Starting a business is exciting, but many businesses can find it difficult to gain momentum once they’ve opened their doors.

Startups planning to expand their businesses should have a clear, actionable plan to foster growth, and at the heart of that plan should be their customers. Customers are the bedrock of any business, and putting them at the center of your strategy is the first step to developing a prosperous operation.

Here are five key ways that our CRM can help your startup thrive.

Improve productivity

Having data scattered across various systems and channels is a recipe for disaster — gaining a complete picture, or a ‘single source of truth’, is essential to efficiently manage your business. A CRM for startups centralizes all of your customer and sales information, meaning your salespeople have access to everything they need to do great work, all in one place. In turn, a structured sales process will help generate more revenue and ensures that your company’s service is consistent.

Tap into new markets

Breaking into new markets is one of the fastest ways to grow your business. Huge shifts in the way customers communicate and consume means businesses are having to update their acquisition strategies. Expanding your customer base today often means positioning your company so that your target audience can find you when they need your products or services. To that end, social listening is the most effective tool in a startup’s marketing arsenal.

A good CRM will include the features you need to master all of these approaches, developing customer awareness, and establishing your brand in the process.

Offer great service

Once you’ve found your customers, you need to work on keeping them. Repeat business is the most cost-effective way of generating revenue — it’s always easier to sell to an existing client than to a new prospect. A CRM tells a story with your customers’ data. Each client’s history is detailed within the platform, tracking every interaction they’ve ever had with your company. Without a CRM, it would be near-impossible to keep abreast of all of these touchpoints.

Knowing exactly how, when, and why a customer has engaged with your startup will allow you to tailor your service and marketing to each of them individually. No customer wants to be bombarded with generic messages; a CRM for startups lets you create a bespoke sales process, eliminating any potential duplicate or crossover messaging, building trust, and creating a better customer experience.

Analyze, evaluate, improve

The majority of CRMs have extensive analytical and reporting capabilities, so you can get an accurate, real-time overview of your startup’s health.

A startup can only move forward by looking for opportunities for growth, and the best way to find those opportunities is to take a good hard look at what your business is doing now. With a centralized hub for all your sales and customer data, you can see where you’re excelling, and identify areas for improvement, as well as ensuring any future decisions you make are informed and data-driven.

CRM can also provide much-needed scalability when expanding your business. Having a software solution that can grow with you means you won’t be met by any frustrating shortcomings, or time-consuming upgrades when your business is trying to meet additional demand.