Salesforce Automation: Getting the Most Out of CRM
Many companies go through a natural evolution as they incorporate their contact management solutions throughout the organization. Indeed, one distinction between a narrowly-defined contact management solution and a more comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) approach is the extent to which every aspect of the customer relationship can be managed via the same system.
The first step to integrating a contact management solution more actively throughout an organization is through salesforce automation (SFA). An SFA program represents the beginning of the transition from the phase where activity drives the system--a sales person makes a contact and then reports it--to a phase where the system helps drive activity--prompting sales contacts and guiding sales protocols. This principle of using the CRM system to help drive activity can move beyond SFA to other aspects of the organization as well, including marketing/eCommerce, operations, and accounting.
CRM and Marketing/eCommerce Marketing and sales should be closely coordinated, so using CRM as a marketing resource should be a natural extension of SFA. Customer information can be used to analyze buying habits and prompt targeted follow-up mailers and special offers. Increasingly, marketing activity should be centered on eCommerce. A CRM system can help stimulate eCommerce activity by targeting and delivering e-mail campaigns with highly-customized content, as well as sending messages to prompt customer visits to the company Web site. This relationship between the CRM system and eCommerce can flow both ways, with Web site offers used to solicit new visitor information that can help stock the CRM database. In this way, a casual visitor to a Web site can become an identifiable contact for regular follow-up.
CRM and Operations Moving away from the natural customer interfaces of sales and marketing, a CRM system can also be used to guide more nuts-and-bolts areas of the organization, such as operations and accounting. For example, as sales people enter customer orders on the CRM system, operations can immediately beginning processing those orders. The CRM system can also be used more broadly for supply-chain management, to anticipate and coordinate vendor ordering needs.
CRM and Accounting If accounting information is integrated into the CRM system, it can become a tool for financial management. For instance, customers can be analyzed and prioritized according to profitability. Also, customer sales and cost trends can be used for budgeting purposes. In short, the possibilities beyond sales force automation are extensive. Different CRM systems offer different capabilities, so buyers should research and compare features from leading vendors to find the best fit. |
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