CRM stands for “Customer Relationship Management”. It’s data-driven software that improves how you engage and do business with your customers and prospects. CRM systems help you to:
- Manage and maintain customer relationships;
- Track sales lead; and
- Feed and nurture your pipeline with intelligent, data-based marketing.
Why implement a CRM solution?
First, consider what a sound CRM system might mean for your business. It will help increase your profitability by streamlining administrative processes in your sales, marketing, and service divisions.
This allows you to focus on building and maintaining the customer relationships that matter most.
Without a centralised and automated CRM system, your people can lose track of customer interactions, miss business opportunities and fail to meet targets. This could mean you:
- Miss growth opportunities;
- Lose revenue because you’re not optimising your processes; and
- Fail to make the most of your customer relationships or sales leads.
On the other hand, a robust CRM solution is a platform where everything crucial to developing, improving, and retaining your customer relationships is stored. A good CRM gives you the power to:
- Keep track of customer information;
- Close deals before a competitor; and
- Have a sales team that works in unison, not in competition.
How to get the most out of your CRM
CRMs aren’t just about choosing solutions for sales and service automation; they help you connect better and engage with customers, anticipate the buyer’s journey and find ways to meet customer needs better than your competition.
Researching which CRM to implement can be overwhelming. Here are four tips to help you find the best software for you, your customers, and your business.
#1: Know how the parts of CRM software work together
An effective customer engagement tool assists with automating tasks, offering insights and improving customer service.
It should cover the essential functions your company requires support with while ensuring each component integrates and collaborates with the others.
#2: Align sales and marketing
Sales and marketing components can work together to help you better understand and address a customer’s needs through the proper marketing channels. These two functions can work together to help you by connecting with buyers at the right time and through their preferred channels.
They can also help you determine what messages to send customers and when to deliver them. Finally, prioritising and nurturing the right leads can ensure a smooth hand-off from marketing to sales.
#3: Increase sales productivity
The right CRM software allows your sales team to find and prioritise the right leads and deliver insights when and where your sales teams engage with customers. These systems can work together to predict future sales and budgets so you can plan accordingly. They can help your agents streamline the sales processes – from initial contact to closing the deal.
A CRM also centralises data so agents can access real-time information and deliver quick solutions. With cloud-based CRM, you can also offer your sales staff mobility because the system works across browsers and devices on or off-location.
#4: Build better customer relationships
Combining customer service and sales helps you determine and predict your customer’s preferences and make it easier for your buyers to interact and trust doing business with you. When these two solutions combine, they can help you get insights into your customers’ journeys so you can meet their expectations.
You might also provide mobile applications for your clients and staff no matter what device they’re using or offer customers an easy-to-use, self-service portal so they can control their data and quickly find answers to their questions.
Why do we recommend Dynamics 365?
We love Dynamics 365 from Microsoft because it gives you a flexible solution that’s customisable to suit your business needs.
Marketing: improve your customer journey
- Generate multichannel marketing campaigns;
- Nurture sales-ready leads;
- Align your sales and marketing teams with planning and tracking tools that integrate with your existing apps and services;
- Foster leads;
- Run multichannel campaigns, including email marketing, content and events;
- Target matched audiences based on LinkedIn interactions; and
- Create personalised workflows for each stage of your buying experience.
Better decisions
Real-time data will give you valuable insights into your brand reputation and performance.
You will be able to prioritise leads using multiple lead-scoring models. Custom dashboards will enable you to analyse the data that matters.
Adapt quickly
You can automate processes for customer experiences, drive innovation and business decisions with artificial intelligence and use the Microsoft cloud platform to reduce operating costs while simplifying deployment across your infrastructure.
Sales: Empower sellers to drive personal engagement with customers
- Understand customer needs better, engage more effectively, and win more deals;
- Sell smarter with embedded insights that foster relationships, boost productivity and accelerate sales performance; and
- Use AI to track customer engagement and automate sales execution with contextual prompts that drive sales.
Grow your business
You can improve your win rate with a dynamic, event-driven sales process. At the same time, you’ll build a pipeline with high-quality leads and prospects while measuring past actions and planning for the future.
Stay focused
Dynamics 365 helps you find the right prospects and customers. It allows you to know the following best action to move relationships forward and, therefore, to build a high-performing sales team.
Win faster
The CRM helps you engage and collaborate around strategic deals, align with the buyer’s journey to deliver personalised engagement and, of course, work anytime, anywhere.
Field service: empower your agents to create a better customer experience
Streamline scheduling, inventory management, and on-site efficiency. Offer quick and transparent communications and tracking functionalities to keep customers connected to your field agents.
Improve operational efficiency
Dynamics 365 helps you detect and solve problems faster with the Internet of Things.
It helps reduce costs using predictive maintenance and enables you to automate work orders, scheduling, and dispatching.
Empower field agents
The CRM helps boost on-site efficiency by providing technicians with mobile access to data.
You can deliver a more personalised service by understanding customer preferences and history to enable technicians to work hands-free using innovative technology, like mixed reality headsets.
Build trust
Dynamics 365 helps you provide customers with real-time technician location tracking and appointment reminders.
The CRM lets you share quotes, contracts, and scheduling information quickly and easily.
Finally, it lets customers self-schedule appointments and monitor service with a customer portal.