CRM itself is worth nothing without the goals you want to achieve with it.
One of the most common mistakes business owners make is thinking a CRM system will automatically solve all the problems. But implementing a CRM tool is not a solution in itself.
Instead, the CRM strategy and clear objectives you set for your business with the help of CRM will solve your pain points.
This article will help to understand how CRM corresponds to your primary business goals, as well as the top four CRM goals and objectives to achieve when using the software.
Why do you need to set CRM goals?
CRM goals provide you and your team direction and focus. Defined goals are a must to ensure that everyone is working towards the same objectives and using the CRM system effectively.
It's crucial because in order to get the most out of your CRM you have to get your team on the same page. After all, CRM is a customer-centric approach where your teams make unified and strategical efforts to improve customer experience andM satisfaction.
Moreover, CRM goals help to you to tack progress and measure the impact of your CRM efforts. Our advice is to use clear metrics to quantify achievements and identify areas to improve.
Clearly defined goals motivate teams to utilize the CRM system consistently. Seeing progress towards these goals gives motivation. Effective CRM goals should be tied to customer-centric objectives like improved customer satisfaction, increased sales conversion rates, or reduced churn.
The goal of having CRM objectives laid out is to drive better customer experiences and, ultimately, bring you a positive return on investment (ROI).
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What is a CRM strategy?
A CRM strategy is a company-wide plan that outlines how your business will leverage a CRM system to achieve specific goals related to customer relationships. It's essentially a roadmap that guides how you'll use technology, processes, and people to improve customer interactions, drive sales, and ultimately boost your bottom line.
An effective CRM strategy includes multiple touchpoints to target customers and lead your potential prospects through the sales pipeline. CRM strategy can include these touchpoints:
- Online shopping
- Email sign-up form
- Social media platforms
- Live customer service chat
The goal of these CRM touchpoints is to direct potential customers toward making a purchase. CRM is crucial here because it feeds your teams with all the relevant data and insights of customer interactions that help you to close more deals faster and with less effort.
CRM gives you a unified 360-degree view of your current and future customers, and a well-designed CRM strategy will guide you through the steps to achieve your ultimate CRM goals.
4 top CRM goals for your business
The primary goal of any CRM is to enhance customer experience. The logic is simple - if your customers are satisfied with the sales experience, you will see sales increase.
But to get the most out of your CRM, you must set measurable goals that are tailored to your business strategy. The 4 most important CRM goals to implement are:
- Improve business efficiency
- Grow your customer base
- Increase customer retention
- Improve the performance of your teams
4 CRM priority goals: a closer look
1. CRM goal: improve business efficiency
CRM software eliminates manual day-to-day tasks by automating them and organizing customer data in an easily accessible and comprehensive way.
Thanks to your CRM, you can identify your customers' demographics, interests, pain points, as well as the stage of their purchase cycle and if they're ready to be pushed into making a purchase. This data can include both individual and group customer profiles.
CRM can also increase the speed at which your team addresses customer inquiries and solve their problems. This lead to greater efficiency and make your customers more satisfied, and likely to to repeat the purchase or refer you to friends.
2. CRM goal: grow your customer base
A CRM platform not only manages your current customers, it helps to keep in contact with prospects that are likely to convert.
Many CRMs facilitate the capture of leads from various sources (website forms, social media, LinkedIn, etc.) and help qualify them based on pre-defined criteria. This ensures you focus your efforts on high-potential leads most likely to convert into customers.
Moreover, CRMs visualize the sales pipeline, allowing you to track lead progress, prioritize opportunities, and manage sales activities effectively. Looking at the behavioral patterns of your leads can help you predict what signals indicate a purchase is imminent – whether it be a visit to a specific webpage, the opening of an email, or attendance at a webinar or other virtual event.
CRMs provide a centralized view of customer data, including preferences and past interactions. This empowers sales reps to personalize their communication and tailor their approach to each lead, increasing the chance of conversion.
And lastly, a CRM tool will help you to funnel your new converts into a system so that you can keep in touch and make your service and product fresh in their mind.
3. CRM Goal: increase customer retention
The buyer's journey is key to the overall customer experience. Mapping out your current buyer's journey will reveal new opportunities for improvement. This is especially relevant to the stages where the journey hands off in between teams, such as marketing to sales and sales to customer success, that otherwise usually remain invisible.
Moreover, CRMs allow you to identify customer trends and potential issues. You can then use this information to proactively reach out to customers, address concerns before they escalate, and strengthen relationships.
By analyzing customer data and purchase history, CRMs can help identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities. This allows you to recommend relevant products or services that add value to existing customers, increasing their lifetime value.
