A Complete Guide To CRM For Individuals

If you’re on your own, it’s crucial that you get things done at a minimum amount of time and effort spent.

When managing relations, you’ll want to spend your time talking to people over keeping your CRM updated. Traditional CRM tools will make you achieve the exact opposite of that. You’ll end up doing the work for the CRM, having to spend tons of time and energy to keep everything up-to-date.

Instead of facilitating relationship building, you’ll be kept away from prospects. You’ll be logging calls, updating contacts, attaching emails plus other mindless admin work humans are not meant to be doing. Try to find a CRM that doesn’t need your help to help you. One that automates tedious admin tasks and keeps itself up-to-date.

What Is A CRM System?

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system helps manage customer data. It supports sales management, delivers actionable insights, integrates with social media and facilitates team communication. Cloud-based CRM systems offer complete mobility and access to an ecosystem of bespoke apps.

Why Do You Need A CRM For Individuals?

If you’re an entrepreneur, your business relies on your ability to connect with prospects and clients, and do it over the phone. Traditional CRM systems do the opposite of that. They make you dial in long conversations to update contact details and connect the dots on certain activities that took place. The sales cycle is lengthened as a result of this.

How Can You avoid that?

There’s a couple of things you can do to have an easier time:

Understand the nature of your client base. Who they are? What businesses do they run and what they’re good at. How can you be good at addressing their needs? Spend more time in connecting with them personally. Don’t use email as your main line of communication. Pick up the phone. Follow a straightforward CRM system. One that helps you manage your relationships and promises to stay up-to-date without asking you to do the grunt work.

What Sort Of Attributes Should A Good CRM Have?

Reasonably priced
Dependable
On-demand
Simple
Cloud-based
Simple
Simple is the winner here.

If you like your life simple, you’ll love CRMs. There’s no hosted software, integrations or any other such complexities. Use it over your phone, tablet or computer and forget about it the minute you’re done.

Your CRM Should Be Available From Wherever You Are.

Let’s face it: you’ve got your iPhone, your Android or your computer. You’re getting all the emails. You’re a naturalised Instapaper user. So why can’t your CRM help you out wherever you are?

Simple as that; just install an app and you’re ready to go.

Cloud-Based

A cloud-based CRM tool is birthed of the internet. It’s a web-based service you can log in to anywhere, from any device, and manage your customers. It reduces costs of IT maintenance and upgrades to zero. It frees you up to think bigger.

Dependable

A good CRM is consistent, user-friendly and hassle-free. There are no bugs. There’s no need to constantly update it. All you have to do is setup and forget about it.

Taking Actionable Insights

It’s not just about knowing what’s going on with your clients and contacts. It’s about what you do with that information. A good CRM helps you keep track of, or even take, action on the relationship building and relationship management.

A Few Built-In Features

Custom Fields: You need as many custom fields as you think you need. Forget having to tell your clients to add in information on your sales forms. Do it yourself. You’ll never miss a detail again. You can use your CRM to remind you of things you need to tell them.

You need as many custom fields as you think you need. Forget having to tell your clients to add in information on your sales forms. Do it yourself. You’ll never miss a detail again. You can use your CRM to remind you of things you need to tell them. Tasks – You can assign tasks via your CRM to your team members. They can then check-in on things they’ve done.

You can assign tasks via your CRM to your team members. They can then check-in on things they’ve done. Relationships chart – At some point, you’ll want to figure out how you’re connected to your contact list. What level of contact are you having with each of them? What’s the level of productivity? What can you do to narrow the gap? How can you improve on your performance and make a bigger impact on your contact’s businesses? What better way to figure that out than with relationships charts?

At some point, you’ll want to figure out how you’re connected to your contact list. What level of contact are you having with each of them? What’s the level of productivity? What can you do to narrow the gap? How can you improve on your performance and make a bigger impact on your contact’s businesses? What better way to figure that out than with relationships charts? Reports – Reports are written (or generated) for display purposes. They’re the blueprint of your business for your contact to see.

Reports are written (or generated) for display purposes. They’re the blueprint of your business for your contact to see. Smart dialer – Place a call with the help of your CRM. It will input all your interaction history with your contact so you can have a meaningful conversation with them.

Place a call with the help of your CRM. It will input all your interaction history with your contact so you can have a meaningful conversation with them. Call logs – You can take notes about each call you make. It’ll help jog your memory in the future.

You can take notes about each call you make. It’ll help jog your memory in the future. Reports cards – You can keep track of your relationship with each contact. How did you perform last month? Which activities performed the best? You can see what you’re doing well and worse and find a way to improve. Or just brag to your friends over how great you’re doing.

You can keep track of your relationship with each contact. How did you perform last month? Which activities performed the best? You can see what you’re doing well and worse and find a way to improve. Or just brag to your friends over how great you’re doing. Social media integration – Send your clients a message when they’ve left a review on one of their favourite sites. Connect to LinkedIn to see when it has been updated. Or just to see what your contacts have been up to in social media.

Send your clients a message when they’ve left a review on one of their favourite sites. Connect to LinkedIn to see when it has been updated. Or just to see what your contacts have been up to in social media. Email integration – Access your emails from your CRM. Tag contacts from sent emails and set tasks for them.

Access your emails from your CRM. Tag contacts from sent emails and set tasks for them. Note taking – Record notes on phone calls and email forwards. This comes in handy when you’re preparing for an upcoming meeting. You can always refer back to them in the future.

Record notes on phone calls and email forwards. This comes in handy when you’re preparing for an upcoming meeting. You can always refer back to them in the future. Networking – Join networking events through your CRM. That way, you won’t have to end up writing down notes on a napkin and forgetting the conversation you had with your contacts.

Join networking events through your CRM. That way, you won’t have to end up writing down notes on a napkin and forgetting the conversation you had with your contacts. Desktop app – You should be able to use your CRM without needing a computer. You should be able to log in to your CRM and add in information wherever you are.

You should be able to use your CRM without needing a computer. You should be able to log in to your CRM and add in information wherever you are. Member profiles – A good CRM should help you manage more than one customer at once. It should allow you to create multiple member profiles who can contribute and interact with each other as well.

A good CRM should help you manage more than one customer at once. It should allow you to create multiple member profiles who can contribute and interact with each other as well. Bulleted members – It’s commonplace that your contact list will reach a certain point where it makes sense to break it down into multiple lists. A great CRM will allow you to do that in an intelligent fashion.

It’s commonplace that your contact list will reach a certain point where it makes sense to break it down into multiple lists. A great CRM will allow you to do that in an intelligent fashion. Customizable interfaces – It’s all about your context. Use your CRM the way you want to use it. Customisability is key.

What We Use?

We’ve found Salesforce.com (Powered by Zoho CRM), to be the best fit for our needs at this point in time. We know that we can scale with it as we build our business and we like the idea of having a cloud-based system for our CRM. We also know that many of the lessons we learn will be transferable to our future systems. After using Salesforce for a full year, and then changing over to Pipedrive and Zoho CRM, we’ve decided that a mix of the two was what we needed to get the best results.

There is no perfect CRM, but there are many that will serve your needs perfectly well. It’s important to know what you’re looking for in your CRM and be able to communicate that to the salespeople who want to serve you. Once you know that, you’ll be armed with the knowledge to get the best results possible.