Wait. You too thought that CRM and Sales Force Automation are the same thing. If the answer is yes, then you should know that you are not alone. There are many people out there who think both refer to the same technology. While CRM and SFA are used interchangeably, they belong to two different sets of software.
So why does the confusion arise then? The answer is simple. It’s because CRM software can have some attributes of Sales Force Automation technology and vice versa but each is used by organizations for unique purposes.
Sales Force Automation Technology is centered around sales management whereas the CRM platform focuses on improving customer relationships and delivering unparalleled customer experiences.
Moving on, let’s explore what is Sales Force Automation Technology and how you can leverage it in your business!
What is Sales Force Automation (SFA) Technology?
Sales Force Automation Technology refers to different sales management software and applications. They are used exclusively by sales teams to organize and manage contacts and opportunities in a single, centralized view. Additionally, it is also used for forecasting and generating reports for Sales Pipeline Management.
Features of Sales Force Automation Systems
Contact Management
For a business to grow, it is important to increase consumer engagement and nurture strong relationships with the customers. Sales Force Automation technology lets you do that easily through contact management.
Engage with clients in a better way by tracking your communication with customers, so you can provide them personalized experiences. Moreover, Sales Force Automation System also lets you store data related to your customer interactions and sales activities.
Pipeline Management
Another important feature of Sales Force Automation Systems is Pipeline Management. Right from the initial inquiry to closing a sale, you can track your sales pipeline with SFA. Along with this, Sales Force Automation tools also help in forecasting sales and determining trends.
Task Management
Sales Force Automation Technology is centered around seamless sales processes. So, it allows sales teams to streamline their workflows by creating tasks and setting reminders to follow-up on leads and keep track of all sales activities.
Now that you know how Sales Force Automation technology can transform the sales process, let’s talk about the CRM platform to determine the difference between them.
What is a CRM Platform?
CRM Platform refers to managing customer interactions throughout the customer life cycle. The purpose is to keep all the data related to customer interactions even the minutest details at a single location. Thus, after fully understanding the benefits and applicability of CRM for your business, you are all set to improve your customer’s experience. There are a number of well-built and powerful CRMs out there. So, choose a CRM wisely according to your business needs and ensure that you follow the best CRM practices.
Features of CRM Platform
Customer Management
CRM platform lets you keep track of all your client interactions at all customer touchpoints. In this way, you can deliver great customer service and nurture customer relationships to retain them.
Data in One Place
With so much customer data, it is important to have it stored at a unified platform. By having all the data relevant to your customers and the business processes in the CRM platform, you can keep track of what’s happening and measure it against the KPIs.
Streamline Sales Management
From generating leads to closing a deal, CRM software will optimize your sales funnel so you can accelerate revenues and drive profits. Moreover, you can forecast sales, perform lead scoring to qualify leads and streamline the sales process to increase the efficiency of your teams.
Marketing Automation
CRM platform can be leveraged fully by integrating it with different marketing automation platforms. This will help create personalized campaigns and enhance marketing efficiency by integrating marketing automation products and CRM. You can also find out which campaigns work and conduct accurate market segmentation to streamline marketing automation activities.
Reports and Analytics
Another important feature of CRM is that you can get the right information from all your customer data through analytics and interactive CRM reporting. Hence, CRM allows you to determine trends, pinpoint areas of improvement and find out opportunities to skyrocket your business growth.
Should I Go for Sales Force Automation Technology or CRM Platform?
Now, the question that comes to mind is which software to use in which situation. For that, you need to be aware of the fundamental features of each software and how that fits your business needs.
Some of the tasks that SFA does, can be accomplished by a CRM platform. Many businesses see a boost in their growth by leveraging CRM platforms through CRM customization and integrations. This helps in prospecting, collaborative selling, contact management and streamlining customer relationships.
One should never rely on Sales Force Automation alone as it is only responsible for initiating the sales process. After this, CRM can take over and ensure that customers remain clients for the years to come.
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