Top 10 Reasons to have a cloud-based CRM

09 Dec 2013 02:42 PM By Paul

1. Security

Anyone who has ever lost or dropped a laptop or had it stolen, knows that sinking feeling. Having data online in the cloud is very secure, you don’t lose work and miss commitments because of lost data. For the company
security means that critical and valuable data and relationships 
are stored securely in one place, including the full history of the relationship with a customer or prospect.


2. Coordination 

Whose client is this? Without central coordination one sales person’s efforts can be sabotaged by another, or the marketing department may be sending out offers and messages inviting clients to apply for a product which they already know does not suit them. For example, it is embarrassing for a life insurance company to send offers of life insurance to a person who is dead and currently having a claim processed.

3. Customer-facing quality 

There is nothing more embarrassing than to get in front of a client or prospect and not know about the history of the relationship – With Zoho CRM you have all the interaction with each client in one place.

4. Communication History
To the client, your company is just one entity, so it is essential that all commitments or communications are stored for 
historical reference. Otherwise the client will say “I told Bill that I wanted the Yellow one, not the Green one” and you will have no rebuttal.

5. Integration with other company services, like invoicing and commission payment

Most companies need to send out an invoice to the person who is authorized to OK the payment. Why store information about that person twice? We all want to be paid our commission on time and there is no finer guarantee of delaying payment than to send the invoice to the wrong person. Having one company-wide source of up-to-date information is a great efficiency that benefits everyone.

6. Easy Sales Reporting

With a CRM all the information a sales manager needs is already available to him or her. They can manage by trend and exception. They do not need to ask the sales people to produce reports. The only conversation required is coaching, about how certain sales situations may be progressed or how certain barriers may be overcome. – A huge time-saver, no Excel!

7. Marketing and Sales Integration

Leads are generated by marketing and passed directly to sales people by email. There is a direct correlation between marketing dollars spent and sales closed. The quality of the marketing response can be easily monitored and a campaign refined for better results.

8. Integrated Order Entry

Entering an order can be performed in the field by a salesperson if necessary; it is then ready for approval by the accounting department and shipping by the shipping department, all controlled by a workflow process that emails alerts to the appropriate personnel with links to the order for immediate action. This creates tremendous time saving and improvement in service and customer satisfaction.


9. Automated Drip Programs

Staying in touch with customers or prospects who qualify as customers but are not currently ready to buy, is a key “farming” technique that ensures you are not forgotten when decisions get made. Your drip program may involve a friendly phone call, an email update or an invitation to a social event.

10. Email History and Critical Documents in one Place 

There is nothing worse than chasing through paper files looking for a key contract or communication. A CRM automatically gathers all of this information around the entity – the person, project or organization in a highly indexed storage. You save hours of frustration and delay.

Contact us to find out more!

Paul