Quick reminder: what is a CRM?
CRM is the acronym for "Customer Relationship Management".
In short, a CRM is a tool that helps manage customer relationships.
It is generally accessible to the Marketing and Sales teams of a company and is presented in the form of a database that has a role of centralizing the data necessary for the sales strategy.
The main objective of a CRM? Increase sales and improve user and customer experience 💡
91% of companies with more than 100 employees use a CRM. So it's a key tool in a prospecting strategy.
Features of a CRM
Each CRM has its own dedicated features and can be adapted to different company sizes and sectors.
Some general features that you will find in a CRM :
- Customer/user relationship management: thanks to the sales tunnels, you will be able to know at a glance the status of your exchanges with your leads and prospects. They will be classified directly by category: cold / hot prospects / customers.
- Centralization of data related to all your customers, prospects and users: your CRM collects and gathers most of the data useful for your prospecting. (Names, telephone and email addresses, position held, profiles on social networks, etc.)
- Reports: Most CRMs offer reports in the form of dashboards or excel/csv files to enable you to visualize the performance of the campaigns implemented at a glance.
- Task automation: some tasks can be automated directly in your CRM (enrich your database automatically with Dropcontact, send email campaigns to new imported contacts, keep your data up to date, etc.) by setting up workflows on Zapier, n8n or Make.
Benefits of a CRM
Using a CRM has certain advantages for your company:
- Centralization and accessibility of the database: all team members have access to the same information;
- Automate the tasks of the Sales and Marketing teams (alert on follow-ups to be made, keep the status of the lead up to date, etc.);
- Optimize productivity to focus on sales and have more time to do so;
- Improve customer relations: thanks to the belly tunnels, your CRM allows you to adapt your contact according to the status of the lead
- Optimize productivity to focus on sales and have more time to do so;
- Improve customer relations: your CRM allows you to adapt your contact according to the status of your lead, detect inactives and follow up on acquired customers to retain them;
- Save time: all interactions with your leads and customers are recorded and presented in the form of a dashboard. You will no longer waste time searching for your prospects' information. In addition, the CRM ensures a good understanding of the behavior of your leads and customers thanks to a follow-up of the interactions by period (monthly, weekly, etc.)
- Better know the needs and the behavior of your leads and prospects to improve your sales
- Know your customer to adapt your product/service and increase their retention.
To learn more about CRMs and their use, find out in detail what a CRM is and which one to choose for your business.
New CRM trends in 2024
CRM usage has been evolving since its inception, new practices, features and technological advancements have resulted in the emergence of new trends.
We reveal the 2024 trends that will take your CRM to the next level 🚀
Artificial Intelligence and CRM
Understanding the behaviors and needs of your target audience is essential to the success of your sales and marketing strategy. For this purpose, CRMs are now using artificial intelligence.
AI acts in particular via the collection of information on the behavior of customers to allow you to develop the best marketing strategies, and especially adapted to your target. The data collected will include the location of the purchase, the type of product purchased or the reasons for purchase. By taking this data into account, it becomes easier to develop and adapt your sales strategy based on real facts and in real time.
And AI doesn't stop there, as predictions for 2024 are optimistic about the evolution of artificial intelligence in CRM. It could in the future be able to precisely analyze certain factors...
Anticipation and prediction of contact behavior directly in CRM
Some CRMs are already using AI to analyze customer data and make predictions about prospect behavior.
For others, the implementation of AI is underway. One of the major benefits of integrating AI into your CRM is the speed of data analysis.
For example, Salesforce has already launched its AI-based virtual assistant called "Einstein". Einstein is integrated directly into the CRM of Salesforce users and is able to generate additional information about leads and prospects based on previous interactions with them. Einstein makes predictions about which leads are most likely to convert, based on data collection and behavioral analysis.
Finally, the assistant identifies customer buying opportunities and offers product recommendations to meet those needs.
And that's not all, the AI-based CRM market is expected to reach $73 billion by the end of 2024... To be continued.