4. CRM goal: improve the performance of your teams
For sales teams, CRM simplifies lead management and prioritizes and nurtures potential customers. It does so while automating mundane tasks to focus on closing deals. CRM platform also allows for customizing sales strategies through in-depth customer data analysis and enhances collaboration across departments.
CRMs also aid in monitoring sales performance, providing valuable feedback for improvement and goal setting.
When it comes to your customer support team, CRM systems consolidate customer information for quick, personalized service and streamline the resolution process for customer inquiries.
CRM tools enable proactive engagement to prevent issues and integrate multiple communication channels for a unified customer experience. By collecting customer feedback, CRMs help refine customer service approaches.
10 signs that show you achieved CRM goals:
Here are ten most important indications that show you successfully achieved your CRM objectives:
- Shorter sales cycle and effective buyer's journey
- Improved operational efficiency in all departments (sales, customer support, marketing, etc.)
- Improved customer retention and decreased churn
- Reduction in CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
- Higher total revenue
- More conversions and more total transactions
- Increased customer lifetime value and increased average deal size
- Faster support resolution times
- New opportunities identified (new customer segments, upselling possibilities, new marketing channels, etc.)
- Meeting or exceeding your targets
How do you set an effective CRM goal?
The most effective CRM goal is then one you can measure. There's no secret about it. Your CRM objective will be a success if you select a specific goal with a deadline, measure metrics, and lay out action plans.
Our advice is to implement the SMART approach when setting a goal:
- Specific: What exactly will you accomplish? What actions will you take?
- Measurable: What data will you use to measure this goal?
- Achievable: How realistic is this goal? Do you have the resources you need to accomplish it?
- Relevant: Why does this goal matter? How does it fit in with your broader business objectives?
- Timely: When will you reach this goal?
By incorporating these SMART criteria into your goal setting, you create clear, actionable objectives that increase your chances of success. SMART goals provide direction, focus, and a way to measure progress, making them valuable tools for various endeavors.
This table shows how an effective CRM goal based on SMART criteria looks in practice:
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CRM goal examples
The CRM goals you set for your business should be specifically tailored to your growth and sales strategy, as well as your business's pain points. Ideally, your objectives should follow SMART approach as explained earlier.
In addition, your CRM goals can be tied to the type of CRM you're using. Depending on what software you implemented, you may expect outcomes in slightly different areas.
For example, the operational CRM goals can be:
- Increase sales rep productivity by 15% within 6 months. The goal could be measured by the number of calls made, emails sent, or deals closed per rep.
- Reduce the sales cycle by 10% in the next year. Track the average time it takes to move leads through the sales pipeline.
- Improve lead qualification rate by 20% in the next quarter. Ensure your CRM helps identify high-quality leads most likely to convert.
- Enhance customer service resolution rates by 10% by the end of the year. (Track the percentage of customer inquiries resolved on the first contact.)
If you're using analytical CRM, your goals could be:
- Improve customer segmentation accuracy by 15% in the next quarter. Ensure your CRM effectively groups customers with similar characteristics for targeted marketing.
- Identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities for 10% more customers within the next 6 months. Use customer data to personalize product recommendations.
- Reduce customer churn rate by 5% by the end of the year. Identify at-risk customers and develop strategies to retain them.
Collaborative CRM Goals:
If you have implemented collaborative CRM, your goals could be:
- Reduce internal communication gaps by 10% in the next 6 months. Measure the efficiency of communication and information sharing within the CRM system.
- Increase cross-departmental collaboration on customer cases by 15% within the next quarter. Track the number of cases involving collaboration between sales, marketing, and customer service teams.)
- Improve first-call resolution rate by 20% by the end of the year. Empower customer service reps with easy access to customer data and interaction history for faster issue resolution.
- Shorten lead response time by one business day in the next quarter. Track how quickly leads are contacted and nurtured by sales reps after initial interaction.
Key Takeaways
Ideally, your CRM goal should be SMART (Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based.)
The best CRM objectives are the ones you can measure. Make sure your goals are tangible and specific and involve metrics.
Depending on the CRM platform you use, the focus of your objectives can vary slightly. Some CRM will help you improve customer resolution rate, enhance internal communication gaps, reduce customer churn or reduce sales cycle.
Make sure you have a clear target set for each of your CRM goals before working on actions.
Overall, whatever your goal is with implementing a CRM system, it will be inevitably tied to customer experience and satisfaction.
When you customers are happy with the smooth and pleasant sales experience they had, you will see increase in sales and revenue.
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