| So you think you need a CRM system? What | | | | Automation of selling activities is often linked to |
| kind of system would suit your sales process? | | | | efforts to improve and standardize the selling |
| What can you do to convince management to | | | | process. |
| implement CRM? Many companies are asking | | | | |
| these questions every single day. While some in | | | | |
| senior management have embraced CRM, others | | | | Customer Service automation |
| are very cautious. Why? All companies want to | | | | Service automation allows companies to manage |
| increase sales, grow their company, increase | | | | their service operations, whether delivered |
| profits, and stay ahead of the competition. | | | | through call centre, contact centre, web or |
| CRM is the core business strategy that manages | | | | face-to-face. CRM software enables companies |
| all aspects of interaction a company has with its | | | | to handle and coordinate their service related |
| customers, including prospecting, sales and service. | | | | inbound and outbound communications across all |
| By integrating sales, marketing, and customer | | | | channels providing real-time access to relevant |
| service functions, it is easier for team to work | | | | customer data including orders, call and escalation |
| together and share critical information. Sales, | | | | history, interactions, support cases, e-mail and |
| marketing, and customer service teams gain the | | | | documents sent and received, sales opportunities, |
| tools they need to find new customers, close | | | | and more. |
| sales faster, and build long lasting profitable | | | | Some of the benefits your company can derive |
| relationships. CRM applications provide access to | | | | |
| ‘customer-related data' and insight into | | | | |
| company/customer relationship by combining all | | | | - Empower your staff with enterprise-wide |
| customer details, interaction, history, opportunities | | | | access to vital customer, partner, and prospect |
| into one picture. It is grounded on high quality | | | | information |
| customer related data and enabled by information | | | | - Manage and synchronize sales, marketing, and |
| technology. | | | | customer care activities across all points of |
| Some of the major modules within CRM are | | | | interaction |
| Marketing automation | | | | - Automate key aspects of the sales cycle and |
| - Campaign management | | | | analyze, forecast, and report on key sales data |
| - Event based trigger marketing | | | | - Create, schedule, and track marketing campaign |
| Sales force automation | | | | activities, and measure the performance of every |
| - Account management | | | | campaign |
| - Lead management | | | | - Access critical customer data anytime, in the |
| - Opportunity management | | | | office, on the road, or from your mobile device |
| - Pipeline management | | | | |
| - Contact management | | | | If you are finding it hard to make a decision to |
| - Quotation and proposal generation | | | | implement a CRM and at what stage of business |
| Customer Service automation | | | | lifecycle, then brainstorming on some of |
| - Case (incident or issue) management | | | | operational challenges might help to take a |
| - Service level management | | | | decision |
| | | | | - Are your company's revenues increasing |
| Marketing automation | | | | according to projections? |
| Marketing automation applies technology to | | | | - With the top five deals you lost last year, why |
| marketing processes. Campaign management | | | | did you lose these deals and who did you lose to? |
| modules allow marketers to use customer-related | | | | - What are the top three reasons that customers |
| data in order to develop, execute and evaluate | | | | stop doing business with you? |
| targeted campaigns. | | | | - Do you know how much it costs to attract a |
| Sales-force automation | | | | new customer as compared to keeping an |
| SFA applies technology to the management of a | | | | existing customer loyal to you? |
| company's selling activities. The selling process | | | | |
| goes through number of stages, such as prospect | | | | Basis the discussion, have an action plan in place, |
| identification, lead generation, lead qualification, | | | | back this up with research and you should be well |
| needs identification, proposal generation, proposal | | | | on your way in your CRM system evaluation. |
| presentation, negotiations and closing the sale. | | | | |