September 9, 2013
3 Proven Ways to Construct a Solid Customer Relationship Management Strategy
BY John Paul Narowski IN Sales and Marketing One Comment
If you are a small business owner, entrepreneur, marketing professional, or customer service/sales rep chances are you have heard of customer relationship management. Chances also are that you have a pretty good understanding why these CRM solutions have become so popular. The automation provided by a dependable CRM solution is priceless. Five quick benefits that come along with a customer relationship management tool are:
1. Simple contact management
We have all been in a position that forces us to search for viable contact information for a customer, collaborator, client, etc. CRM tools prevent this annoying event from occurring.
2. Sales process management
The automation of communication between a sales team and their customers has been a proven method that ensures completion of the sales process. Prospect to Lead to Customer.
3. Team management
Whether your company’s organization is an army of thousands or a militia of a few; being able to easily track and manage staff is vital for a well ordered and successful team.
4. Integration Solutions
A good CRM will give you new capabilities while also holding on to a few of your traditions. Easy integration from third party sources you are comfortable with are essential for sustained workflow and continued progress.
5. Customized Reporting
Whether you want to see who is the lead sales person for the month, or how many leads converted into a customer a viable CRM option will be able to assist you.
Obviously there are more benefits to utilizing a CRM application within your organization. For time’s sake let us limit it to these few. With automation for simple contact management, sales process management, team management, integration capabilities, and reporting you have all the tools to run an organized business.
However just because you have a hammer and nail does not make you a handy man.
Even more important than possessing the proper tools is the knowledge and know-how of ways to use them properly. As one of the top customer relationship management tools available, we at KarmaCRM would like to educate you on just that.
There are 3 steps that are crucial for you to remember when developing an effective customer relationship management strategy.
1. In CRM matters, the customer comes first… literally!
Focus on building your customer base. Of course this is easier said than done but so is anything worth your investment of time or resources. Work with your team to establish a strong marketing campaign that narrowly attacks your target market in segments. Instead of focusing on a broad group, speak to each group separately to ensure your marketing message is heard fully and received 100%. Many large companies have the resources to blast broad messages at the entire population and track results. You may or may not have this luxury. A leaner approach will equal a higher return on your investment so you too can one day benefit from a broad marketing approach. So essentially the first step is to build your base because without customers what relationships will you manage?
2. Build a relationship.
After establishing a base the next step would be to build relationships. It is a very common sense step as you cannot manage a relationship that does not exist. How you do this can vary from effective E-mail marketing to outbound calls from your trained sales team. Either way your CRM will help make this a simple process.
Sending emails
While attempting to build a relationship with your customers remember how you feel receiving hundreds of SPAM like emails. What would be a better approach? How will you ensure the customer actually engages your content?
Calling
This approach is a bit more personalized. Having a dedicated team member to reach out to new, existing, and ex customers is a great way to stand apart from the thousands of MailChimp users. Your job is to provide benefits to your customers to ensure they remain loyal. If you feel your customers will benefit more from a call than an email maybe its a better route for your organization.
3. Stay organized
It is easy for most new businesses to stay organized without any customers. Once the business begins growing you may find this a extremely difficult task. Luckily you have already prepared and have a great CRM solution in place for your organization.
This is often neglected by businesses, especially small business, as bottom line continues to be the main concern of the organization’s leaders. Remembering that not keeping your team organized could be a critical mistake that will eventually catch up.
Take a look at just one example of why your organizational skills are so important…
Company A launched about nine months ago. So far there has been no viable reporting due to lack of manpower to maintain this responsibility. Entering their fourth quarter the company CEO decides to undergo some major product changes to increase conversions.
(Fatal error#1- how are you going to increase conversions if you don’t know what your base numbers are?)
Company A takes a shot in the dark with the upgrades and launch their new product. The company spends major resources to undergo the change and expect to make this back with new sales.
This does not happen. Instead conversions stay exactly the same and the company loses money in the process.
(Fatal error#2-without any data to go off for analytical inferencing you are making assumptions about your market without ANY evidence to back it up)
This example, although it could be argued extreme, is a common scenario among unorganized businesses. Is this a reason why many fail? Who knows… The fact is that an organized business is better equipped to maintain strong positioning within their respective market.
So in other words… GET ORGANIZED!
There you have it. Three steps to a developing a strong customer relationship management strategy. Use this information to get your business and your CRM preference both in line with your goals.
