Are you having a rough time turning leads into sales? Dealing with data overload? Loads of customer complaints?

It's probably because you're using a bad system to operate. A messy sales process significantly disrupts your workflow, making it difficult to handle customers, manage data, and ultimately sell your product.

This is where a sales CRM comes in handy. CRM or customer relationship management is a system that helps you manage interactions with your customers – whether it's building relationships, collecting data, or addressing their concerns. 

Why Does Your Company Need a CRM?

It should be obvious. Customers are the backbone of your business. 

You can have the most amazing product in the world, yet it won't mean a thing unless your customers understand its value. And to make them realize. You have to earn this trust.

The best way to do this is to provide quality service consistently. However, it won't be easy keeping up, especially when your business is growing fast.

A CRM lets you cater to every lead, so you don't miss a single sales opportunity. Here are more benefits of a CRM system.

• Streamlines your sales process. The tool automatically organizes sales, reminds you to follow up leads, automatically dials calls, sends bulk emails, and more.

• Provides an enjoyable sales experience to your customers. They will be glad if their questions are answered in a timely manner.

• Speeds up your sales cycle. With all the data centralized and customer entries automated, you quickly wrap up one transaction after another.

• Analyze what works and what doesn't. It gives you comprehensive reports on the number of conversions, sales funnel, milestones, revenue, etc.

• It minimizes the possibility of error. The software's superior automation ensures you gather the correct data from conversations.  

A company with no CRM is like having a pencil without a sharpener. It can work, but you'll find it difficult to get things done.

Building a Sales CRM 

At present, there's a wide range of CRM apps to choose from in the market. But we're not going to tackle those. 

You're going to learn something even better today: creating your own CRM tool using Dashup.

Hey. No backing out! We'll keep it simple in this guide. To give you an overview, you'll be making a basic database that lets you add contacts and manage your sales pipeline. 

Ready? Let's go!

1. Login to Dashup. On the left side of your dashboard, click ‘Add Item’ to create a page. Name it Contacts Database.

2. Click on the pencil icon beside the page name, then set your filter to 'users.' This allows you to check what a sales staff member is up to while on the page.

3. Tap on the ‘+’ sign beside Contacts Database to add another page. Name it ‘Add Contacts’. Then click on Contacts Database again and set the page type to ‘Model Page.’

4. Click Add Contacts and choose ‘Form Page.’ Now it’s time to create a form where you can input customer data.

5. Select a form model and choose Contacts Database. Next, tap on ‘Alter Form’ to add fields. Click the ‘+’ sign to show the list of available fields.

6. There are various fields you can use. For this project, type ‘Text’ then drag the field to the highlighted box. Click ‘Set Label’ and type Name.

You can write something on the Help section to give the user a hint on what to input. For this, we’re going to type ‘Company Name, representative, or agent.’

Place another text field and label it Company Name.

Place another text field and label it Company Size.

7. Next, add a new field. Search email field box and place it below the name field. Label it Email.

8. As you might have realized already, you’ll basically just have to drag and drop fields into your page. Add these three other fields to your Add Contacts page.

Image Field

Phone Field

Money Field

9. Add a Select Field and label it Vertical. Tap the Add Option to create selections for the sales pipeline. Add Insurance, Retail, and Marketing. You can assign a color to an option using the dropper icon on the right.

10. Add another Select Field and label it State. This will enable you to set the lead conditions. Add options Cold, Warm, Not Interested, Deal Won, and Deal Lost.

11. Add a User Field and label it Assigned To. Click on the enable multiple values tick box.

12. Your dashboard should look like this by now. You can add a few more fields for other data that you need to collect.

13. You should now add columns to your database. This is where entries will show up. Go to Contact Database. Click the column icon on the right side of your screen. Add all the fields you created earlier.

14. Almost done. You’ll now make a view board to monitor your sales pipeline. Create a new page and label it Sales Pipeline. Select Board Page type.

15. Set the Board Model to Contacts Database. Set Board Forms. Modal Form to Add Contacts.

Assign Group By to State. Set Tag Field(s) to Vertical. Set User Field(s) to Assigned To.

16. Lastly, paste this tiny block of text in Item Display to automatically record new entries to your board.

<b> {{ name }} </b>

<br>

<b>Company Name:</b> {{ companyName }}

17. And you’re finally done! Congratulations on making your very own Contacts Database. This is the first step to creating a Sales CRM using Dashup. Naturally, you can edit labels and add fields according to your specific needs.

How to Use Your Sales CRM

So after spending a few minutes on this project, here’s how you can use it to manage your contacts efficiently and in one place.

1.  As an example, let’s add two contacts using the Add Contacts page. Assigned To directs lets you choose the sales staff member working on the contact.

Contact 1

Contact 2

2. You can head over to Contacts Database to view and delete a contact.

3. Finally, you can use the Sales Pipeline page to check the state of a contact. If you need to update the state of a contact, simply drag and drop their card to the appropriate table.

More of Dashup

Alright! That was easy, right? Handling your contacts will be a breeze now. Plus, doesn't it feel good to come up with your own functional app? You get to choose what features to add or remove.

Still, take it easy, though, or you'll get addicted to this freedom and the power to create. Moreover, this is only a scratch on the surface of what you can do to organize your workspace using Dashup.

Want to take your sales management to the next level? Check out this guide on adding a bulk mailer to your system.