For any business to grow, this growth is determined by the products that the business is selling and the need that these commodities are assuaging for the customers. How your business interacts with current and potential customers will determine the profit increase over time. Similarly, quantifying customer satisfaction cannot be achieved without first collecting and analyzing all the data. This quantifying is where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) comes in. By collecting, analyzing and collating all past interactions a company has had with the existing and or potential customers, CRM becomes a marketing strategy that can help one pull in a substantial profit. Not only that, but it can be maximized as a marketing tool since all your customer data is readily available. A CRM system will not only just collate and analyze data, but it will also group a business’ customers into different groups based on their preferences or budget. By doing this analysis, you can make services or products suggestions to fit within their specified segment and send out personalized advertisements or messages. This approach can lead to a significant sales conversion rate for your business.
By having a specific database of what companies’ customers disliked or liked with regard to a product, one can now move on to developing specific products tailored to that particular feedback. After buying a particular item, a customer might find out that it lacks something that might make it a much better product. A Customer Relationship Management system can observe this and immediately assess if that feature is something that all the customers might eventually need. If that feedback primarily focuses on the same areas, then that product can be developed and improved with ease. It will also make the customers feel an affinity since as a business you remembered what they purchased prior and are now offering an improved product. Additionally, CRM can look into the client’s trend from the point of inquiry for the service or product to making the purchase. The system will alert you if there is a gap or loophole, letting you address the problem accordingly.
WHAT CAN CRM DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS
• Marketing automation: CRM tools with marketing automation capabilities can automate repetitive tasks to enhance marketing efforts to customers at different points in the lifecycle. For example, as sales prospects come into the system, the system might automatically send them marketing materials, typically via email or social media, with the goal of turning a sales lead into a full-fledged customer.
• Sales force automation: Also known as sales force management, sales force automation is meant to prevent duplicate efforts between a salesperson and a customer. A CRM system can help achieve this by automatically tracking all contact and follow-ups between both sides.
• Contact center automation: Designed to reduce tedious aspects of a contact center agent’s job, contact center automation might include pre-recorded audio that assists in customer problem-solving and information dissemination. Various software tools that integrate with the agent’s desktop tools can handle customer requests in order to cut down the time of calls and simplify customer service processes.
• Geolocation technology, or location-based services: Some CRM systems include technology that can create geographic marketing campaigns based on customers’ physical locations, sometimes integrating with popular location-based GPS apps. Geolocation technology can also be used as a networking or contact management tool in order to find sales prospects based on location.
HOW TO TURN LEADS INTO SALES
Satisfied customers can quickly become loyal buyers when a business provides services or products they frequently want with great regularity. Furthermore, they can also encourage the potential customers through referrals or just by simply raving about your company. With the social media as the norm nowadays, many customers can post online comments about a service or product they liked and become significant indirect ambassadors for the business.
As a marketing tool, CRM relies on the goods and services being offered, but it additionally relies on actual client feedback. Using the CRM system one can come up with the right products and directly target the right clients who have some of the highest likelihood of always needing that product. This particular flow of information and the modifications of the product made based on the feedback can reinforce a claim for quality products, and it also displays how well you know your customers.
Getting in front of some of the best prospects can take a bit of work and might cost slightly more, but it is a necessity if you want to be very successful. Firstly, offering free trials and demonstrations are a great point to start. Make sure the trial is available to the most relevant customer and attains maximum client satisfaction. Also, make sure your campaigns are targeted correctly to the direct customers. Also, try to drive up a positive word-of-mouth vibe about you on the Internet. Good reviews at an infamous and relevant forum praising your product can easily generate more sales than a marketing campaign worth a thousand dollars.
Understandably, targeting human beings is a bit different from just ensuring the name of one’s company comes up with a search engine. People are very sentient and get either readily attracted (or easily repelled) to the stimulus that they receive from their senses. Make your advertisements slightly subtle, and don’t stick your sales pitch in the face of the visitor. It’s important to make the companies’ post more interactive. Notice how they make their posts more interactive in order to draw in the visitor. Nurture leads based on their client’s interests and activities from across multiple channels leaving the appropriate solution as a priority on the customer’s mind wherever the customer goes.
HOW TO TRACK AND MANAGE ‘TARGET MARKET’ ACTIVITIES
With CRM, you can track emails and newsletters as well as traditional campaigns such as trade shows, radio ads, events and so on. You can monitor each marketing channel and quickly determine the effectiveness of every campaign. The CRM system also makes it much easier to incorporate social promotions and applications into a company’s marketing strategy so that you can immediately track social metrics of the target market and the actual performance of all the campaigns in a single system.
