December 8, 2022

CRM Sales Management: A Beginner’s Guide to CRM Software

Reading time about 7 min

This guide will walk you through CRM sales management tools and how they can help grow your business. 🚀

Customer relationship management (CRM) is key to winning over customers and driving sales. Whether you’re a sales manager or small business owner, CRM software is good to have in your toolbox. 🧰 

With CRM, meet business goals and build stronger customer relationships. CRM also encourages teamwork and keeps your sales force on task.

Want to learn more? This beginner guide will introduce you to CRM sales management and its main benefits.

What Is CRM Sales Management?

CRM sales management is how you manage customer interactions across the sales cycle. This includes the processes, actions, and technologies used to acquire and retain customers. The main goals of CRM are to nurture customer relationships and drive profitability. 📈

CRM also helps sales team members with pipeline management. Through CRM tools, you can better understand where leads stand in the sales funnel.

That’s because CRM platforms let you visualize the full customer journey, from lead generation to customer retention. This helps with forecasting and streamlining sales activities.

What Is a CRM System?

A CRM system is the software used to simplify CRM business processes. People often say the term “CRM” to refer to the tool for tracking deals and customer interactions. 💻

When juggling several contacts and team members, it’s easy to lose sight of key information. CRM apps keep all the info you need in one place, from customer data to sales leads.

crm sales management example 1

Manage your deals, contacts, and companies in Brevo (ex Sendinblue)’s Sales CRM

A good CRM sales management tool centralizes your key business processes. Companies use CRM to streamline their sales activities on one platform. CRM also lets you store customer information and coordinate sales reps’ workflows.

With CRM tools, spend less time updating information on different spreadsheets. Keep records of your interactions with potential customers. Assign tasks to members of your sales force. And manage your deal pipeline in a few clicks.

CRM also helps with contact segmentation. Assign contacts to different deals and owners. Sort records into customizable categories and deal stages (new, qualifying, demo).

crm sales management example 2

Brevo (ex Sendinblue)’s Sales CRM helps keep track of all the deals in your pipeline

What Is a Sales CRM?

A sales CRM is a tool that lets companies manage customer relationships over the sales cycle.

In the prospecting stage, CRM helps with finding prospects and lead scoring. From there, CRM acts as a central database for contact management.

Sales CRM also plays an important role in the pitching and closing stages. Reps use CRM to schedule demos, send reminders to gather client signatures, and more. 

After closing, Sales CRM tools come in handy. Companies use CRM to manage cross-selling or upselling opportunities.

Types of sales CRMs

There are three main types of sales CRMs. Read on to learn more and find the best sales CRM for your team.

  • Operational: The main goal of operational CRMs is to streamline business processes. Use it to record customer interactions, score leads, and set up sales or marketing automation.
  • Analytical: Analytical CRMs analyze customer data and uncover trends in customer behavior and other insights. This helps you make smarter decisions.
  • Collaborative: With collaborative CRMs, different teams can work on sales together,. sharing up-to-date information across channels. Collaborative CRMs are mainly aimed at customer service.

What Is CRM Used for in Marketing?

Many CRM features include marketing functionalities, like email automation software. ⚙️

Use CRM tools to track customer journeys and manage marketing campaigns. Need to target your marketing efforts? CRM systems are great for personalization.

That’s because they gather customer information, from marketing preferences to purchase history. These metrics help optimize marketing campaigns and build stronger customer relationships.

Brevo (ex Sendinblue)’s Sales CRM solution centralizes sales and marketing workflows on one platform. Try the Sales CRM for unlimited contact management, task allocation, appointment scheduling, and more.

Key Benefits of CRM Sales Management Systems

The best CRM systems encourage collaboration and help companies meet their business goals. Read on to learn more about the main CRM benefits.

Drive sales

Use CRM solutions to drive sales and collect valuable contact information. This includes past customer interactions over email, phone calls, and chatbot

From there, pull insights from customer data. CRM lets you identify easy wins and boost profitability. With CRM tools, increase sales by as much as 29%. 💰

CRM systems also improve visibility. Let all team members see the deals in the sales pipeline. From there, prioritize leads based on the highest interest. That way, you’re less likely to miss out on a lucrative sales opportunity.

Boost efficiency

CRM sales management tools help increase efficiency. In fact, CRM software can boost process efficiency by 73%

Use CRM to track each sales rep’s activities. CRM software lets you prioritize leads and assign tasks (deadlines, to-dos). 📋 From there, focus on the sales opportunities with the most revenue impact.

CRM solutions also simplify all processes related to customer relationship management. This frees up your schedule to optimize sales opportunities and follow-up with leads. That way, your team can devote more effort to closing deals. 🤝

Automate workflows

CRM automation saves you valuable time and effort. With CRM, spend less energy on lead management and sales processing. ⏲️

Automate repetitive tasks, like sending follow-up emails and scheduling meetings. Many CRM tools let you trigger workflows at different steps in the sales pipeline.

Encourage collaboration

CRM systems make it easy for your entire company to work together. Bring your sales, marketing, and customer service teams onto a single platform. 📍

With CRM, everyone has up-to-date information on previous interactions and communication history. This helps your team better understand customer journeys and build stronger relationships.

Improve the customer experience

Boost customer satisfaction with a CRM sales management system. Record your communication across channels. Discover your customers’ needs based on their social media interactions and purchase history. 🛒

CRM also helps with customer retention. Make it easy for customers to resolve issues without repeating the same information. Be sure to save customer complaints in the CRM system. If the customer contacts you again, the next representative will be prepared to act.

Further reading: 8 Best CRM Software Examples for Small Business

Get Started With CRM Sales Management in Brevo (ex Sendinblue)

Sign up for a CRM sales management software and grow your business. Brevo (ex Sendinblue)’s Sales CRM simplifies how you track customer interactions. 

Use it to monitor your sales pipeline and assign tasks. Customize the pipeline to fit your business needs. The easy-to-use interface is perfect for CRM newbies.

With Brevo (ex Sendinblue), manage sales processes and marketing automation under one roof. Use our all-in-one platform to send email marketing campaigns and schedule client meetings. 📅

The best part? All Sales CRM features are 100% free.

Drive sales with Brevo (ex Sendinblue)

Sign up for free to get unlimited contacts, deal pipeline management, meeting scheduling, and core email marketing features.

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