What is CRM and how can it help your Marketing and Sales strategy

Have you ever had to sift through emails and more emails looking for a piece of information exchanged with a customer? Or, worse, ended up losing a sale because you couldn't get back to someone in a timely or accurate manner? These are situations that a CRM software seeks to avoid – which, in other words, means more productivity and efficiency for the sales team.

 

CRM is a customer relationship management. The CRM’s main goal is precisely to gather in one place all the data you need – to not only close the sale, but also to retain consumers –, allowing for easy access in an organized fashion.

 

And the CRM software is not just connected to the Sales team. After all, the Marketing team is also looking for new contacts, prospecting potential customers and nurturing these relationships. Marketing and Sales are departments that work together, in an exchange that involves, on both sides, the creation and maintenance of a good – and constant – relationship with those who are consuming the company's products or services.

 

3 benefits of using a CRM

 

Who has never gone through the experience of receiving, a long time later, a call or an email from a company wanting to sell something that we are no longer interested in buying? An organization’s response time is one of the most relevant factors in closing a sale. 

 

The customer experience needs to be great at all stages of the purchase process, from learning about the product or service to the decision to buy it. That's why it's important to have details about the customer journey and reply in the most customized way possible. Below, we talk in detail about these and other advantages of using a CRM.

 

1. Consolidated contact data

 

Most companies use a series of platforms for different activities: one system for payments, another for sending emails, another one for issuing invoices, etc. The more scattered customer information is, the more difficult it is to know the history of interaction with the company, the problems and successes of this relationship.

 

The CRM aims to gather the most relevant data from these contacts, allowing the Marketing and Sales teams to respond quickly and efficiently to the demands that arise. A good experience increases customer conversion and retention.

 

This consolidated data is particularly important if the customer is in contact with more than one person within your organization. With the CRM software and strategy, all the people involved are aware of what other employees have talked about with or did for the customer.

 

Qualification of leads

 

More than just customers, a CRM system integrated with an email marketing automation platform also allows for the qualification of leads – that is, contacts that can become buyers. Oftentimes, it is the Marketing team that deals with those who have not yet purchased a product or service.

 

Therefore, having the Marketing and the Sales tools (the CRM) connected is essential in you want to take advantage of sales opportunities. Combining lead scoring and funnel stage, for example, is a possible path to improve the timing and type of approach to a hot contact (qualified lead).

 

2. Task automation

 

Imagine your car has just broken down, but you don't have insurance coverage to call a tow truck or get a spare car. And just at that time someone from an auto insurance brokerage calls with an offer. Chances are you will be more likely to take out insurance at this time than in previous ones.

 

Timing is one of the crucial points that automations bring to Marketing and Sales processes. Most CRMs have features that indicate the best time to contact a customer and try to close a deal. When connected to the Marketing automation platform, the CRM software has data to know more precisely who is inclined to make the purchase.

 

Calendly-like meetings that the customer can schedule him/herself are also an essential automation nowadays: the client makes the appointment, they system books a salesperson calendar, and nobody forgets or misses the opportunity. In addition, it saves time and resources.

3. Metrics and Opportunities

 

Finally, the CRM helps you monitor your team's productivity, in addition to allowing you to measure the success of your Sales and Marketing processes. Knowing the stages in which your prospects (qualified leads) are converting the sale or abandoning the kart, which arguments are the most efficient, what is the average time to purchase: all this data helps to improve your strategy and planning.

 

In addition, with more complete reports, it is often possible to observe new opportunities, whether in terms of marketing campaigns and actions, or promotions and sales processes.

 

BONUS: Integrated CRM to increase sales

 

As you can see, customer data from different sources, when gathered and organize, form a kind of “photograph” of that person or company. This information allows you to understand what pains and needs exist, and how your product or service can be the solution to these problems.

 

A tip for those who want to extract more from the CRM and increase sales is to integrate the CRM with the email automation platform, and also with other systems that your organization uses. Using a service like n8n (nodemation) or Zapier, for example, you can gather even more data, and create a “high resolution photo” of your future customers – using technology to grow your business.

 

Interested? If you want to experience the benefits of a CRM in practice, we suggest checking out the Powertic CRM plugin, which connects with Mautic and integrates your customers' data natively. You can also check out other posts (in Portuguese) we have here on how to integrate CRM with your marketing automation platform.