Then, optimizing your customer relationship helps improve the contact conversion rate : using a CRM can increase the conversion rate of prospects into customers by more than 300% 1 . It is also an excellent way to build customer loyalty and encourage their retention . In summary, a well-executed CRM strategy improves turnover: 75% of sales managers say that using a CRM allows them to increase their sales 2 .
In this illustration, a CRM and its various tools.
1. Select the data that is really important to you
To succeed with your CRM strategy, ask yourself the right questions about the data you need to process . If your salespeople are not productive enough, it may be because they spend too much time performing complex and tedious data entries that ultimately lead to few results. Before embarking on this type of task, it is essential to identify the key data , i.e. those that will really be used. For example, knowing the number of children a customer has is essential if you sell childcare items or toys, but in a B2B context , is it really important?
2. Choose the right CRM for your business
To manage your customer relationship, a quality CRM is essential, but this criterion is not enough: it must above all be adapted to your business . Concretely, what does that mean?
First, select a CRM based on the size of your company and your industry. There are horizontal CRMs that cater to all businesses and vertical CRMs that specialize in a particular business area, such as real estate or insurance, for example.
Depending on the maturity of your company , opt for a more or less complex CRM. If you are new to customer relations, choose a simple-to-use tool that offers basic features, such as Pipedrive. When you are more experienced, move on to the next level with CRMs such as HubSpot or Salesforce . You can also turn to an integrator to obtain modules that are perfectly adapted to the needs that you have been able to define upstream.
3. Automate again and again
To increase productivity, your salespeople can no longer afford to perform repetitive tasks manually. Not only is it time-consuming, but it is also boring and demotivating. CRMs offer the possibility of automating a large number of processes , so you might as well take advantage of it:
Email reminder sequences,
Automatic assignment of customers to the right salesperson,
Scheduling or postponing tasks,
Marketing automation .
Automating all these tasks helps increase the conversion rate : for example, we think of emails sent automatically after a shopping cart abandonment. It is also an effective way to reduce friction and free up time for the sales team . They can then focus on more strategic missions.
4. Train your salespeople continuously
Training salespeople to understand and use data should be an integral part of your CRM strategy. Without this component, your tool will be filled with a multitude of unexploited data. To take charge of this mission, the ideal is to call on a SalesOps , a CRM and acquisition expert. They will be able to guide you in optimizing your CRM processes.
Once the basics have been acquired, however, there is no question of resting on one's laurels. Your salespeople must continually train themselves on best practices . They must question their use of CRM in a process of constant improvement of performance.
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5. Personalize your interactions with your customers using data
Collecting data is only useful if you take action to botim database exploit it. Use your CRM to segment your contacts, develop customized workflows , and personalize the messages you send to your customers.
Your targets need to feel unique and you can offer them this pleasure by adapting the content you offer them. Thanks to various data (identity, geolocation, purchase history, etc.), you can personalize your landing pages, email campaigns, SMS , but also your website. To compare the performance of each personalization, consider carrying out A/B tests.
6. Make your life easier with an easy-to-use CRM tool
You’re going to use your CRM every day, so get one that you enjoy working with. Choose one that’s user-friendly : the interface should be easy to use and well-organized. If you have to constantly scroll from one end of the window to the other or click 10 buttons before you can view a piece of data, you’re likely to lose your patience quickly. Many sales professionals make this criticism of powerful but cumbersome solutions like Salesforce.
Also consider your CRM’s automation capabilities . Look for a tool that reduces manual entry by automatically retrieving data. For example, Hubspot automatically populates a company’s public data fields from its website URL.
7. Do the right analyses
CRM is a tool designed to synthesize and analyze data . Use its power to understand what actions are working and what should be abandoned. Build your dashboards based on the data that has the most value for your business. Reconcile the numbers in different ways to highlight correlations that are not immediately obvious. You can also analyze sales cycles over the year to determine seasonality.
In reality, your CRM must be used to analyze absolutely all your actions : each sale, campaign, newsletter, etc. must be examined with a fine-tooth comb. This is how you can improve your performance and therefore your turnover.
8. Centralize your customer data
Don't get lost in a multitude of tools that are impossible to connect with each other. When choosing your CRM, make sure that you can integrate it with the solutions you already use, such as a DMP for example. The data will be updated automatically : you will thus avoid entries and possible errors that go with it. You will also obtain a unified vision of your customer data and will be able to use it as a powerful lever for performance. By centralizing your data, you put customer relations at the heart of your business strategy.