How to Implement CRM in Your Business: A Guide to the Main Stages

 

Let’s start by understanding CRM in plain language once more. You probably already know the definition — a customer relationship management system — but what does that actually mean in practice?

Here’s a personal example. Sometimes when I need flowers, I go to the nearest flower shop. The quality is always good, the prices work for me, and it’s nearby. From what I’ve seen, three or four florists work there; one of them recognizes me and may give a discount on the shifts when I shop most often. But they can’t systematically support my loyalty — only I and that one florist know about it. What if they open a new location or start delivering flowers? How would I find out? I wouldn’t. And they can’t really measure my loyalty, because they have no accounting system, automation, or similar tools. 

Very often people use chat threads, messengers, Google Sheets, and Excel instead of CRM — and early on that is flexible and convenient. But when the order flow grows, the team gets larger, work needs to be distributed, records kept, and access controlled, CRM steps in. 
So CRM is software that lets you conveniently track orders, leads, and clients, register deals, and manage the operational side of the business. That makes it possible to introduce a loyalty system — promo codes, bonuses, discounts for regular buyers — and strengthen brand appeal and customer loyalty. 

One of the most common CRM tools is the funnel: columns for the stages of your sales funnel, and cards that each represent an existing or potential deal. You can read more about sales funnels in the article What is a sales funnel?
A manager’s main job in CRM is to make sure cards (deals) move toward closing (a sale). For example, a potential customer asks in your social media whether an item is in stock — that is already a lead, because there is potential interest in buying. The manager’s task is to use various techniques so that lead becomes an order as soon as possible and brings the company revenue. 

Imagine having every customer’s stats in front of you. You would know that your favorite client hasn’t bought anything for a month and needs a promo code. Or you could run a giveaway among top buyers. There are countless use cases — and all of them help build a better relationship between the brand and the customer. 

Besides the lead funnel, datalizeCRM also has an order management board. Similar to leads, it moves each order from “new” through payment and closing. Imagine how convenient it is when a warehouse clerk immediately gets a pick task for an order just placed on the site, and a courier gets the delivery job. Closed orders then feed statistics for further analysis. 

datalizeCRM opens up a lot of room for sales analysis. You can see which product categories sell best, which days perform better, pick the most profitable products, and much more. 


That is by no means the full list of benefits from implementing CRM — but finding the right fit only comes from studying your specific business cases and choosing the automation paths that improve efficiency for your company.