How to make an Effective and Efficient CRM Plan

Saphyte Team

4 min read

Updated: February 12th, 2021

“Plans are useless, but planning is everything”, a quote by Dwight Eisenhower.

Whether you’re starting your small business or you’ve been in your industry for a while, when you set out a journey, you should always have a clear plan. With a clear plan, all you need to do is just walk down the path.

This may sound like an easy concept; however, reality says otherwise. Most of your plans are rendered useless just about as soon as they are put into motion. So, in order to prepare with your planning, you need the perfect tool to partner with it.

The best tool to make your planning more effective is a customer relationship management (CRM) software. But, how can you make an effective and efficient CRM plan? Before jumping on the gun, here is why you should have a CRM plan plotted out for your business.  

What is a CRM Plan?

Before diving into the whole process of writing your own CRM plan, you also need to understand what a CRM plan is. A customer relationship management plan is a key component of running your business relationships on a day-to-day basis. The plan describes how your sales team should deal with potential customers and provides a strategy for developing customer relationships and customer retention.

A CRM strategy plan involves a detailed list of actions you and your team will make at every customer touchpoint. It also involves other strategies to improve customer service, marketing campaigns, customer satisfaction, and customer experience.

How to Write a Bullet-Proof CRM Plan for your Business

Writing a CRM plan can be a painstakingly long process, but it’s all worth it. So, here are some tips on how you can write your own CRM strategy for your business.

Set up a project team for cross-business buy-in

User adoption, or the ability to adapt to the CRM software, is vital for success. Build your own project team that starts at the top alongside board-level management support and filters through to the teams on the ground.

Make sure that the team you set is cross-departmental that can easily go through your sales, marketing, support, and admin.

Define your CRM vision

A business without a vision has no business walking down a path. Identify your own CRM system goals. What you want to happen and how you want it to happen.

The moment you’ve identified these, set high-level goals that will act as your standard for the project. Then work out how you can measure and quantify the success of these goals.

Prioritize and map your CRM objectives

Take a phased approach. You can start with quick wins, rather than trying to put everything at once. Remember, haste always lays waste.

Some of your objectives will be more important than others. So, prioritize your objective according to its importance and map out your whole sales process.

Make sure your plans and objectives are realistic, in terms of budget, human, and financial resources.  Make sure that you can deliver on your objectives within your own designated time-frame. Adjust if there’s a need for adjustment.

CRM data capture for tracking purposes and data quality

Define the areas you need to track for each CRM record so you can hit your CRM objectives. This might include working out what type of fields and what type of customer information will be used. Make sure that you can set a mandatory standard to ensure consistent data quality.

Prepare your data for migration to your new CRM system

Don’t avoid or underrate this stage or else everything will go down south. You need to work out the resources need to consolidate and prepare for migration.

Again, not all of your current data needs to be migrated to the CRM technology of your choosing. So, write a standard and make sure that you’ve done a thorough data cleansing.

Identify the risks to your CRM migration

Work out the factors that might threaten the success of your CRM migration. How significant are these factors and what you can do to avoid them? Risks are always inevitable. So it entirely makes sense to prepare as possible for when things go wrong.

Find a CRM System that fits with your Business

CRM tools are one of the most marketed software in the market. This won’t come as a surprise as it is a very useful technology for businesses.

When it comes to choosing the best CRM, there are plenty of factors to consider. However, in your search for the right CRM software, you may want to consider Saphyte as one of your options.

Saphyte is more than your ordinary contact management tool. This software can enable you to streamline your sales, marketing, and corporate activities and put them into a single platform.

Saphyte is built to make everything convenient for your business. Built with features designed and made to make sales and marketing easier, as well as make things smooth and seamless for people with administrative roles. Here are some of the best features of Saphyte

Flawless and Seamless Data Storage

Everything about a business starts with data. Saphyte CRM has contact management tools that can provide you and your team with a centralized and secure storage where you can save an enormous amount of vital customer data.

With Saphyte, you can gather customer information from your landing pages or incorporate them on your website through Form Builders. Or you can integrate your social media platforms to the system to obtain additional customer info for better lead gathering.

Saphyte also has tools like Sync and Saphyte Scan, where you can also excerpt data from different channels (LinkedIn profiles or physical business cards).  This allows you to keep your data collection flawless and seamless, and make data management easier for your business.

Once you have all your data in a secured place, your team can have direct access to relevant information that initiates the execution of your marketing, sales, and lead generation strategies.

Close more deals

Saphyte’s Client Management modules has features that allow you to save your contact’s details and manage all customer information in one repository. All without having to leave the platform, and with less scrolling time too.

The Client Management feature has tools like Categorization, Status, and Updates. This feature allows its users to conveniently organize and label their data and group their leads accordingly. Saphyte also has a definite Sales pipeline that is every sales manager’s dream. You can set up the stages of your sales tailored to your business processes.

Saphyte also has other tools where you can score your leads, organize contact information, jot down notes, manage daily tasks, generate reports, and nurture important business relationships.

Workflows that flows within your process

With Saphyte, you can automate email marketing materials distribution on a schedule that works around your sales cycle. Saphyte’s workflow can be convenient and beneficial if you want to create interactive awareness and initial contact with your targeted list.

These intelligent workflows can also be easily implemented within your business processes. Users won’t have to worry about technology adoption. With Saphyte’s Workflow user-friendly interface, all you have to do is drag and drop elements, click and connect the nodes and elements into your workflow sheet, and build your email process flawlessly.

Data Analysis on the Fly

Data shouldn’t be placed in a vacuum and simply storing it won’t be enough. Saphyte can gather customer information and analyze them with its Sales intelligence tools to generate insights.

With Saphyte’s customizable dashboard, you can have a short and accurate view of the metrics that matters to you. From your campaigns, sales, and other projects, to keep you up-to-date and on the loop. This feature feeds you and your team with valuable and real-time information that allows you to successfully implement your CRM plan and strategies.

Subscription Fees that Fits with your Budget

Saphyte is a pay-as-you-go SaaS cloud-based CRM. There won’t be a need to install the software to a PC and you don’t have to go to the office to have access to the CRM. All you need is a Saphyte account, a good browser, and a reliable Internet connection.

Each subscription plan is inclusive of free demo and one-on-one product training. No set-up fees, no extra or hidden charges, no maintenance fees, and a 24/7 expert customer support availability.

Make your CRM plan effective and efficient with Saphyte today by booking a demo with us or starting your free trial now.