Why a CRM Is Useful for Freelancers
Is having a CRM worth it when you’re freelancing and running your own business? | Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash
The way we live and work has dramatically changed in the last decade. Instead of being bound to a physical office space, working for the same employer for years, many professionals now opt out of the rat race and decide to take the road of freelancing.
It’s a great way to finally take control of your work-life balance, gain greater flexibility and boost your income. According to think tank WITI (Women in Technology), half of the workforce will be comprised of freelancers by 2025.
However, this type of work doesn’t come without its challenges.
If you’re thinking of taking a leap into freelancing waters, first you need to decide on the tools that will make your everyday business easier and streamlined. As someone who’s working independently, you need to have impeccable time management and organization skills.
One of the tools that can help you juggle all these challenges is the right CRM (customer relationship management) software.
Who Uses CRM Software?
You’ve probably heard of CRM before in the context of sales and customer support teams. It’s a platform that’s usually used to handle and manage hundreds and thousands of potential leads, requests and customers.
However, you don’t need to be running a 50-person team to make use of a CRM tool.
According to the leading CRM software provider SalesForce, customer relationship management is defined as “a technology for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers.”
So, why shouldn’t freelancers benefit from this type of tool as well? Just like small and big companies, freelancers have relationships and interactions with their existing customers and leads (potential customers).
“The effectiveness and success of CRM tools in today’s business is partially due to their ability to be tailored to any kind of business: from one-man-show freelancers and small start-ups to huge, multinational corporations. Everything takes what they need from a CRM and that’s how the tool adapts itself”, says Kelly Hendrikson, technology and science writer at BeGraded.
To maximize the potential of using CRM in your freelancing career, we’re bringing you some of the top benefits of this approach:
During the Growth Phase
If you’re just starting out as a freelancer, your priority is probably to get the word out there and get as many clients as possible. Before you start regular cooperation with returning customers and clients, you will need to juggle hectic communications and answers to hundreds of cold emails and requests that you send.
A CRM software can be very helpful in this step. If you communicate through your CRM tool, you can easily keep track of the previous communication with each lead, label their progress and keep notes of their needs and requirements.
Another interesting feature of a CRM tool that can be useful for freelancers who are trying to grow their business is email templates. For example, if you develop a standard sales pitch template, you can save a lot of time compared to crafting a new one every time you receive an email.
With this type of a tool, it’s going to be super-easy to handle dozens of emails and messages at the same time. This will allow you to quickly build your lead and customer list and start expanding your client base!
During Regular Workflow Periods
After you have started cooperating with clients, you can easily connect your CRM software to your business email and manage your communication from there.
Within the tool, you can use labelling for taking notes of the client’s needs, reminders and calendar alerts for important events and deadlines, and a clear communication history when you need to go back to check something.
When you’re communicating with your clients, it’s much more effective to receive a real ‘ticket’ in your CRM software than a regular email. If you get busy, it’s very easy to forget to reply to some, while an open ticket will always remind you that you have to respond to someone.
For Freelancers Working with Many Clients
If you work with dozens of different clients at a time on short, one-off project, a CRM can significantly improve the way you operate and the way you communicate with them.
In a regular email provider, receiving hundreds of emails in a day, all coming from your different clients, can be very tough to handle. In a CRM tool, you can easily develop specific sections and boxes that will segment communication with each of your clients.
Even if you only work with one or a couple of clients, it’s still a great solution for keeping things organized. Also, make sure you use a cloud-based CRM tool, so that you can access it from a coworking space, coffee shop, or different locations where you’re freelancing.
For Tracking Success and Sales Metrics
The final and one of the most useful features of CRM tools in freelancing is that you can observe your conversion rates, click-through rates (CTR) for emails, successful lead contacts, etc. When you’re doing this without a plan, you will not have a clear picture of how you’re really doing.
To make it as a freelancer, you have to take your business seriously. You have to know what’s working and what’s not. Of course, it’s possible to figure these things intuitively, but it’s always better to have it in black and white.
Get Started
If you’re a freelancer who doesn’t use CRM tools because you feel like you can handle it on your own, get ready to have your world turned upside down as soon as you try it.
There is no “minimum limit” on how many clients, leads and correspondences are necessary to benefit from a CRM tool. Across all industries and communication modes, it will make your work easier, more organized and more effective.
Guest writer Bridgette Hernandez is a Master in Anthropology who is interested in writing and is planning to publish her own book in the near future. She works with professional writing companies such as ClassyEssay and TopEssayWriting as a writer.