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Customer Relationship Management tools and Sales Force Automation (SFA) tools help companies streamline their processes and improve the implementation and execution of processes. According to research, SFA software increases average sales by 27%, decrease the sales cycle by 16% and reduce sales administration time by 14%. CRM software, on the other hand, improves customer retention by 27% and 6 out of 10 small businesses are using their CRM for relationship management.

SFA is a technique of using software that automates business tasks of sales that includes order booking information, sales tracking, target orientation, cold calls, employee performance evaluation, and customer management.

CRM, on the other hand, is a technology for managing the company’s relationships and interactions with current and potential customers. It improves profitability by providing customer communication, sales responses, marketing campaigns in the pipeline, accounts data, and service support. Here is the detailed comparison between CRM and SFA.

FUNCTIONAL ROLE
CRM software is used to retain customers and maintain a healthy client relationship. Sales play an important role in initiating this relationship. Once a prospect becomes a customer, the relationship is transferred from the sales representative to an ‘Account Manager’ who oversees the partnership with the client. The software collects all the information of the client which helps the company in providing better customer relationship.

SFA is used to attain new customers. Sales Force Automation is a tool that is used by the sales team to organize contacts and opportunities on a single platform. It is also used for generating and forecasting reports for the sales pipeline management. SFA automates various business tasks such as sales processing, stocks, retailer’s data and tracking of the on-ground sales team.

CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE
CRM is concerned with strategies, practices, and technologies that companies use to analyze and manage customer interactions. Throughout the customer lifecycle, their goal is to improve business relationships with customers and assist in customer management and drive growth.

Sales Force Automation manages a part of the customer lifecycle. SFA’s aim is to solve all the challenges faced by the sales team of the companies. It deals with challenges such as sales tracking, order booking, payment collection, and furthermore.

PROCEDURAL ROLE
Good CRM platforms serve as a single source for obtaining and maintaining client information. The companies can manage, maximize, and measure the performance growth through CRM software.

SFA tools are dedicated to increase the productivity of the sales team, improve daily reporting, optimize processes and pipeline management, and meet other sales-specific needs to increase the generated revenue.

OBJECTIVE ROLES
CRM tools provide a centralized system for managing customer lifecycle data and thus reduce the time required in managing all the records by bringing everything in one place.CRM helps to maintain client profiles to empower their long-term relationship with the organization. CRM decreases churn and increases opportunities by improving communication.

Solutions measure and manage different sales activities, carry out ordering automation and order booking, provide a summarized sales record, allow the managers to check daily sales from the backend. The sales automation platform improves sales productivity and performance and is built by keeping sales-specific challenges and requirements in mind.

One of the major misconceptions of the businesses is that they should choose between SFA and CRM. In reality, SFA and CRM support each other. Integrate both to provide improved sales efficiency and solve customer-related challenges. Cygneto’s SFA application provides all the necessary means to help companies increase their on-ground sales efficiency.

Request a demo today and begin your journey towards streamlined processes!