This article was originally published on Tenfold’s Blog

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has been around a long time, yet its presence in the market continues to expand. According to a Gartner report (as summarized by TechEye), 2014 CRM revenues increased 13% from 2013.

The reason that eCRM Solution has increased in popularity is simple: it works. Companies are making more money by integrating CRM into their phones and computer systems. Here are three reasons why CRM is so effective in boosting inside sales:

1. Data Entry for Call Logging No Longer Drains Staff Time

Effective CRM eliminates the need for data entry — especially the manual entering of call logs. A good CRM will automatically log your calls and link each call log to the correct contact. This can free up time for your employees to type in quick notes in the CRM’s profile for that contact instead of worrying about maintaining call logs. This, of course, will reduce the busy work of employees and allow them to do more product work — like make more calls!

2. Easier, More Personalized Follow-Up

The click-to-dial ease of CRM and the all-in-one-place consolidation of customer profiles can make follow-up easier. Employees can see the streamlined comfort of the CRM structure as a motivational factor to reach out with more initiative and consistency.

Examiner.com provides an example. When you send quotes to large amounts of customers (or even moderate amounts) it can be cumbersome to keep track of who needs follow-up. If even just one quote doesn’t get a follow-up, this can be a missed opportunity, as Examiner.com explains: “Many of those quotes can turn into sales simply by calling the customer or emailing them as a result of the organizational system of the CRM. Opportunities that could have been lost has been addressed and turned into sales.”

And while we’re on the topic of follow-ups, here’s a crucial tip to help you improve in your follow-up effectiveness: always have a reason that you’re calling, and always state that reason in the beginning.

As SalesHacker.com wrote: “I am on a personal crusade to get ‘touching base’ and ‘checking in’ out of the vocabulary of sales professionals. [Those phrases] mean there is no reason for your call so there is no reason for me to speak with you.”

3. Powerful Analytics Help You Refine Your Strategy

In addition, a comprehensive CRM system can benefit your company the way an MRI machine benefits a patient. With its analytics, CRM can give companies a detailed, big picture overview of the health of the company’s sales team. Companies can pinpoint calls that fail and use the detailed information and context of each call to diagnose what went wrong.

The analytics in Tenfold’s CRM take your inbound and outbound call data and summarize it for you in a graph that shows the number of calls that took place to and from each sales lead over a length of time that you set.

Companies can also use CRM to view when their sales people make their calls and appointments and how long each call and appointment lasts. This provides crucial information that will show you where employees need to improve. Tenfold’s analytics graph can also rank your agents in helpful categories such as highest number of inbound calls or outbound calls.

The Importance of an Easy-to-Use CRM Interface

CRM can have many features, but if the interface is burdensome, every time an employee uses their CRM, it will feel like a chore instead of a blessing that makes life easier.

It’s crucial to have a CRM that integrates everything — from activities and notes to call history and analytics — and then organizes it for you in an easy-to-grasp, smoothly flowing interface.

Tenfold’s CRM is feature-rich, but it also has a wonderfully smooth interface. Contact us to learn more about CRM solutions that can help you boost inside sales.