Storing and managing your business data using spreadsheets opens your organisation to the risk of easily losing valuable IP, including the most precious asset – your customer data.
As we outlined in our previous articles, a CRM system will provide all the tools you need to secure and track your customer and project data, and help you stay ahead of the competition.
Lead nurturing
The tender process can be cumbersome. There may be several different submissions required at each stage as you progress through it and, with multiple bids going out at once, nurturing those leads through the tender process is a difficult task without the aid of a CRM.
A CRM offers you visibility at each stage of the tender process, offers reminders of when submissions are due, helps you track and nurture your bids and leads, and collaborate with colleagues in a live environment as you progress.
Pipeline and reporting
A strong pipeline of projects that are currently being bid on, or being planned, is vital for any construction organisation. A CRM provides the visibility to easily track and manage real time opportunity pipelines with the power of integrated business insights reporting, so you always know where you are at.
A CRM frees up your resources to focus on what matters most – winning projects. You are able to see the projects you are bidding on, what stage each is at in the sales process, bid due dates, who is looking after what, when the last activity was completed and what needs to happen next.
The source of truth
A CRM offers a single point of truth for contact information, allowing a Construction company to input all the key information on a customer and projects in a single location. Each contact can also be classified according to relationship status, such as long-term customers or prospects. This can also be extended to include all of your contractors, architects, banks and competitors.
By having a single source of truth, the information can be used during any point of the sales process to provide a complete picture of your relationships, account status and where you are in a project.
Know your competition
Some CRM systems, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, offer a competitor function that provides a wealth of important sales and marketing data. You can store information about the companies that you compete against every day and track who you’re up against during the tender process – to ultimately see which competitors you’re frequently winning or losing against.
This kind of reporting functionality provides valuable insight and a leg up against the competition, allowing you to change tactics in future bids, perform detailed SWOT analyses and evaluate your win/loss percentages.
Timelines and traceability
Construction companies have their hands full managing multiple concurrent projects. With a CRM, your business can clearly understand and report on the full set of project and customer management functions from within a single system, including:
- Who is responsible for follow up at every stage of a project?
- What company resources have we allocated?
- Which contractors are we using and for what?
This functionality comes complete with full reporting, so instead of asking questions, you’re getting the answers you need.
Conclusion
A CRM presents a new way for the Construction industry to manage their workload, track customers and benefit from a standardised sales and customer relationship process. At the same time, you gain real insight into your bidding process and results, which can provide a real and immediate return on investment. For more information on how a CRM solution, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, can benefit your business, please reach out to us via the form below.
