Challenges affecting small businesses
The main challenge affecting small businesses is growth in terms of exposure, reliable employees, more revenue, and clients. Thus, for them to realize the growth in terms of those above, small enterprises need to streamline their organizational workflows and processes using CRM software. CRM software using technology that enables businesses to reap maximum value in trading activities. The selection of explicit CRM software is coupled with various facets. They include low budget, easy to learn, customer support, and one should consider one that integrates with other tools. Small business is not endowed with vast resources; thus, they should select a budget-friendly CRM system (Buttle&Maklan, 2019). Small businesses should also choose CRM software, which their staff can easily learn. Most of the small business lack time to master complex information regarding software. Nonetheless, the tool selected should be one which does not need an IT expert for interpretation purposes. The tool chosen should be able to provide the needed customer support. Since small teams manage most of the small business, one must select a software offering sufficient support in running the trading processes. The tool should also have the ability to integrate well with other tools such as Gmail. Software that mixes well with other tools leads to improvement in the desired goals of the business. From the various factors, one view that the best suits small business enterprises is HubSpot CRM.
With the digitalization in business, small enterprise requires a CRM system to remain competitive and valuable in the trading world. Thus, one will recommend the implementation of HubSpot CRM in the enterprise. The system enables the business to a special arena that can be used by the marketers to make sales easier as well as less cumbersome. The system has unique functions that enable the business to interact and make transactions at different levels with their customers and also potential clients. One of the functions of HubSpot is contact management (Harrison &Ajjan, 2019). The system enables the business to organize a directory of their business contacts and profile. Secondly, the application of the system in small business enables the firm to track the messages to their clients. Thus, it informs the firm regarding if the customers have either received, opened, or sent an email. Through the information, one views that the software facilitates overt communication between the business and the customer, an important factor in commercial activities. Nonetheless, the system also enables the business to either import and export and export from the organization system. The use of HubSpot permits the enterprise to download data either to or from the app that entails the business and contacts of the clients. For example, small businesses can download information regarding sales reports for the company’s evaluation purposes.
The HubSpot CRM is designed with necessary features which enable the firm to deliver their sales and marketing activities in a way that it provides a super user experience. Primarily, the system has an email tracking ability. The feature is crucial for businesses since it allows for customized and automated email campaigns. The property thus enables the business to cover a large number of clients. Secondly, the system has automatic publications property. Therefore, if the enterprise implements, it will have the ability to perform automatic publications of recorded calls, email, and unique sales notes of the clients. Through this, the firm will be able to simplify their tasks of reviving information. The HubSpot CRM also can make and record sales of the business (Buttle&Maklan, 2019). The property enables the sales department to schedule, assign, and make sales calls with various parties involved in sales in the business. Such promotes planning in the sales department, an essential way of ensuring the business is designed within the framework scheduled. The system is made up of large storage capacity in its database. For instance, the system allows the business to store 1 million company records and client contacts using the form submissions and email addresses. The HubSpot CRM system captures information such as industry, revenue, and personal information. The HubSpot is also made up of an automated logging mechanism. The feature is essential for small businesses since it provides it with the framework of updating deals from the customers; for example, their preferences and also sales activities of the business.
HubSpot has various benefits that can help the small business to develop. Primarily, the system provides room for contact data organization. The contact data organization enables the enterprise to organize the information regarding their contacts of its customers. Through such, the enterprise can keep track of communication between its clients and their representatives regarding various matters relating to the business. The information allows the staff to manage how the business is progressing without straining. Secondly, the system is beneficial in that it allows for sales reporting. The use of HubSpot gives the business sales reporting metrics such as tracking emails sent, meeting scheduled, calls made, and deals closed. Therefore, this facilitates better understanding at the management level regarding how the team is performing, thus allowing for the development of a framework that can be used to improve business transactions. Thirdly, it helps in sales forecasting (Harrison &Ajjan, 2019). Previously, most firms were confined to complex formulas in forecasting sales. However, with the implementation of HubSpot CRM, the business will be able to generate price sales funnel that will enable it to forecast sales and also use it to manage the team’s productivity with ease. Fourthly, the system facilitates customer segmentation. Segmenting of customers is one of the crucial ways of understanding the needs and preferences of the clients. The system enables the enterprise to segment their clients based on their contacts by providing their basic information such as location, close date, and size of the business deal. Lastly, the system is beneficial since it allows scaling of the sales process. Repeatable sales process helps in testing new strategies that can be applied to enhance the success of the enterprise. Data stored in the system allow the enterprise to understand the changing patterns involving the sales behaviors of clients. The scaling sales process plays a role in the development of ways of growing the business effectively at a faster rate.
