What is Sales Software and How is it Different From a CRM?

Customers are the bloodline of any business and the sales team is their backbone.

Finding new customers is key to growth and so is sustaining the ones you already have and building strong relationships with them.

With the right technology, this process can seem like a breeze.

Typically, businesses looking to automate their business processes look at two primary solutions - sales software and customer relationship management (CRM).

While sales software helps sales teams stay organized and streamline their process, a CRM, on the other hand, is to manage all your customer relationships in one place.

But, which one will bring more value to your business, and most importantly, why do you need these types of softwares?

In this blog post, we'll answer your questions. Let's begin.

What is Sales Software?

Sales software is a digital tool that aids businesses stay organized by streamlining their sales operations.

A sales software optimizes, streamlines, and shortens the sales cycle, thus helping sales reps to accelerate the selling of a product and ensuring sales representatives have access to sales tools that help them meet their key sales performance benchmarks.

Sales software can be equivalent to the already existing software from your sales stack to increase the opportunities of acquiring paying customers.

In any business, the process of lead generation alone isn't sufficient - identifying leads that convert is even more important.

This will ultimately enhance the usage of sales resources and increase the chances of conversion to paying customers.

What is a CRM?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a type of technology to manage your company's relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers.

A CRM system helps businesses stay connected to customers, improve profitability, and enhance relatability to streamline processes.

A CRM solution helps sales representatives focus on your business's relationships with individual people - including vendors, customers, suppliers, and more in a single place - throughout the sales lifecycle including lead generation, providing support, winning their business, and more.

What are the Differences Between a Sales Software and a CRM?

Often, people confuse sales software and a customer relationship management tool.

In fact, the differences are quite striking.

A sales software helps businesses manage every step of the sales cycle right from the first inquiry to the first order, onboarding, payment, and billing.

A CRM software is a digital tool leveraged by businesses to manage their interactions with existing and potential customers.

The CRM software integrates with the marketing platforms to pull the information on leads and lets sales reps initiate a point of contact with potential customers. The CRM also lets sales reps follow up with prospects until they are pushed to the final stage of the sales process.

At this stage, sales software helps sales representatives manage their sales cycle in every stage. Then, the CRM continues the interaction with customers via regular communication channels.

What are the Key Features of a Sales Software?

Some of the key features of a sales software are -

1. Data analytics and tracking
2. Sales reports
3. Payment, billing, and invoices
4. Inventory management
5. Lead scoring and visibility
6. Easy integration with third-party software
7. Security
8. Ease of use

#1 Data Analytics and Tracking

Sales software provides sales representatives with information about overall revenue, conversion rates, length of the sales cycle, team performance, and more data.

This data can provide an overview of the overall health of the business and track it too.

#2 Sales Reports

Accessing sales reports, regardless of their timeline, with sales software has never been easier.

Track past and current sales accounts and easily reconcile them for sales representatives and stay on top of those deals!

#3 Payment, Billing, and Invoices

A sales software should be able to manage and streamline every customer interaction, including onboarding, payment, and billing easily.

#4 Inventory Management

A vital capability of software sales is to manage and update inventory as and when products are being sold.

This can help sales representatives stay ahead of the demand and reduce shortage costs.

#5 Lead Scoring and Visibility

Sales teams are way more effective when they understand how likely a lead is going to convert.

With the leverage of technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, sales representatives can easily focus on the leads that have high chances of converting.

In addition, with the help of data intelligence, businesses can rely on software sales to receive accurate sales forecasting.

#6 Easy Integration with Third-Party Tools

Sales software isn't capable of working by itself as they require data points from various sources.

A good sales software should be able to integrate with other existing software - marketing, contact management, customer success, and more.

#7 Security

Dealing with sensitive and private information with your customers is something that your team is already aware of.

But, ensure that the sales software you pick has the right security to keep all your sensitive data safe and they follow privacy laws such as GDPR, SOC-2, and more.