Support and chatbots: CRM allies
The rise of AI has also led to the appearance of chatbots, present on a large majority of platforms. This is notably due to the rise of self-service: a principle according to which the user has more autonomy in obtaining answers to his questions.
This process is all the more useful because once the chatbot is set up, it saves a lot of time for the platform that has set it up, while facilitating the user's experience, who will get his answers more quickly, and without going through a third person.
According to Statista, this market will continue to grow over time and estimates that the size of the chatbot market will reach $1.25 billion by 2025.
HubSpot offers an autonomous chatbot that guides the user to the maximum. The bot queries the user and provides a personalized response based on the data collected.
Although chatbots may have limitations in terms of knowledge, a large part of common user queries can be solved within minutes. A support team is still needed to answer the most difficult questions.
The rise of CRM integrations
What is a CRM integration?
Some CRMs want to improve their services by offering third-party integrations with other platforms. These integrations allow you to customize your CRM according to your needs and thus have a CRM that best suits YOU.
A native integration is a third-party tool that integrates directly into your CRM. For example, it is no longer necessary to export or import data because the integration does it for you. In addition, some features can be fully automated.
Why use a CRM integration?
These integrations address several issues users may face when using their CRM.
These include:
- Duplicate merge: say goodbye to duplicate, triplicate or even more contacts in your CRM! A tool like Dedupely identifies and merges duplicates directly into Pipedrive, Hubspot and Salesforce!
- Email verification: to ensure the validity of emails in your database, some tools allow you to verify email addresses in real time. For example, ZeroBounce is natively integrated in HubSpot and Zoho CRM; and DeBounce is natively integrated in HubSpot.
- Data enrichment: complete the data already in your database with Dropcontact and Email Finder tools! You will be able to enrich your database with emails, business phone numbers or company information, directly in your CRM!
Note that Dropcontact addresses these 3 issues (and more! ) by integrating natively with HubSpot, Pipedrive and Salesforce to enrich, verify, validate and update your database in real time 💚
Dropcontact works thanks to algorithms that generate your contacts' information for you, which makes it a 100% RGPD compliant solution 💪
With just the first name, last name, website (or failing that, the company name) or even with just the LinkedIn profile... , the algorithms generate the email addresses and all the useful information of your prospects to boost your CRM and your prospecting 🚀
By simply connecting your Dropcontact API key in one of these 3 CRMs, updating, cleaning, enriching and verifying your data is done in real time, continuously, and with each added contact.
Integrate Dropcontact into my CRM
Want to see more CRM integrations? Check out our Top 15 integrations updated in 2024!
The emergence of new types of CRM
To adapt to new uses, several types of "new" CRM have appeared.
For example, we can mention the Social CRM linked to social networks and the Mobile CRM adapted to mobile devices.
Social CRM
Social CRM refers to the integration of social networks directly into CRM's.
It has become essential to develop relationships with customers and to maintain a good brand image. This is why social networks are part of the major channels of interaction with the community. In addition, it becomes easier to interact quickly and in a more friendly way via social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Maintaining a close relationship with prospects and customers can also be beneficial for the brand, as users may be more inclined to give feedback or make suggestions for product improvement.
Mobile CRM
The rise of new technologies and the advent of smartphones have led professionals to review their work methods.
Indeed, the numerous trips that employees can make have led to the need to be able to access their professional data everywhere, all the time. This need has led to the creation of "mobile CRM".
As the name implies, mobile CRM means that CRM systems are now available on mobile devices, so that you can always have your leads under control. In addition, the interface of these CRMs must be easy and intuitive enough to allow its use for the largest number of people.
By 2024, many mobile CRMs should be born, and this, on a wide variety of screen sizes and operating systems. However, this new trend will have to be controlled, especially in terms of security, as mobile devices are even more at risk and exposed to various hacks. And considering the importance and confidentiality of corporate data, it is recommended to be careful to avoid their leakage, for your sake, and that of your company!
