Improve your customer relations and boost your leads with a CRM strategy

A CRM strategy is a valuable asset for your company. Generating leads, optimizing return on investment and increasing sales... It offers many opportunities that make it an essential element in ensuring the successful development of your company. However, implementing a CRM strategy and using the right tools doesn't come naturally, and requires a certain amount of support.

What is a CRM strategy?

A CRM (Customer Relation Management) strategy is a set of customer-focused processes implemented within the various departments of a company (sales, marketing, customer service, etc.). This type of strategy is based on a clear definition and understanding of the target's needs and problems, with the aim of providing a tailor-made response and an excellent customer experience.

Why implement a CRM strategy?

There are many advantages to implementing a CRM strategy within your company.

1. Improve your sales performance

A CRM strategy can significantly improve the productivity of your company's sales teams. This is particularly the case with the use of certain customer relationship management software, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Zoho CRM. The latter offer, for example, the possibility of working offline or via a mobile application.

The fully customizable aspect of these CRM tools enables sales teams to save time by automating certain processes, such as data entry, so they can concentrate on their expertise: selling.

2. Easily enrich your customer database with a CRM strategy

Some CRM software features automate certain processes associated with customer data entry. This makes it possible to standardize some of this data (address format, for example) and use it more easily to design marketing or emailing campaigns, for example.

This type of tool not only enables you to import your customers' personal data automatically and easily, but also to eliminate duplicates (thanks to automatic updates) and to group data in a relevant way for easier processing.

3. Use a CRM strategy to qualify your leads

Marketing automation is an essential part of any CRM strategy. Thanks to the functionalities of certain tools, it is possible to implement lead nurturing policies, notably by proposing customized content to leads already identified and listed in the CRM. Interaction with these prospects is thus encouraged through inbound marketing campaigns.

These enable you to keep qualified leads interested in your company, clearly identify their needs and issues, and develop quality relationships with them.

4. Encourage collaborative working

Developing a customer relationship management strategy is a great way to encourage collaborative working. In fact, by synchronizing all information in a single location, your company's team members can access data more easily, thus improving their productivity.

How do you create a CRM strategy?

To create an effective CRM strategy, we recommend that you follow five essential steps.

To implement a relevant CRM strategy, it's first essential to know your company, your market and your ideal customer (your marketing persona). Only once you've defined these three criteria will you be able to determine an effective action plan to meet your customers' needs and make a positive impression on their minds.

1. Have a clear vision of your business and your target audience

2. define your objectives

It's impossible to design a relevant CRM strategy without first setting SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable and attainable). This step will enable you to draw up the marketing plan and actions to be implemented. What's more, thanks to KPIs (performance indicators) based on these same objectives, you'll be able to track results and optimize your strategy accordingly.

To boost customer satisfaction, you'll need to review or implement appropriate new processes within your company. These should be implemented at every stage of the sales process:

- Before: analysis of target needs, collection of detailed information on prospects ;

- During: automated follow-ups, customized contact and sales proposals, definition of a personalized customer path;

- After: online assistance and support to help solve customer problems more quickly.

3: Focus your processes on customer satisfaction

4. opt for a multi-channel strategy

Multiplying the means of contact with your prospects is essential to build loyalty and keep up with the competition. There are many sales and communication channels you can use as part of your CRM strategy:

emailing campaigns;
your website ;
social networks, etc.

Leveraging your customer database allows you to design highly effective, personalized communication campaigns. Don't hesitate to segment your audience and develop a customer journey scenario adapted to each prospect to improve cross-channel engagement.

5. make the most of the information in your database

CRM software

CRM software, also known as CRM software, is an integral part of any CRM strategy. Thanks to their diverse functionalities, they enable you to effectively implement your action plan.

More than just a project management tool, a CRM tool is a true collaborative workspace. Each department can add its own data, thus ensuring your company's overall productivity. This type of software helps you acquire and retain customers, precisely define your commercial offer and improve collaboration between different departments.

The different types of CRM software

There are different types of CRM solutions on the market, with different features depending on how you want to use them.

- Suite" type solutions enable the complete management of a company, both in terms of project management and administrative management.
  - Ex: Salesforces, Zoho CRM, Microsoft Dynamics ;
- General-purpose solutions enable you to manage your entire customer relationship, including sales, marketing and customer service.
  - Ex: Hubspot ;
- Specialized solutions are dedicated to each player involved in the CRM strategy.
  - E.g. Pipedrive, for sales. SendinBlue or Mailchimp to manage emailing campaigns. Zendesk for customer service.

How do you choose your CRM software?

Choosing a CRM software solution involves taking three essential aspects into consideration:

First of all, the tool you choose must be adapted to your sales policy and enable you to achieve concrete objectives.
It must be able to integrate historical information and customer data, so that you can make the most of it.
Finally, CRM software must respect your budget and respond concretely to your needs.

By taking these three criteria into account, you'll be able to choose the best tool for your customer portfolio management strategy. But if you're still a little unsure, Kestio has built the CRM Quick Choice © approach, based on a benchmark of 20 of the most relevant CRM solutions on the market, to help you in this selection process.

In fact, if you'd like to find out more or develop your CRM strategy, please don 't hesitate to contact us. We'd be delighted to help!