#8 Ease of Use

You do not want your sales representatives spending weeks and months learning one feature of the new software.

This not only reduces productivity but also increases the chances of making human errors.

Select a sales software that is easy to learn, use, and access to make sales management easy!

What are the Key Features of a CRM?

Some of the key features of a CRM are -

1. Contact management
2. Lead management
3. Workflow automation
4. Customization
5. Third-party integration
6. CRM analytics & reporting
7. Sales forecasting
8. Robust customer service

#1 Contact Management

A reputable CRM will help you store all contact information entering your sales funnel such as names, addresses, and social media profiles in a searchable database.

While all CRMs provide contact management functions, look into the layouts and usability to make sense to your business.

#2 Lead Management

A CRM makes the process of managing leads a breeze by identifying, scoring, and moving leads through the sales pipeline.

Set up an easy workflow to automate and streamline the process to make it easy.

#3 Workflow Automation

CRM software can make your life easier by automating your everyday tasks.

Look for a CRM software that lets you customize your workflows and set up custom rules to help you and your team be more productive.

By automating your workflow, you can minimize the time taken to complete sales tasks such as order processing, sending an email, follow-ups, and more.

#4 Customization

No two businesses are the same, so the best CRM software will cater to your business's unique needs.

Select a CRM that offers you customization to tailor the software to your business and lets you choose the features. Some of the areas you can customize are contact fields, reports, data tracking, extensions, coaching, and more.

#5 Third-Party Integration

Connecting your CRM to your existing software can save you a ton of time and money.

Pick a CRM that is compatible with the software you use and is easy to implement.

#6 CRM Analytics & Reporting

Also known as customer analytics, this offers insight into customer data.

This data is important to help you make better, data-driven decisions about the types of products, services, marketing, sales, and other types of communication you distribute to your customers.

A CRM software should provide you with real-time analytics and reports to always stay on top of your customers and never let a deal slip away.

#7 Sales Forecasting

A CRM with sales forecasting can accurately predict your future deals based on data from your current pipeline.

Sales forecasting provides you with an analysis to let you know the possibility of converting into a paying customer. It can also anticipate market trends to mitigate business risks.

#8 Robust Customer Service

A CRM tool can help you acquire and retain customers by providing excellent, human-like customer service.

With the help of artificial intelligence, a CRM tool can mimic a human to provide solutions to all customer queries throughout their user journey, saving a ton of time for sales teams.

What are the Benefits of Sales Software for Businesses?

Sales software helps businesses with several advantages. Here are a few benefits of using a sales software -

Improve Customer Service

Sales software can aid businesses by keeping their customer database intact and organized.

With sales software, sales teams can get an overview of how their prospects behave, including the last contact, their preferences, and details about their interactions with your company.

Close More Deals

The best sales software can help you fill your sales pipeline with leads and prioritize the most valuable leads with lead scoring.

This helps your sales team prioritize, stay focused on deals that convert, and, thus, close more deals.

Sales software can also improve collaboration and streamline workflows to improve overall team productivity.

Receive Detailed Insights into Industry Trends, Performance, and Results

Sales software provides complete access to critical data and insights to make data-driven decisions in favor of your business.

The platform collates all sales-related data, organizes, and analyzes with the leverage of technology to help your team make critical decisions fast, and shift gears accordingly.

Accurate Sales Forecasting and Better Understanding of Customers

The right sales software helps businesses easily forecast sales and other important metrics based on their activities.

These forecasts are not only accurate but also help sales teams prioritize and understand their customers better with the help of data.

In addition, with the aid of customer data, sales teams can easily understand the needs of their customers and discover hidden opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.

Conclusion

The benefits and features of sales software cannot be emphasized enough.

Whether you need help in organizing your team or handling a myriad of product requests you receive from prospects, the right sales software can help you.

If you're looking for the right sales software aided with state-of-the-art technology to help your sales team stay organized and streamline processes, book a demo to explore more.