Check out our video recap of this post below!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W3brvlF0WIIf your goals are to move leads more seamlessly through your customer journey, improve sales, and retain your customers, your customer relationship management (CRM) system is your best friend. Just having a subscription for a shiny CRM tool isn’t enough; you and your team need to know how to use it to its fullest potential. Here’s how to maximize customer relationship management in marketing.
1. Intentional training
You’ve already identified what you need from your CRM, but before your CRM system can really deliver true value, your team has to know how to use it properly. Whether you use Salesforce, Pipedrive, SharpSpring, HubSpot, or any other CRM system, there are nuances to master in order to get the most bang for your buck. Check to see what training resources are offered from the CRM provider, or bring in an expert to train your team in person. It can make all the difference.
2. Integration with other tech and daily habits
The value a CRM can bring is often limited when employees don’t see it as a part of their existing routines. Make sure your team can access your CRM via mobile devices, and that you’ve integrated the tech with your company’s other digital calendars, email solutions, and marketing automation systems. This will make it intuitive, and ingrained in their day-to-day routines.
3. Invite sales and marketing to collaborate
If your salespeople and your marketing folks are using your CRM platform differently from one another, it’s going to be confusing and counterproductive. Get them all in the same room and discuss how each is using the software, who is responsible for what, and how to stay on the same page.
4. Improve data cleanliness.
Uniformity and cleanliness in your CRM data is key. Remember it’s about managing relationships. Garbage in, garbage out! Clean data will create useful reports, reduce errors, and maximize functionality. Make sure your entire team knows how they’re expected to input data (including whether or not to use acronyms, numerical values versus full spellings and so on). Also, train them or appoint someone on what to do when they find duplicates (e.g. merge contact records once a week or flag the duplicates for one designated member of the team).
5. Inspect regularly
Make a plan to check in on how useful your CRM system is every quarter or so. Are you getting value from it? If so, great! Consider how to keep amplifying that. If not, it might be time to identify what’s holding you back, or even check out another platform. After all, why use CRM software if it isn’t getting you closer to your goals?
Contact us anytime to learn more about customer relationship management in marketing and how to improve CRM performance. We’re eager to set your business’s relationships up for success so you can move your leads through their customer journey, increase sales, and keep your customers.
Key Takeaways:
• Customer relationship management tools come in all shapes and colors - identify what you need
• Train your team to use all the features - bigger bang for your buck
• Collaborate and include any teams using the software to stay connected
• Garbage in, garbage out. Clean data = clean reports
• Make it a point to actually use it, and reevaluate quarterly