That’s a question I hear many times. Usually the owner thinks all they need to do is send emails out of Microsoft Outlook.
Marketing’s main purpose is to get the company’s message out to the targeted groups of potential leads. It can involve monthly newsletter emails, sales promotions, posting to groups, filling in a landing pages and use of other resources.
When marketing is working outside the CRM system (Customer Relationship Management) they may not respond quickly to new lead inquiries and worse lose new leads. The sales team has no idea what they are doing to generate new leads until someone in marketing tells them there is a new lead. [quotes]The sales team loses valuable time to follow up, engage the new lead and close a new sale. [/quotes]
Envision if you will an example of how they can work with the sales team in a CRM together.
A business sells red, blue and green widgets. The business owner asks marketing to put together a new promotion next month of 10% off green widgets for new customer only pricing. Using the CRM’s integrated email campaign and marketing module they create an email campaign along with web forms for a new landing page promoting the new customer offer.
[quotesright]Since the sales team and marketing are interacting in the CRM they can coordinate the responsiveness to the new leads together. [/quotesright] The sales team is expecting new leads to take advantage of the offer and are immediately responsive to the CRM system notifying them of the new leads.
A landing page is created and the web form from the CRM is inserted. They promote the landing page through Google Ads and use keywords. When a new lead fills out the web form they are automatically created in the CRM and a sales person is automatically assigned a task to follow up with a call. The new lead also gets a follow up email thanking them for their interest that also includes additional information about the green widget product and the new customer offer.
Existing leads already segmented in the CRM system are assigned to a weekly email campaign for the month with the 10% off offer for new customers. If an existing lead clicks on a link (call to action) then a sales person is immediately assigned a task to call and they follow up to close the new customer sale.
Based on the response rate to the landing page and emails sent, marketing can generate a report to review with the owner and the sales team, the new lead response rate and the increase percentage of new deals generated from the promotion.
The results from a coordinated effort using the CRM system is a higher rate of return in obtaining new customers then compared to separate systems that are not working together. [quotesright]Marketing and sales will be less frustrated with each other because the new leads didn’t fall thru the cracks of depending on human involvement to notify sales. [/quotesright]
Now that the new and satisfied customers are in the CRM this is where marketing can take advantage of providing:
- Repeat sales offers
- Up-selling promotions
- Offer referral contest/programs bringing in warm new leads
Here is another example of a coordinated marketing and sales effort working together using the CRM system.
[quotes]The sales team knows that customers who purchase red widgets are also customers that will buy blue widgets.[/quotes] They work with the marketing team using the information inside the CRM of the green widget customers for targeting a follow up campaign engaging their interest in buying blue widgets.
Marketing can send out a campaign integrated in the CRM system a set of emails promoting a blue widget sale. The sales team is automatically assigned the task to call after the first email is sent. Those who receive the email and click on a link (call to action) to review the specifications of a blue widget are prioritized in the CRM system for an immediate call. The others who have not clicked the link are then followed up with a second email and sales is assigned a call to engage them to buy a blue widget.
Sales can request additional follow-up promotions they would like to implement. Marketing creates them, and sales closes them.
[quotesright]Marketing working with the sales team in the CRM system is a win-win for the business owner. [/quotesright] So, get your marketing team involved in the CRM system now to increase sales and profits.
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In upcoming articles, we’ll help you understand more about a CRM, see if it’s right for you, and show you what to look for in one. You’ll also learn what to expect and plan for if you decide to implement a CRM.
- by Joseph Norcott, email: jwn@btne.com website: www.btne.com
