For cloud CRM issues, Soffront runs a pretty interesting blog. Recently they posted an article noting – correctly – that as a small business owner, “you cannot afford to invest in anything unless it provides an answer or grows your business.”

This being the case, small business database software designed for customer relationship management (CRM), they say, “can meet both these needs. CRM systems for small business are affordable and increasingly essential.”

It’s not that CRM systems make you stand out from the herd anymore, even for SMBs. It’s more like not having one identifies you from the crowd. And not in the sort of way you’d want. The good news is that CRM is now available to SMBs in affordable, efficient forms.

One way CRM software pays for itself is with automation. This can reduce the expense of communicating with your customers, Soffront officials say, explaining that by automating responses to customer questions or personalized alerts about sales or new products, “you or your employees are freed to do other tasks. Your customers get faster responses and a higher degree of satisfaction, and you get more time to focus on other aspects of your business.”

The result, when done correctly: Lower costs and higher profits.

CRM software can also provide business intelligence by letting you do things like track a number of key characteristics of your customers, such as age, gender, amount spent, frequency of purchase or whatever. This helps you clearly define your customers, which means you can focus marketing efforts more successfully by knowing such things as when and how to contact existing customers and what to contact them about.

Done correctly, and as part of an overall business strategy, CRM software lets SMBs cut labor costs, deliver business intelligence, focus marketing efforts and give you more time to concentrate on your core business.

Last month TMC’s (News - Alert) Anuradha Shukla wrote that Celeritas Group selected Soffront's integrated CRM to efficiently track leads and to effectively manage their pipeline.

Celeritas Group is an investment and management holding company specializing in design, engineering, and manufacturing. For this project, Celeritas will use the marketing automation, sales automation, Soffront Mobile, and Outlook integration modules.

Soffront claims its CRM makes it easy for users to see the big picture. Because all the information a user would need is on one page it significantly cuts down the amount of time that's spent searching through the CRM for information.