CRM, a business asset not to be ignored!

At some point in its life cycle, your company will probably face one of these situations: a fundraising, a merger or a sale

A crucial question will then come up, i.e. the valuation of the company. Investment funds and specialised firms will carry out a due diligence during which all your assets will be analysed, in particular

• Financial data: turnover, net income, fixed assets, debts, etc.

• The track record of the managers: experience, skills, etc.

• Technology and patent applications

Another indicator is becoming increasingly important. Commonly referred to as the new black gold of companies, data has also become an essential asset. In particular, commercial data is now a fully-fledged element of company valuation. For general management, CRM is therefore a strategic aspect that should not be overlooked. Explanations:

The CRM, a witness to commercial activity?

Why do 91% of companies with more than 10 employees choose to equip themselves with a CRM?

After a certain size, organisations need a CRM to structure their business, centralise their information and manage their teams.

Beyond the operational aspect, the acquisition of a CRM also reflects the willingness of general management to capitalise on an additional asset and increase the value of their company.

Unfortunately, having a CRM is not an automatic guarantee of success. According to Salesforce, only 20% of sales data (contacts, interactions, meetings, etc.) are recorded in the CRM. In other words, a wealth of information on which your company does not capitalise.

Commercial data as an indicator of good commercial health

The CRM is the judge of your commercial activity. What is not in the CRM does not exist.

Too often, the achievement of objectives is considered the main indicator of the health of a sales organisation. This is wrong.

Focusing solely on the number of purchase orders and new customers is a mistake. Signings are only the last step in the sales cycle. If any of the previous stages are failing, you are putting yourself at risk and the turnover can be seen as the tree that hides the forest.

What is the proportion of turnover from new customers vs. existing customers? What is the retention rate? What is the average basket size? What is the average length of a sales cycle? How many touchpoints are needed to close a sale? How many people are involved in the buying decision?

These are all questions that will be asked and answered if you want to maximise the value of your business. To justify the dynamism of your company, make sure you have all the information in your CRM at each stage of the sales cycle:

• On sales activity: volume of customer and prospect interactions (calls, emails, meetings, etc.)

• On the building of the pipeline: reporting of appointments, number of contacts met

• On opportunities: length of the sales cycle, measurement of relational intensity according to the deadline, mapping of accounts, etc.

Automate CRM data entry to enhance your business

When you know how difficult it is for sales teams to enter information, what solutions can be put in place to ensure that your CRM contains complete and constantly updated customer and prospect data?

According to Salesforce, automation is the CRM trend that executives are embracing today. By automating the capture of activities, companies win on all fronts: team productivity increases (no more time-consuming tasks with little added value), but above all, they are assured of having permanently reliable, up-to-date and complete data on customers and prospects: the prerequisite for your CRM and for developing a new asset for your company. THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT.

Related EverReady solutions

• Automated Salesforce activity capture - log every email, meeting and call with zero manual entry.

• Salesforce data enrichment - fill the gaps in your CRM automatically.

• Automatic contact capture - create and update contacts from email signatures.