How a Sales Department can Use CRM to Improve Its Operations
A CRM system can help the sales department improve its operations through its sales management, contact management, and opportunity management features.
With the sales management feature, every phase of the sales process is automated, enabling the sales representatives to better organize and coordinate all their accounts. It also includes other features that would help sales representatives generate documents, get reminders for important tasks, and create multimedia presentations. Similarly, the CRM system stores and tracks customer information along with information on each customer’s transactions. This enables sales representatives to provide customers with personalized service, which makes the customers feel more valued. Finally, the opportunity management feature of a CRM system enables sales representatives to identify new or potential customers. It enables support representative to develop their sales strategies, which includes considerations of schedules and budgets. It can also provide the sales representative with information on the probability of a sale, which helps the sales representatives to further qualify potential customers.
How a Marketing Department can Use CRM to Improve Its Operations
Marketing departments can improve their operations through a CRM system by using it to gather and analyze information about their customers, which they can use as basis for launching successful marketing campaigns. In particular, the three main CRM features that will benefit marketing departments are the list generator; the campaign management feature; and the feature that enables the company to upsell or cross-sell to a customer.
The list generator enables the marketing department to gather customer information from various media, such as marketing mailers, surveys, questionnaires, and websites. By obtaining information on the customers’ demographics and preferences, the marketing department is able to determine the type of customers it should target for a particular marketing campaign. In the same regard, a CRM system can help a company’s marketing department manage its campaigns by providing the users with features for defining, segmenting, planning, and scheduling a campaign. The CRM also allows the users to analyze the success of a campaign. Lastly, the CRM system allows the company to offer customers with products that are related to those that the customer purchased; thereby increasing the company’s sales.
How ERP can Help a Business
An ERP system can help a business by integrating all of the data within the organization, that is, from the various departments within the organization. By having access to the integrated data, employees, especially the members of the management team, are better able to make decisions. In addition, an ERP system ensures that data across the organization is consistent, that is, that a change made in one department is reflected across the organization. It also ensures that the business processes are followed. For example, when making a requisition, the user first enters the request for the requisition after which the system routes the request to the manager who will approve it. Only upon approval is the order for the requisition placed. This ensures that the approval stage is not bypassed; thereby ensuring the integrity and legitimacy of all business operations.
It also promotes accuracy and efficiency in the business operations.
In addition, ERP systems have components that enable the business to better manage its core functions, such as its accounting, production and materials management, and human resource management functions. As well, the ERP system can have additional components, such as business intelligence, customer relationship management, supply chain management, and ebusiness ERP components that allow the organization to better integrate its various functions, whether internal or external.
