The work of the sales agent has never been more important
What role does agent CRM software play in powering business growth?
Small businesses make up most of the economy. And when business is down, it’s up to sales teams to save their companies.
Empowering sales agents to do their job should be every leader’s priority.
This is especially true since companies in every industry — from the real estate industry to insurance companies — are demanding more out of their sales agents and reps:
- The real estate agent needs to close more property deals each month
- The sales agent needs to sell more products and services
- The insurance agent needs to sell more policies
But individual agents face numerous challenges with selling
Sales, insurance, and real estate agents deal with many roadblocks to the sale. These include:
- Inefficient sales workflows: Fragmented sales processes and the lack of a sales playbook mean agents spend more time learning the basics than closing sales.
- High churn: Low customer retention rates harm profits and increase customer acquisition costs.
- Low visibility: Without ample visibility into their customer accounts, agents aren’t able to spot opportunities for account expansion.
- Competition: Higher market competition means agents must work harder to earn a sale.
- Communication challenges: Working with remote colleagues introduces team communication challenges.
- Outdated tools: Hard-to-use software tools hinder rather than help agents.
- Redundancy: Repeating data entry or questions to customers delays progress, degrades data hygiene, and damages the customer experience.
The right work management tools can make work easier
The tools you use to manage work can make or break an agent’s sales effectiveness.Â
While the sales process has become more challenging, agents have struggled to keep up with the tools meant to ease their burdens.Â
These tools are either hard to use, expensive, siloed, or data insecure.Â
For example, using Excel spreadsheets or a Google Sheet eventually results in lots of data sitting in multiple workbooks, updated by different team members at different times.
Lacking a single source of truth hampers decision-making and slows down the work of agents.
Integrated tools like customer relationship management + work management platforms can bring all outstanding work into one place and help agents work faster.
>> 85% of CRM users look forward to an improved customer experience.
Using the best agent CRM software makes a big difference
Managing customer relationships and customer data is the name of the CRM game.
This holds true whether you’re looking for the best real estate CRM software, lead generation CRM, insurance CRM, or the best CRM software for email marketing campaigns.
The right CRM software supercharges your account management, lead management, and contact management.Â
It fosters productivity, faster sales, and collaboration in your small business.
With a modern CRM solution + work management platform, you get:
- More sales
- Lower labor costs
- Better agency management
- Improved agent productivity
- More accurate sales forecasting
- Improved customer relationships
- Better customer data management
- Deeply insightful analytics and reporting
>> 91% of companies with 10 or more employees use a CRM
Choosing an agent CRM platform has never been more difficult
There are over 700 CRM options on the market today. Each one has different features, pricing, and value offerings.
However, many CRMs are either challenging to use, lock you into onerous contracts, don’t integrate with your other work apps, or don’t provide full visibility into your operations.
You don’t have the time to try them all, and each day you delay robs you of profits.
Buying the best insurance agency CRM platform or real estate CRM software should be easier – and we’re here to help.
>> Lead generation and customer retention are the largest uses of CRM software at 32%
What should you look for in agent CRM software?
There are several features you should consider when buying a new CRM tool:
- Visibility –Â So agents can see all their accounts in one place and proactively solve their needs.
- Ease of use –Â Agents can spend less time fiddling with controls and more time selling.
- Convenience –Â Work on the go using any device.
- Collaboration –Â Agents can gather necessary context and hand over accounts as needed.
- Flexible pricing –Â Never pay more than you use.
- Integrations –Â Pull data from other apps into one place.
- Customization –Â Configure your CRM system to work the way you do.
- Security and compliance –Â Safeguard your data and remain compliant.
- Support –Â Get help for anything, any time, at no extra cost.
- A whole host of features –Â This includes everything from sales pipeline dashboards and auto-generated reports to full communication context and task reminders.
>> The professional services industry accounts for 30% of the CRM market, followed by the manufacturing sector at approximately 12%
FreeAgent CRM is the best agent CRM for your sales, real estate, or insurance business
We’re obviously biased, but our reviews and customer stories speak for us.
FreeAgent CRM is built with the agent in mind. It helps:
- Call center agents to answer customer inquiries and requests faster
- Sales agents to qualify, convert and expand new customer accounts
- Travel sales agents to book more hotel stays, vacations, and cruises
- Real estate agents to close more housing and commercial deals
FreeAgent delivers these benefits through its suite of flexible, customizable features:
- It offers visibility by putting all your accounts and communications in one place so you can upsell, cross-sell, and save lagging accounts before they churn
- It’s easy to use thanks to its user interface and shallow learning curve
- It’s mobile-enabled so you can work anywhere on the go
- It enables collaboration inside the software itself, so no more endless emails
- It’s affordable and gives you unlimited seats for one low price, so you can scale as you grow
- It integrates with many of the work tools you use daily, from email and spreadsheets to invoicing and payments systems
- You can customize your FreeAgent CRM installation to suit your exact needs, from the colors and language to the individual modules and granular access control
- It’s safe by default, allowing you to set who gets access to your data – plus it’s HIPAA compliant
- You get quick, helpful support whenever you have problems with your FreeAgent CRM installation
- It’s packed with a whole host of features that make your workday better and more productive
>> The expected average ROI for every dollar spent on sales CRM software is $8.71.
Hear directly from our clients using FreeAgent CRM
We’re bullish on FreeAgent CRM as the most agile CRM platform for agents everywhere.
It’s even more exciting when our customers experience growth through FreeAgent CRM.
Here are a few stories from the wild.
Customer Story: Royal Palms
For over 30 years, Royal Palm Properties has served a single cohort of customers: the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club.
The real estate agency pairs high-end buyers with their dream homes, focusing on delivering a memorable customer experience.
But after decades of managing property sales through spreadsheets, it was time for a change.
They transitioned to FreeAgent CRM and improved their ability to:
- Organize their lists
- Create more targeted campaigns
- Match clients with the right properties
Read the Royal Palms Properties customer story here.
Customer Story: FastEST Inc.
FastEST is an estimating software tool that was designed by estimators for estimators.Â
It is fast, powerful, and intuitive, and allows estimators to work how they want to work, both at the office and in the field.
When they began looking for a CRM, they started with some of the bigger names. The problem was that they were too expensive.Â
FastEST didn’t need every feature and didn’t want to pay for a bunch of features they wouldn’t use.
After switching to FreeAgent CRM, they won back 24 extra hours a week and 17% more revenue.
They also proved that CRM implementation doesn’t have to be long, painful, or expensive.
Read the FastEST customer story here.
Try FreeAgent CRM today
You can test-drive FreeAgent CRM today, for free, and discover for yourself how the right tools can lead to work days full of impact.Â
For help getting started, check out our CRM implementation guide.
Long live the agent.
