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Tips for Maximising CRM Value

Tips for Maximising CRM Value

|By SimonCope|19 May 2016
Tips for Maximising CRM Value
 
“On average, sales and marketing costs average from 15%-35% of total corporate costs. So the effort to automate for more sales efficiency is absolutely essential. In cases reviewed, sales increases due to advanced CRM technology have ranged from 10% to more than 30%.” Harvard Business Review
 

Do you nurture customer relationships using CRM? 

CRM using RolodexUnless you’re very disciplined, either have a photographic memory or can manage your time extremely well, how do you retain they key information that provides you with an in depth understanding of your customers, and provides you with the prompts to follow up your leads? In the ‘old days’ (pre 1980’s) – one used to use “Post it notes, spread sheet, rolodex, blackboard/whiteboard or maybe even an ‘old fashioned Diary!!  

CRM Usage

As an independent Consultant and for someone who’s passionate about supporting venues to achieve sales targets, every year I’m amazed how few venues and agencies have ever installed, or use a CRM system, especially as some highly effective systems can be installed at very low cost. It's common that even where a venue has a CRM solution in place, for me to discover:
  1. Employees have not been properly trained
  2. Trained employees don’t utilise the system on a daily basis
  Am I teaching you to suck eggs?    To follow are a few basic and fundamental tips on how you can make sure it doesn’t become a ‘millstone around your neck’, but actually helps you and your team to achieve sales targets.  

Thinking of using a CRM - which one do you choose?

There’s a huge choice out there – the first question you need to ask yourself  
How many will be using it and will you want web access?
  Depending on your answer and, of course, budget there are two options:
  1. PC based - A single user license (ACT) can cost as low as £180.00
  2. Web based with multiple users - can cost from as little as £8.50 per user/per month for a web based small business focussed CRM, such as Insightly, to a cost of ‘thousands of pounds’ with ongoing annual charges, for a solution such as Salesforce
  Inisightly CRM Infographic  

What sort of data do you purchase, who from and how important is segmentation?

Ok, so now you’ve bought a CRM, the next question you need to ask is...  
What sort of data do you upload onto your CRM?
  There are a number of options:
  • Upload existing contacts – But, how up to date are the details?  Did you know that 'a third of a databases become out of date every six to nine months!?
  • Purchase NEW datathere are a number of list brokers and agencies who will try and sell you their lists. However, when considering this, you need to think very carefully about who your ‘prospect’ clients could be and consider the following
    • Size of the company - £turnover, number of employees
    • Business sector - Which is more likely to use your venue services?
    • Where are they based in the UK - If they want to meet you, do you want to travel 100+ miles?
    • Target audience - Who are they? What are their titles? Director, Event Manager, Marketing Director?
    • Number of Contacts - How many contacts should you upload - 500, 1000, 2000 or even 5,000? From personal experience, I believe that one individual cannot manage more than 500 prospects effectively in a typical year.
  • E-marketing activity – we live in a world where Social Media plays an integral part in your ‘Communication activity’, but so does e-marketing. By segmenting your database, it’s essential that you send pertinent messages which will relate to your various audiences. CRM can help you do this and track progress.
This is just a taster on what you should consider.  It can sometimes require a mind-set change in the way you engage with your ‘prospect clients’ but if you’re disciplined, you will probably achieve and even exceed your sales targets!  

How You Use CRM

The key point to remember with the implementation of any system is how you and your team utilise and harness its power.  How good, or how terrible, you consider the software to be is entirely dependent upon your engagement and execution.  Gene Marks talks about exactly this issue in his Forbes article 11 Terrible CRM Systems For Your Company.  Referring to all CRMs, he identifies when they are terrible...
"They are terrible when they are not implemented the right way.   They are terrible when companies don’t appreciate that all of these magical applications are nothing but databases and don’t put the right processes in place to ensure that all interactions are entered into this database so that the data can be properly used for further sales, marketing and service interactions."
 

Contact Simon at Generation for Growth ⇒