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No matter the current size of your business, you always want to see it grow. As your small business becomes a midsize company and eventually a larger enterprise, you will need to bring in new people and hire a larger staff. This has always been the conventional way of viewing business growth, but the benefits offered by automation can help your company continue to grow, reduce staffing costs and become more efficient, all at the same time.
Effective CRM (customer relationship management) and marketing automation software is designed to automatically do the job of several employees, thus allowing business owners to keep hiring costs down and increase productivity at the same time. A properly implemented CRM system can help your business save on hiring costs in several departments, most notably marketing, sales, support and human resources.
Marketing
The main goal of CRM and marketing automation software is to help your company bring in new customers, while reducing the need for time, energy and manpower to be spent on marketing. The most obvious and immediate benefits of automated marketing systems are through email marketing. Drip email campaigns are a tried and true technique, and marketing experts believe they will continue to be one of the most effective marketing methods well into the future.
With CRM and marketing automation software, a business owner simply takes the time initially needed to input the campaign content, and the system does the rest. This can save an untold amount on your budget and help eliminate the need for hiring additional marketing experts, writers, advertisers and others.
Sales
Similar to how CRM systems help automate your marketing department, it can also help increase sales while reducing the need to hire additional sales associates. The best business automation software can also help manage opportunities, leads, sales tasks, sales funnels and other essential elements, reducing the time and manpower normally needed for these areas.
While the system may not close the sale by itself, it can help to take every step prior to closing. This frees up your sales staff to focus specifically on selling and puts them in the best possible position to seal the deal at the appropriate time.
Customer Support
The best CRM and marketing automation systems come with intuitive support tools that provide invaluable data and assistance. The data collected by these systems would take entire teams of employees to gather and analyze, but automated cloud CRM software provides the necessary information instantly in easily consumable formats. These tools may be an integrated part of the system itself or an included additional benefit. For example, you could plot addresses on google map from excel exported data and gain new insights about your business that way.
Some of these applications can actually anticipate customer questions, provide immediate chat responses and improve customer relationships. While this may not completely take away the need for in-house or outsourced customer support, it can greatly supplement the staff you already have– effectively supporting your support. This Stackify article about application performance management helps explain the advantages of thorough data and automated tools for the user experience.
Human Resources
Efficient CRM systems help do the jobs of multiple people, streamlining various departments and positions in your company. This will allow your human resources department to focus on more essential tasks, instead of constantly bringing in new people to fill the roles that could be filled by CRM systems. While automated software may not yet be able to resolve conflicts in the workplace, your HR department will greatly benefit from the reduction of hiring and staff management responsibilities.
The Human Touch
There are other areas in which automated CRM and marketing systems could be beneficial, depending upon your specific industry and business. Another great element of these types of systems is the fact that they can be customized and tailored to fit nearly any marketing or customer relations need.
The main goal of automated software will always be to supplement your staff, taking on time-consuming tasks and freeing up their time to focus on areas in which a computer cannot do the job. This means that they will be more efficient, productive and creative in the jobs that only a human can perform. The results for your company will include reduced hiring costs and increased productivity across the board.
