proved it's what our new generations crave...

4. You develop products and services that fit the needs of your customers which translates to high returns on investment (ROI). Capturing the behaviors of your customers allows you to "learn" what to offer.

3. Your employees enjoy their job more and stay longer because less "cold-calling" is necessary. Oh, how happy those non-sales employees will be when they can generate the company money by talking to those who already like the business.

2. You can consider expansion realistically with a strong and loyal customer-base. Business are worth more to investors (banks and venture capitalists) when you can demonstrate a strong and loyal customer-base. The deployment and measurement of CRM as a strategy builds the validation needed to fund technology.

And the number 1 reason to manage customer relationships...

It is waaaaay easier, far less expensive and much more fun to go to work every day when you are talking to people who truly support your passion (business)! It's the cheapest "happy pill" you'll ever have to buy...

Ask yourself a few questions:
1. Do you like making cold-calls?
2. Do you like hearing "no" more than "yes"?
3. Do you want to make more money than you spend each year?
4. Are you serious about your business?

Most people don't like to cold-call, and definitely don't like to hear "no" more than "yes". And everyone I've ever talked to is serious about their business and certainly wants to make more money than they spend... if these things are true, then why doesn't every business have CRM already in place?

CRM is a fairly new buzzword in the small business arena. It really geared up in 2000 when CRM software became affordable to the average sized business. Most businesses think CRM is software and often write off implementation because they don't have the money in the budget to make a capital purchase.

Well, it's not ideal to deploy CRM without technology, but if you take the time to develop and execute a manual CRM strategy, you will find yourself with increases in revenue that help you make the technology purchase. This, I can nearly guarantee. I have yet to see a business fail or lose money from implementing a CRM Strategy, manual or automated.

What I have seen are consistent annual revenue increases of 10-30% or more, depending upon how aggressive the CRM Strategy is and the type of industry in which it's deployed. So, what are you waiting for - create a CRM strategy today!

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Article Tags: acronym, advertising marketing, business advertising, business customers, client relationship management, communication strategy, customer relationship management, customer relationships, customer retention management, existing customers, interactive communications, loyal customer, management client, new generations, nice guy, profit margin, referral program, retention efforts, starbucks, youtube videos



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