“But I’m a small business”, you say. “I don’t need a CRM, I can manage my clients easily on my own.”

When you’re just starting in business, it’s easy to pass on the client relationship manager (CRM). When you only have a handful of clients, you can easily keep track of them with folders on your desktop or in your calendar. Is that sustainable, though?

Sophisticated Consumers

Many clients tell me that they document their details in financial software – after all, they invoice their clients to receive payment, so everyone is entered and accounted for. It makes sense. I encourage you to consider the average consumer. They deal with a daily bombardment of advertisements and sales. They’re more distracted than ever, which means, once you’ve obtained them, retention is difficult. Once you secure a client, the focus needs to be on establishing and maintaining strong relationships with them.

Can your financial software nurture relationships with your clients? Possibly, depending on how many clients you have and what software you’re using. However, for most of us, the answer is a resounding NO!

Creating relationships with your clients takes work and extends far beyond the actual point of sale or service provided. CRM (client relationship manager) software is an extremely powerful tool in this regard. It manages every aspect of the client lifecycle! Here are a few things that a CRM system does:

• Collect, store, manage, and analyze client contact information (ie – contact management across multiple systems. Provides a single view of each client!)
• Track client interactions and sales processes (pipeline monitoring)
• Automate elements of the sales process and outreach (scheduling/reminders, email marketing/promotional campaigns, lead generation)
• Central storage area for quotes, proposals, and other documents
• Visualize and track sales data through reporting and analytics. Tracks success measures, the efficiency of the sales pipeline, and closed deals. Allows for forecasting and other key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Provides customer service and support, strengthening the client journey and enhancing retention

5 Reasons You Need a Client Relationship Manager (CRM) as a Small Business Owner/Solopreneur:

1. Organize your contacts to allow for multiple points of entry (LinkedIn, networking groups, Instagram, emails, business cards, etc.)
2. Personalize and elevate your client experience allowing for the creation of a strong and repeatable sales process. Parts of this process can (and should) be automated!
3. Generate reports allowing for the monitoring of sales activity, trends, and behavioral patterns. This allows you to identify problems before they become big problems, and also improve your sales process!
4. Save time. One word – AUTOMATION!
5. Increased revenue. Tracking your sales activities and improving the client experience allows for repeatable business and an increase in the bottom line.

Finding the best CRM for your business requires a bit of experimentation. Once you see the benefit of retention and the return on the time and money invested, it’s typically a no-brainer.

Need help setting up your client relationship manager? Need to fully invest in and utilize the one you already have? You’re in luck! Jump up to the contact me tab above and send me a message! I’d love to help.