When it comes to the success of your sales funnel, generating leads is not enough. You need to track them through each stage of the funnel until the end. However, tracking leads through a spreadsheet becomes tedious as the number of leads grows.
A sales funnel CRM helps you to manage and track leads through the funnel stages. Some of the best sales funnel CRM solutions include Salesforce, Insightly, Zoho CRM, Hubspot, and Zendesk Sell. With a great CRM, you can track important sales funnel metrics and optimize/improve your funnel.
In this post, we will discuss what a sales funnel CRM is, what to look for when choosing one, and some of the best CRM solutions in the market. Let’s dive in!
What Is a Sales Funnel CRM?
Sales funnel CRM (customer relationships management) is software that helps you track leads from the moment they enter your sales funnel to when they convert into customers.
Simply put, a CRM helps you to build relationships with your leads by collecting, organizing, and analyzing their data.
Building relationships is crucial because the modern customer is one with a wide range of businesses to choose from.
As a result, offering a great product is not enough if leads do not have a good relationship with your business.
Why You Need a CRM for Your Sales Funnel?
A CRM can help you track your sales funnel processes and, in turn, get the best results from it.
I’ve discussed the theory behind tracking a sales funnel and conversion analysis in my article on sales funnel tracking.
Below are some benefits you can get from investing in a sales funnel CRM.
1. Helps Automate Your Sales Funnel Processes
A CRM tool can streamline your sales process and thus help your sales team to close deals faster.
You can automate several sales functions, from following up on leads to processing orders. The CRM tool then collects and presents all the data under a single dashboard.
As a result, all your team members can access the data and work harmoniously to boost productivity and attain goals. Additionally, the team can identify sales funnel bottlenecks and develop possible solutions.
2. Helps You Qualify Your Leads
Not everyone entering your funnel will convert by the end. However, it can be difficult to track your leads one by one and follow up on their actions.
CRM helps you to track your leads and monitor their engagement with your funnel. As a result, you can identify leads who are unlikely to convert and drop them.
For instance, if a lead unsubscribes from your mailing list, it means they are no longer interested. Once you drop the bad leads, you can focus on hot leads who are more likely to convert.
3. Helps You Build Better Customer Relationships
A CRM collects and analyzes substantial amounts of customer data. This data can help you understand your leads better.
In turn, you will be able to treat them with value instead of seeing them as a transaction.
The best part is that valued customers are more likely to refer you to others at an average of up to 10 referrals per client.
Referrals will not only save you on lead acquisition costs, but they will boost your revenue.
4. Helps Identify Perfect Opportunities for Making Sales
Even if you have a great sales funnel, it won’t help you convert leads if you present your sales pitch at the wrong time.
A CRM allows you to identify where customers are in the sales funnel and assess if the time is right for making that pitch.
It also analyzes customer behavior and provides timing insights. For instance, analyzing call logs can help your team make calls when customers are more likely to answer.
Ultimately, proper timing increases your odds of closing a deal.
5. Helps With Audience Segmentation
A common sales funnel mistake comes from failing to segment your audience. Lack of segmentation leads to targeting the right audience but offering the wrong ads.
However, segmentation can be difficult if you’re doing it manually. That is where CRM comes in to collect prospect and customer data.
Once you have the audience segments, you can craft targeted ads that grab the attention of your audience.
For instance, Spotify utilizes a user’s listening history to suggest a curated playlist that’s likely to interest the particular user.
Check out my article on common sales funnel problems and their fixes to ensure that you avoid basic funnel errors which hamper your sales and conversion rates.
How to Choose the Right Sales Funnel CRM?
Although there are several CRM tools out there, they are not equal. As such, you need to invest in a tool that meets your goals and solves your funnel challenges.
Below are the steps to follow in choosing a suitable sales funnel CRM.
1. Involve Your Team
Before making any decisions, involve your team. Discuss the challenges they are facing when nurturing and managing leads.
Your team will also use the tool the most, so it is essential to collect their feedback. Find out from your team what they would like the CRM tool to help them achieve.
Once that is decided, look for a tool with their desired features and functions.
2. Check and Compare Prices
Different tools have different pricing packages. Therefore, take the time to search for an affordable tool that suits your needs.
Compare various tools in the market before making your decision. Additionally, check if the CRM offers an appropriate value for the money.
The secret to testing a tool’s value is taking advantage of the free trial. If a CRM doesn’t offer a trial or a money-back guarantee, that’s a red flag.
3. Check User Reviews
At this point, you should have a few tools in mind. The next step is to go through user reviews to see other people’s experiences using the software.
After that, look at the pros and cons since there is no such thing as a perfect tool. Remember to access reviews via a credible site to avoid false or manipulated feedback.
4. Check the Adaptability of the Tool to Future Use
Finally, check whether the tool can help you in the future. Your business needs and funnels will change as your business scales.
Will the tool suffice in the future when your business grows?
The scalability of the CRM is crucial because it will save you from investing in another tool if your business outgrows it.
Best Sales Funnel CRM Tools
Finding a suitable sales funnel CRM tool can be daunting since you will probably need to go through multiple tools before selecting one.
Below, we have compiled a list of the best sales funnel CRM software to make your selection process a bit easier.
