CRM: what is it and how does it help your company in the marketing and sales processes

In a world where customer satisfaction is the key to excel, customer relationship management (CRM) has become imperative. 

This article dives into what CRM is, how it benefits your company in the marketing and sales departments and why you should consider implementing quality CRM software inside your operations.

What is CRM?

Customer Relationship Management, better known as CRM, is no longer just a trend but a necessity for today's businesses. 

This approach is not just a package of digital tools, but rather a customer-centric business philosophy.

An efficient CRM allows organizations to better understand the needs of their customers and adapt to them quickly. 

This not only improves communications and sales strategies but also provides the opportunity to innovate based on the data collected.

Ultimately, implementing a CRM aims to strengthen customer retention and loyalty, increase profitability and enable more informed decision-making.

How does a CRM help in marketing and sales?

A CRM is crucial to develop a deeper connection with your customers. 

This methodology makes companies proactive, rather than reactive, in their customer service strategies. By focusing on agile and collaborative processes, companies can deliver a superior customer experience and ultimately drive business excellence.

All of this provides a number of advantages, such as:

1. Effective customer segmentation

One of the biggest challenges in marketing and sales is knowing who your customers really are.

A CRM allows you to segment your database with great precision, facilitating the creation of more targeted and effective advertising campaigns. 

You can group customers by different criteria such as geographic location, purchase history or online behavior, allowing you to send more personalized and relevant messages.

2. Sales process automation

Process automation is another of the great advantages that a CRM can offer. 

From sending follow-up emails to updating sales records, many tasks can be automated to free up the sales team's time. 

This allows them to focus on more strategic tasks such as closing deals or building customer relationships.

3. Data analysis for decision making

A CRM not only stores information, but also analyzes it to provide valuable insights. 

With the help of dashboards and reports, marketing and sales managers can evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns, understand ROI (Return on Investment) and make data-driven decisions to optimize future strategies.

4. Improved customer service

It also acts as a valuable repository of customer interactions, meaning that every follow-up call, email and transaction is recorded.

This detailed history enables sales and support teams to provide a more personalized and proactive service, leading to a better customer experience and, often, increased brand loyalty.

5. Cross-team coordination

One of the challenges in organizations is keeping marketing and sales teams aligned. 

A CRM facilitates this task by centralizing information and allowing real-time access to all relevant members of the company, achieving better coordination and allowing, for example, the marketing team to generate higher quality leads that the sales team can close more effectively.

How to correctly implement a CRM in a company

CRM is an excellent tool, but you must know how to implement it to get the most out of it. 

Organizations can do it independently; however, they must be clear about their objectives and which functions will help achieve them. 

CRM Model

To implement a CRM effectively, the company must consider several factors. 

First, the CRM model design must be aligned with the business strategy and focus on customer retention and loyalty. This includes an in-depth analysis of the customer experience to identify key touch points.

A CRM process must be made up of 4 pillars to really help the company grow: identify, differentiate, interact and personalize. All centered around the consumer.

In case there is no clarity about the areas that should be involved in the customer experience or their functions, it is important to turn to an expert company to analyze the elements and help implement them correctly and effectively, as a whole.

Define actions

The actions/pillars to generate positive results through an efficient use of CRM are:

• Strategy: alignment with business objectives and focus on the customer.
• Process: agile transformation of business processes to positively impact sales and profitability.
• People: drive towards cultural change and staff training.
• Technology: implementation of relevant technology solutions such as machine learning algorithms and information systems.

Process mapping

Once the goals have been defined, ideas must be organized as well as an outline of activities to be carried out for each process.

In this flowchart, it is important to identify the people responsible for each department, their behaviors, their activities and the possible results.

For example, customer experience mapping is key to improving customer touchpoints and tools used. 

Implementation of the chosen tool

Subsequently, the selected CRM tool must be implemented. 

With the previous information, it will be much easier to choose the relevant configurations and customize them according to the activities and actions to be developed. 

It is also important that all employees know how it works so that they can make proper use of the CRM and achieve the objectives set and even surpass them.

CRM monitoring

Finally, the tool must be monitored to be able to analyze the results and, if necessary, adjust the processes so that the strategy is fulfilled.

If, for example, you realize that a cost is higher than expected, you can make changes to speed up the sales process and adjust it.

London Consulting Group, A STRATEGIC PARTNER

Implementing a CRM is a must for any company that wants to remain competitive.

If you are considering taking this crucial step, our CRM implementation model at London Consulting Group offers you all the steps and support you need to transform your business. 

• Customer experience in service and support
• A new environment for the users of the areas involved
• Implementation of a CRM process in the company to improve the user experience
• Development and implementation of digital tools for control, management of the sales force and improvement of business intelligence

To achieve this, the digitalization of the process is sought through the design and implementation of a technological ecosystem based on Power Apps, Power Automate and Power BI. 

In addition, agile and simple methodologies, such as Design Sprint, are used in conjunction with digital tools, such as Monday, to facilitate collaboration and project control. 

With our guidance, you will be able to focus on what really matters: building lasting and profitable relationships with your customers.