The competition is extremely fierce when it comes to CRMs—in fact, more than 500 CRMs are listed on sites like G2 Crowd and Capterra.
But here’s the thing: Despite the number of CRM options available to businesses, only a handful of CRM companies have consistently achieved brand recognition, word-of-mouth publicity, and sales.
So why do organizations choose one CRM over all the others? The answer is simple: CRM offers a product with capabilities that businesses cannot ignore.
If you’re looking to invest in a CRM, these are the three things your CRM of choice *really* needs to have—things that will empower your sales team to win.
Let’s look at them:
1. Ease of Use
Did you know that 72 percent of sales executives would trade functionality for greater ease of use when it comes to CRMs?
Yes, you read that right!
(That’s an important stat for CRM companies to remember, too.)
Surprisingly, ease of use isn’t a top priority for businesses shopping for a CRM. Don’t get us wrong—while companies may say they want an easy-to-use CRM, they often chase the CRMs with the most flashy features instead of focusing on the basic element of usability, which is crucial for their sales teams.
In an IBM survey, ease of use was rated as the most important CRM feature by 65 percent of sales teams.
That’s why we believe ease of use is one of the primary characteristics to look for when choosing a CRM.
(Did you know that you can get set up and running with Close CRM in minutes and start emailing and calling your leads? Try it free for yourself!)
But how can you tell whether a CRM is easy to use before you buy? Here are a few things to look for that will contribute to easing of use in the long run:
1. Intuitive UI: When evaluating tech tools, is there anything more powerful than UI? We think not. UI isn’t just about how the product looks; it's also about how it feels.
A clunky UI will hinder your sales reps from using the tool as much as you’d like them to. Nobody likes wrestling with a tool that’s not intuitive or crashes all the time, and you can’t afford to have leads falling through the cracks.
That’s why the CRM of your choice should adhere to the basics of UI design and be designed in a way that’s valuable, accessible, intentional, intuitive, invisible, and beautiful.
2. Superior integrations: A good CRM offers superior integration capabilities, letting information move seamlessly. Integration ensures that information is easily available for those who need it—in this case, your sales reps.
Sales teams using Close can seamlessly integrate with other awesome communication, prospecting, and analysis tools, which helps them make sense of the lead—where the leads come from and how they need to act on them.
Taking a demo or signing up for a free trial will help you evaluate the abovementioned factors. But before you seal the deal, do invest time in checking the below-mentioned factors as well:
3. Quick learning curve: CRMs with a quick learning curve are preferred, and this speaks volumes about the tool's effectiveness.
It’s a basic ask...
The ones that are too technical to understand lead to a lot of wasted time and impact the productivity of your sales team.
So, the best way to ensure that you haven’t signed up for a product with a complicated setup and a tedious learning curve is by speaking with peers in the industry and evaluating the lengths that the support team goes to provide you with a stellar experience.
“The Close team has been a helpful resource to our team. As we leverage Close to manage our pipeline, they’ve worked closely with us to understand our business and ensure we get the most out of the CRM. Their expertise in Smart View optimization has offered clearer insights into lead funnel and faster follow-up. Further, their knowledge in integrating other tools through Zapier has brought great value to our team.” - Amanda Mullet, Sales Operations Manager, HomeLight
“The Close team has been extremely helpful. I regularly email them to ask for insights into how to best approach a process within the capabilities of the Close CRM. They’re always on point with their insights, quick to respond and very helpful in every ask. The support we receive is a big part of why we have decided to stay with Close, a true differentiator.” - Mojan Butler, CoPilot
“The Close team have really gotten to know our business. I don't have to get them up to speed on what we do, just the particular issue we are trying to solve. If you've got business challenges in your sales organization that you are thinking through (and really, who doesn't!), these guys excel in understanding what you want to accomplish and proposing effective solutions.” - J.T. Allen, President and CEO, myFootpath
Always ensure that you use a CRM that helps you focus less on setting it up and more on the important bit—sales.
2. Ability to Deep Dive into Data
To achieve their sales targets, any sales team should be able to see what’s working for them and what’s not. And there’s only one way to know that: through data.
A report published by Nucleus Research found that data accessibility for salespeople is critical to shortening the sales cycle, on average, by 8-14 percent and, therefore, a key feature.
CRMs with smart reporting tools help sales teams see if they’re making enough calls, whether there are enough leads available for sales reps to act upon, how many emails were sent, how many leads were converted, and so on.
How does this analysis tie in with a team’s growth?
Data analysis helps sales teams make informed decisions, improve efficiency and productivity, and drive the company toward success. The CRM you choose should be able to give you fruitful insights into your sales team's productivity, pipeline, and performance.
At Close, we’ve recently revamped our activity overview report and added a new activity comparison report that shows amazing data points in real-time.
Here’s how the reports work:
Remember, without an inbuilt data reporting tool, your CRM simply documents things. This is a wasted opportunity to see the bigger picture and one you should avoid.
3. One-Stop Solution
Effective sales organizations are 81 percent more likely to practice consistently using a CRM or other system of record. (source: Aberdeen Group)
If we go by the statistics mentioned above, it’s clear that to be effective at sales, most companies tend to stay hooked on CRM for a long time. That’s why CRM must offer a one-stop solution to your sales team.
So, what are a few features/pointers essential for a sales team to make the most of their sales CRM? Here’s a quick list:
- Allows you to manage your workflows
- Provides you with enough insights to stay on top of your pipeline
- Lets you track every touchpoint with your leads
- Offers efficient in-built tools such as two-way email syncing, email sequences, in-built calling, built-in SMS, predictive dialers, and powerful search
A good sales CRM will provide you with the best features and continuously upgrade existing ones.
Think of it like this: A CRM that doesn’t evolve with the needs of your sales team isn’t going to be of much value at some point. At Close, we are extremely aware of this problem, and that’s why we strive really hard to deliver the best offering to our customers.
Why the Right CRM Makes All the Difference
With many choices available today, picking the right CRM—the one that empowers your sales team, can be difficult...we get it.
Most companies spend a lot of time scrutinizing sales CRM features when they need to know only three things—how easy and effective the CRM is, whether it offers a one-stop solution to the sales team, and whether it allows for a deep dive into the data.
What type of sales CRM do you plan to invest in? Does it tick all the checkboxes mentioned in this article? Let us know in your comments below.
Not a Close user yet? See how much our CRM, with built-in calling, emailing, texting, and powerful reporting, helps you take your sales productivity to the next level. Start your free trial.
