How does a CRM solution boost your sales and improve your sales process and customer experience?

Imagine your business without an ERP system... Unthinkable. Imagine a sales and marketing department without a CRM system... It might work. Really...? In some areas, it seems to be working just fine – with a combination of Outlook, Excel, documents and a system for sending email newsletters to customers. Really...?

Companies that have made the move from having “no CRM” to having a system such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales are in no doubt. Every day, they experience the great benefits to be gained from managing customer relationships, the sales process and marketing in the same structured manner that procurement, inventory, production and finance are managed in an ERP system.

And, not least, from having a system that makes working together towards common goals far easier!

A CRM solution such as Dynamics 365 for Sales can impact results quite dramatically because the entire sales process becomes much more controlled, sales management and salespeople get tools that allow them to work more efficiently, and sales and marketing interact better. This allows you to seize the market opportunities and the possibilities offered by individual customers or leads far more proactively, and process them more efficiently.

But what makes the solution so effective?

 

Structured processing of customers and prospects

The key, first and foremost, is registration of customers and leads in a single database. When data is structured, that data can be shared by everyone. That, in itself, provides the basis for more proactive processing. Registration also allows you to segment based on the products or services purchased by customers. An integrated solution with Marketing Automation enables you to email a group of customers who have purchased a specific product of a given model with certain specifications or configurations – and, for example, give them a quote.

Through registration, the marketing team now also has access to all customer data. This means that behaviour on your website can be linked with information you obtain regarding any sales activities in progress. So, for example: If you have been in dialogue with a company about replacing a solution and you are awaiting a decision, and that customer then suddenly shows a lot of interest in the product on the website, the time could be ripe for a call from the sales department.

 

Basis for advanced account management

The registration of all customers also creates the basis for what could be termed advanced account management. In other words, to create individual plans for customers and prospects that structure and target sales efforts to achieve the greatest impact.

For example, you can divide your customers into different groups and decide how often to contact or hold account meetings with the companies in each group. This allows you to fully implement the sales strategy right up to your contact with the individual customer and ensure that your plan of action matches the potential.

 

When you hold a meeting, everyone will have access to notes or an actual contact report if you choose to use one.

 

Target management, pipeline management and well-founded follow-up

The CRM solution generally provides far greater transparency in all areas of sales work, and this benefits the company, the sales management and the individual salesperson.  

The company as a whole gets a far better feel for the opportunities that the sales team is working on and the status with regard to the volume of orders. Not just the sales opportunities that are right down at the bottom of the sales funnel and on the verge of being converted into an order, but also, with the aid of pipeline management, other opportunities on their way through the funnel, showing their weighting – 25 or 50 per cent, for example.

The sales management has the tools to set goals in cooperation with the individual salesperson, and this provides a good basis for ongoing follow-up and informed discussions about how things are going and whether any aspect of in the process may need to be adjusted.

Each salesperson has the tools to book meetings with customers, prepare and debrief. 

 

Market potential, development and processing

The registration of customers and prospects also makes it possible to quantify market share and provide far greater clarity regarding the potential than if the data were not available in one place. A more nuanced picture of the opportunities leaves sales management better placed to discuss how sales and market share can be increased with sales companies and distributors.

The information also flows the other way, with registration of feedback, for example from distributors in a segment or country, providing knowledge about the customers’ reaction. For example, how competitive is your pricing and how are your products or services perceived by the market compared to those of your competitors?

This can provide the basis for deciding how you handle a certain market, and the information you register is invaluable when it comes to the messages and timing of campaigns.

 

Productive collaboration between sales and marketing

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales is part of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, which also includes marketing solutions and various types of service.

The Marketing Automation solutions Dynamics Marketing or ClickDimensions can also be connected, facilitating and reinforcing mission-critical collaboration between sales and marketing on qualifying and handing over leads.

Read more about Marketing Automation here:

Strengthen the value of your CRM solution with ClickDimensions