Customize your CRM to meet your sales, lead generation and lead nurturing needs.
Your business is growing and you want to have a more productive workforce that can adapt to the new styles of working. You know that improving your sales process will fuel growth and you realize that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a powerful tool that can help create customer centric and data-driven processes. However, you’re unsure of the best way to use your CRM to develop strategies to attract strangers, convert leads and delight customers.
Regardless of your industry and company’s size, here are 7 tips to customize your CRM to reflect your sales process:
#1 - Create a Plan and Prioritize CRM Customization
Establish a timetable with the management team to determine the metrics to measure success. Management endorsement is crucial for your CRM vision, strategy and objectives. Moreover, ensure your entire team are on board as CRMs are not just for sales; you can gather valuable information for IT, HR, Logistics and Finance among other departments. Having this data-driven mindset will improve customer experience, sales and fuel growth.
#2 - Focus on the Buyer's Journey
After establishing your general plan, think about what needs to happen to turn a stranger into a customer. Only include steps that are required and take into account stages that sales reps can’t skip to close a deal. If you find highly motivated customers, for instance, you can skip setting up a call to convince them they have a problem, as they are the ones who will reach out to you. A demo of the product, on the other hand, is an essential step. Moreover, delighting customers should guide your process so that you can prioritize buyers over sellers. Think about awareness, consideration and decision to design your sale strategy so that you can have happy customers that eventually become promoters.
#3 - Turn the Sales Process into Deal Stages
Use deal stages for each step of your sales journey, which will represent actions that have been completed by potential customers such as appointments accepted, products evaluated, contracts received or agreements signed. It is important to include a stage like deal lost or on hold for leads that don’t become customers. You could even create templates for each activity as a guideline to improve your communication. Moreover, remember that you can predefine the information you want to see in your CRM and create lists that show relevant information about your leads, deals, or contacts. Get an overview of the whole pipeline so that you can refine your pitch according to each buyer persona. Remove redundancy and embrace simplicity.
#4 - Implement an Effective Billing System
There are various ways in which companies can invoice their customers. Find out the billing method that best meets your buyers’ needs. Organizations that focus on improving their billing systems have higher levels of customer satisfaction and reduce churn by developing long term customer relationships. Determine what payment types you are going to accept and automate a reliable billing system.
#5 - Extend Your CRM
You need to standardize your processes so that you can replicate and grow. Your business should utilize more than just sales automation to manage all its processes. Get all the benefits of Google Apps, Office 365, Third-Party Extensions, or your in-house applications, by integrating them into your CRM. Your teams need to communicate and collaborate, so you might need to add new apps or extensions as required to share information and extend its reach.
#6 - Empower Your Remote Workforce
Prioritize mobility and flexibility by providing your workforce with customer data and analytics across devices. Let your employees configure their mobile devices to satisfy customers according to your specific business needs.
Customers expect a mobile experience, so having immediate access to the very latest business information via a variety of platforms is crucial. Gamifying performance measurement, for instance, will enable team members to share victories and celebrate success, which will increase the overall motivation.
#7 - Continuous Improvement
Take into account that buyers have more information than ever, so they have more power to decide and evaluate their choices. Customizing your CRM is therefore not a one-time event. It is an everyday process of continuous improvement. Keep updating your services and explore new features that can add more value and reduce complexity. Focus on apps and implementations based on your priorities. You don’t need to get everything done at once; it is better to prioritize the most important deliverables.
These are only guidelines, but as you integrate and customize CRM solutions into your business, you’ll discover how you can use CRMs to complement the vision and strategy of your organization. Involve everyone in your team and be proactive by taking advantage of new technologies to gather and analyze valuable data to effectively guide customers through the buyer's journey.