A business cannot succeed in isolation. Thus, regardless of the essential properties and benefits in which the system has, its integration with the various business process is vital in facilitating business activities. The system has email integrations made up of Outlook or Gmail. The integration allows the sales department to access productivity tools such as sequences and templates without leaving the inbox but allowing one to see all the contacts from their clients. The system has also been integrated with calendars. This enables the business to stay on top of their key tasks by using a two-way integration. For example, it allows the enterprise to integrate both the Google or Outlook calendar that allows for instant logging for a meeting or creating of notices for a meeting. The integration is facilitated by HubSpot Meeting Scheduling App (Kumar &Reinartz, 2018). The system is also integrated with a connector that allows the small enterprise to connect to different applications that enables the businesses to expand on their functions. The company can create custom integrations that will allow it to facilitate special tasks that necessitate the development of automated workflows. The HubSpot allows for Zapier, PayPal, and QuickBooks integrations. Social media integrations are an essential part of the HubSpot since, in contemporary society, social media is viewed as an essential sales tool. Therefore, the integration between HubSpot to the social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn will enable the firm to streamline and make the automated posting of their products. Most businesses prosper due to third party integration. Therefore, the prospecting software integrations of the HubSpot with a third-party system like LinkedIn Sales Navigator enables the business enterprise to develop a personalized outreach within the system. Team communication integration using Slack tools helps in the improvement in accessibility and coordination. It facilitates chats between the clients and the sales representative without interruptions.
Understanding of benefits and features of the system is essential before making the decisions on its implementation in the business. Firms implement what meets the needs of their enterprise. Thus, having to outline various vital factors, features, and benefits of HubSpot CRM, one should implement to reap great values it depicts. The first part of implementing the system involves understanding the sales process of the enterprise. The adoption of the sales force is viewed as one of the hurdles affecting small enterprises. Thus, in the implementation process, the business should provide how HubSpot will support the process that exists in the company. The second part of implementation involves moving of data into HubSpot CRM (Kumar &Reinartz, 2018). The enterprise does such by cleaning the data, which is done by deleting data, which is not essential before migration. This helps in avoiding confusion among the sales team. The data should be moved in sections since it makes it easy to identify unexpected behavior while data migration is in progress. Thirdly, the enterprise does the mapping of CRM to sales. The process is done by building routing automation by assigning high leads, thus limiting of time wastage during sales search. The mapping part also involves the building of notifications for teams in various departments in the enterprise. The notion behind the creation of notifications is to ensure the entire workforce is at the same level regarding information circulated. Lastly, the firm engages in the monitoring of systems and data. The practices facilitate acquiring information relevant for the purpose of changing business scales over time. An annual evaluation of data is recommended.
The application of HubSpot in the small enterprise is one of the best choices that an enterprise can make. CRM is user-friendly since understanding how to use it in the enterprise does not require interpretation from an expert for one to use. Therefore, since small business is not exposed to technical experts, it will help to serve the needs of the endeavor. Small enterprises, in most cases, fall under startups. Therefore, most of them do not have large sums of money that can be used in purchasing complex software that can be used in their business activities. Thus, the use of HubSpot is pivotal due to its economic value. The system is characterized by its ability to integrate with other tools. In this 21st century, social media is key to boosting sales of businesses. As such, HubSpot’s ability to integrate with tools such as Gmail, Twitter, and Facebook is beneficial for business enterprises. The implementation process of the HubSpot is also simple. For instance, it only takes four stages before it becomes fully utilized in running business activities. The steps include; understanding the sales process. Moving data, mapping CRM to sales, and monitoring the system and data.