Most of what we do today is done in the cloud. The cloud stores all of our data, including that on our computers, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and other daily devices.

Your customer relationship management or CRM software is a key component of your sales and marketing strategy, right?

As a sales professional, you depend on your CRM technology for its great contact management features, its ease of use every day to manage your sales pipeline, your customer interactions, nurture and improve your customer relationships, boost revenue, maintain your customer base, and grow that base.

What if cloud computing and your CRM software interacted in a major way? There is a solution for that, and it’s known as cloud-based customer relationship management software, or simply cloud-based CRM.

This article examines the sales and marketing cloud CRM software in detail.

First, let’s define cloud CRM software, then let’s explain how it differs from on-premise CRM software. Here are three key benefits we believe you can reap from using a cloud-based CRM for small businesses.

Let’s get started!

The cloud-based CRM for small businesses involves hosting your CRM tools and software on the cloud. This is easy to use and accessible from anywhere, anytime.

01: The Freedom to Work from Anywhere

Our discussion earlier touched on one of the most appealing aspects of cloud-based CRM software.

This is the freedom your employees have with cloud services.

By using cloud-based CRM, this software is accessible from anywhere, unlike on-premise solutions, which are tied to an onsite server. Users will only need internet access to access the software.

There are many moving parts in businesses big and small. The employees spend time at their workplace and outside it.

Some of your top salespeople and marketers may attend conventions, expos, and networking functions for the purpose of expanding your company’s reach. Some of your employees may work remotely.

You won’t be able to use your CRM solution right off the bat when you use an on-premise solution.

It is a rule in the company that you cannot access the CRM if you are not in the office. It doesn’t matter if your CRM software is only an on-premise solution.

In many ways, that can hurt your business.

You can sync up the cloud-based or SaaS CRM Software between your team members’ tablets, smartphones, laptops, or whatever devices they have handy. Since it’s all online, they can still access your CRM features (phone calls, emails, etc.) even if they are out of state or out of the country.

Isn’t that pretty amazing?

02: The Room for Scalability

Your small business hopes to grow.

As if it needs to be said. When your software or tools aren’t up to date, it becomes problematic. You want your CRM software to grow with you as you add new employees and provide new services.

We are referring to an on-premise CRM, so it might be able to support your growing business needs, but it might not. You can only know how much growth you will experience and how fast it will happen.

You need a CRM that is scalable. You can therefore rely on your software to handle the growth spurts your company will inevitably encounter in the years to come.

The advantage of cloud-based CRM software is that it can be scaled up as well as down as needed.

03: Great Reliability

You want to make sure any new product or service you invest in is reliable before you invest any money. Does it work reliably? Is the software accessible at all times?

If you are interested in using CRM, we are not necessarily speaking of on-premise software, in which you have to stay at the office.

The issue we’re referring to are those unavoidable incidents and problems. For example, suppose there is a power outage? If the software fails, what will you do?

Without a CRM system, you may still be able to work, but you may face a lot of problems. Not only would productivity suffer, but some of your customer data, including contact information, could also disappear.

In an on-premise CRM model, this is not meant to scare you.

The data is always being backed up with cloud-based CRM, so everything gets protected automatically.

To Conclude

All your most important data is stored in the cloud with cloud-based customer relationship management software. You can access it anywhere, anytime, and it is regularly updated.

As the server is not located at your office, your employees can still log in if they travel or work remotely. Just about anywhere, they can use their smartphones, tablets, laptops, and home computers to access the Internet.

Customer relationship management provides a host of advantages for sales team automation, resulting in world-class customer service, customer support, and relationships.

Check out the features of CMR Runner – a cloud-based CRM Software for small businesses, which comes with solutions for tracking leads, task scheduling, monitoring, and other day-to-day activities. Simply speaking, CRM Runner is your one-stop solution for field service and office management.