1. Salesforce
Salesforce is a popular cloud-based CRM solution with several features that help you take your customer experience to the next level.
Since Salesforce is cloud-based, it allows you to track your leads and take action using different devices and different locations.
This accessibility permits easier collaboration among your team. As a result, you can enjoy increased productivity and communication between team members.
In addition, Salesforce allows you to track support tickets to ensure clients receive the customer support they deserve.
Other advanced features of Salesforce include email tracking, forecasting, managing of contacts, and visual workflows.
2. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a powerful CRM lead management tool that could help your company increase sales.
This CRM application allows you to easily generate, qualify, nurture, and convert prospects into paying customers.
Zoho CRM has marketing automation and sales prediction functionalities to help you convert leads into highly profitable clients.
Its technology enhances contact profiles with pertinent data so you can create more customer-tailored experiences.
Additionally, the AI-powered tool can help you gain valuable insights into your company operations and find opportunities for development.
Other powerful Zoho features include real-time notifications, audience segmentation, sales prediction, and contact management.
3. Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell is a CRM tool that allows you to track all your communications and manage leads. In turn, the efficacy of lead management ensures that the majority of the sales deals are secured.
This CRM solution tracks your conversations by sending instant alerts and reminders, monitoring emails, and enriching profiles.
In addition, you can build and customize your sales funnel using the tool to ensure all sales opportunities are kept in sight.
The best features of Zendesk Sell include marketing automation, lead filtering, generation of activity reports, and a mobile CRM.
4. Hubspot
Hubspot is a powerful lead management and tracking software that allows you to generate leads from your contacts and follow up on them from one dashboard.
The tool has a complete suite of apps to help you track every stage from lead to customer. Better yet, these apps enable you to create a complete CRM funnel for your business in just a few steps.
All you need to do is connect the suite of apps with the Lead Management Module. The Module contains several functions for funnel building like email templates and landing pages.
Once done, you can map out your sales funnel and allow Hubspot’s lead management tools to convert your contacts into leads.
5. Insightly
Insightly is an all-inclusive CRM that allows you to manage and track your leads.
Its automation feature takes care of mundane sales funnel tasks, which ultimately leads to better sales performance.
The tool also enables you to nurture your leads by helping you create and send customized emails to leads.
Insightly allows you to link all your business apps and access all your data in one location, making lead management easier for everyone.
Other powerful features of Insightly include automation, a drag-and-drop user interface, email integrations that support bulk emails, data visualization, and email access.
Metrics to Track Using Your Sales Funnel CRM
Once you choose a sales funnel CRM for your business, you need to use it to improve the performance of your funnel.
But first, you need to know the important metrics to track. Below are some of the key metrics to help you get started.
1. Conversion Rates
The conversion rate enables you to determine how well your sales funnel is performing in converting leads into customers. Conversion rates also reveal the quality of leads entering your sales funnel.
You can use CRM software to generate reports showing how leads convert from stage to stage under various sales campaigns.
Afterward, the reports will give you insights that you can use to formulate better strategies for the future.
For instance, looking at the percentage of leads who converted at the bottom of the sales funnel can help your team.
They will be able to analyze the factors that led to the success and apply them again in the future.
2. The Lead Velocity Rate
This metric tracks the growth of your leads over a period of time. It also measures the number of leads you are trying to convert into customers in your current timeline.
Subsequently, the lead velocity rate shows your progress in terms of growth and sales revenue in real-time.
Therefore, the higher the lead velocity rate, the higher the sales income you can anticipate in the months to come.
3. Time
Time is another important sales funnel metric to track with your CRM. You can track the time spent selling, time spent in the sales cycle, and the time spent moving leads from stage to stage.
Tracking the time metric will help ensure leads do not linger in one stage for too long. In turn, minimizing the time spent will shorten the sales cycle and encourage more conversions.
Although shortening the time spent in the funnel is important, your sales team should avoid pushing leads to the next stage if they aren’t ready to move on.
After all, most people are less likely to buy from a sales rep who is aggressive and uses hard-sell techniques.
Moreover, leads find it difficult to trust pushy sales pitches since they do not sound genuine.
4. Sales Funnel Leakage
The leakage metric shows the rate at which leads leave the sales funnel before converting. Sales funnel leakages lower conversion rates.
Hence, tracking this metric is crucial to understanding why leads drop out. Once you discover why leads are dropping out, you can look for ways to seal the leakages and stabilize your funnel.
5. Opportunity Count in the Funnel Stages
This metric tracks the number of opportunities available to convert leads in each funnel stage.
As such, the metric helps you to balance the number of opportunities in each funnel stage. There could be a problem if you have too few or too many leads at a given stage.
For example, if you notice too many leads at a particular stage, it could mean your team is finding it difficult to move the leads on to the next step.
Sales Funnels Without CRM Never Reach Their Full Potential…
Managing your sales leads is a crucial part of the sales process that improves the efficiency of your strategies.
For the best lead management results, you need to invest in a functional and scalable sales funnel CRM. The factors above will help you choose a suitable CRM.
In addition to the factors, the above list of CRM tools, including Salesforce, Hubspot, Insightly, Zoho, and Zendesk Sell will help you choose a suitable tool for your business.
After investing in a reliable tool, use it to track important sales funnel metrics to convert more leads.