The successful managers use a CRM system, the rest don’t.

"There is only one boss - the customer.

And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down,

simply by spending his money somewhere else."

Sam Walton

The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are becoming more and more widely used and helpful for business, even though some managers still rely on archaic methods such as writing things down in notebooks and collecting business cards. But the people who want to be successful managers don't delude themselves that this would happen without the implementation of a CRM system.

To explain more clearly what a CRM system is, we will start by saying what it is not.

So, what is not a CRM?

Very often some random databases are mistaken for CRM systems. But not every customer-related list is such a system.

The CRM system is not:

•   a customer information database;
•   a means of tracking the vendors;
•   an archive of the communication with customers
•   a means of achieving an automatic increase in the company's sales
•   a way to achieve an automatic increase of the effectiveness of your marketing team

The CRM system is not a panacea, which would help your business without any effort on your part. On the contrary, the work that needs to be done for you to be successful will not just go away.

What is a CRM system?

It's time to present the essence of the CRM system.

Its a system for managing the relationship between the company and its current and potential customers. It is used to organize, automate and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support.

The CRM system is:

• a database of customers, partners, markets, and products – this is the most valuable information of every company; the data is collected here and could be sorted according to certain criteria;
• a means of managing the commercial processes – it gives the option of determining what is being done in the marketing department and the sales department, who is most suitable for the different functions and tasks, what documents should be used; it gives the option of setting up efficiency indicators for each process and each member of the team, which then could be used for measuring purposes;
•  a means of efficient conduct of marketing campaigns – email marketing, sending of newsletters and notifications, event management, conducting of marketing surveys online;
• a means of managing the company sales - offer forms, product catalogs which include product specifications, an aggregation of the rules and goals of the vendors, tracking the entire written communication with the client (inquiry, offer, negotiations, sale);
• a way of tracking the efficiency of the marketing and the sales – easier tracking of the marketing campaigns, their results, and the discovery of leads; analysis of vendors' work; how could the profit be increased?

Why should you use a CRM system in your business? See the beginning of this text! The customer is the boss of all employees. The customer is the most thing. That's why we have to know him and understand him. We have to sell him what he wants…or what we want. Before he "sells" us his reason for not buying, we must've sold our product to him already. The competition is fierce, but you could have an advantage – the CRM system of your company. Use this advantage.

How much does a CRM system cost?

The prices of CRM systems vary – it depends on the decisions of their developers and distributors. Compositys CRM is totally free for the first 14 days! You can start using it right away.