CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Strategy

Contrary to the common assumption that CRM refers to software or any other technological tool that is used to automate relationships with customers, CRM is primarily determined by the culture and established business processes that enable a company to interact with prospects through the operational stages of marketing, sales and after sales service.

Without intra-organizational cultural adoption of the stages upon which any CRM software is based, any implementation of such a tool cannot achieve success. The CRM strategy should enable the lead conversion and customer service teams to deliver high quality services to prospective customers thereby building and fulfilling the reputation, and promise of the organisation's brand.

Operational CRM provides the following benefits 1

Delivers personalized and efficient marketing, sales, and service through multi-channel collaboration
Enables a 360-degree view of your customers while you are interacting with them
Sales people and service engineers can access complete history of all customer interaction with your company, regardless of the touch point

The core objectives of the team is to scour the market for individuals and entities that have a need or desire for our products, inform these individuals of our existence (Brand visibility), convince them that the organisation is the ideal vendor among our competitors (Marketing), sell the products and services (Sales), and continue to maintain a positive relationship through support and services.

Based on my assessment of the existing infrastructure, I see a need for the implementation of Enterprise Marketing Automation, dynamic web presence, and SalesForce Automation tools to ensure that no opportunity is missed to turn every prospect into a happy sale. A transformation from a hand-written record keeping and tracking system to an automated end-to-end system will seal any cracks that are the root of inefficiency,

Improving customer relationships2

CRMs are also claimed to be able to improve customer relationships. Proponents say this is so because:

CRM technology can track customer interests, needs, and buying habits as they progress through their life cycles, and tailor the marketing effort accordingly. This way customers get exactly what they want as they change.
The technology can track customer product use as the product progresses through its life cycle (forums, customer service records, and pre-sales feature requests), and tailor the service strategy accordingly. This way, customers get what they need as the product ages.
When any of the technology-driven improvements in customer service (mentioned above) contribute to long-term customer satisfaction, they can ensure repeat purchases, improve customer relationships, increase customer loyalty, decrease customer turnover, decrease marketing costs (associated with customer acquisition and customer “training”), increase sales revenue, and thereby increase profit margins.

Reporting & Remarketing

The following are direct benefits of CRM automation

Marketing Automation (EMA) tools make it possible for the marketing team to effectively plan and execute marketing campaigns
Properly qualified leads are channeled to the salesforce thus enabling this team to prioritize their leads and take advantage of available opportunities in a timely manner.
Real-time reporting and monitoring is built into EMA and SFA applications thereby enabling management of have a dashboard view of the lead conversion progress and intervene as needed to improve sales
Prospect-Lead-Contact-Account-Opportunity-Sale trends can be analyzed across market segments and prospect profiles, enabling marketing strategists to subsequently plan better marketing campaigns.

CRM Options