• The #1 reason to get a CRM system is to forecast sales in the upcoming months ( how much business to expect and in which month).
• CRM systems help sales teams maintain all their customer- related tasks – for example to document leads and put in a reminder to call a lead to talk about the product after a week, after that to set up a reminder to call that person to visit their shop perhaps, to document if they have interest in a/some products, if they have the budget for those products, when that budget becomes available so the sales rep can call them at that time, and so on.
• CRM systems help sales managers and senior management get a quick snapshot of the metrics – for example, the revenue coming into the department, overall break down of who are the top sales reps, who’s free, who’s got more time on their hands, and so on. Moreover, managers show these documented metrics to ask for more money/budget, or resources depending on how fast the revenue/sales is growing. So it helps managers keep track of performance & revenue metrics,  decide on resource allocation, and decide on whether more budget or resources are needed for the department. It gives a 360 degree view of the business.
• It costs businesses a lot to attract new customers than to retain existing customers. CRM systems help maintain existing customers.

What do we lose if we don’t have a CRM system?

•  Contacts can be lost if one person (who stores contacts locally in his laptop) leaves the firm.
• Data is de-centralized and reports can’t be built on it, can’t forecast revenue, loss, and so on.
• We fail to spot trends. Maybe one product is trending up, one is trending down, but we may not be able to catch it earlier on if the metrics aren’t available, and end up catching such trends only when they become a huge problem.
• We can’t manage all notes, customer interaction notes, data and updates between departments.
• If customers are losing interest in your business, or they’re not talking to you anymore, they’re looking like they might be thinking of replacing you, it can be caught early.
• Sales manager cannot forecast a sales funnel if he cannot see the overall view of all the deals in progress, where they are in the funnel, how old they are, how many there are.
• Sales process needs to flow on paper, then we can build a CRM system around it. So CRM systems cause the sales process to flow.