The State of CRM, Jan ’19 Roundup
Although filled with much vagary, the presumption that sales as a function is losing its sheen to self-service transaction portals, and that AI-driven technologies are ready to replace sales personnel, have constantly been doing the rounds for a while now.
This edition of the roundup covers articles mostly around how the sales-tech fraternity is getting together not to compete, but to utilize automation to augment their list of strengths, as they go about executing this critical business function every day.
With CRM being crucial to this, it’s about time it is made all-encompassing as well.
Know Your Customers Inside Out – The Foolproof Sales Strategy – By Forbes Let’s start with a quick refresher on the ever-changing face of sales, that is not merely about selling anymore but is truly about building and fostering relationships aimed at solving some business problems. In order to stay this relevant to their customers, sales has to unequivocally lean on data – both internal and external – to truly understand their customer’s current pain points and future long-term plans, among others.
When an account executive can have a multi-faceted and deeply rooted conversation about real business issues, it’s the customer who then begins seeing you in a different light.
Customers Don’t Do What They Say – By CustomerThink A startling albeit seemingly obvious outcome of a simple experiment on customer behaviour – they know not what they want, more often than not! We definitely live in a world of paradoxes. While the article draws from behavioural science, and prescribes some extreme actions on your part as a business, there’s no denying the core of it that businesses have to understand what customers really want, and asking them may not always be the best route.
Don’t rely on what customers say, but build insight on understanding both their conscious and unconscious behaviour.
Stop Your Customers From Leaving – By SuperOffice Customers value any offering—and, by extension, any business—that addresses their needs and pain points. CRM offers you a 360 degree view of the customer – both inside-out and outside-in (with the help of an extended ecosystem of technologies). This article takes a dig at quantifying some of the larger impacts a well maintained CRM can bring, in particular towards customer retention and increased customer lifetime value and how to achieve them.
Adapt Before It’s Too Late; ‘Big Data’ To The Rescue – By AgileCRM B2B sellers are finding they have to constantly up their game to stay in the B2B buyer’s radar. Todays’ buyers expect salespeople to help them distil the complex buying process, and then present a concise, customized solution that addresses their pain point or situation adequately. It’s becoming increasingly imperative for the B2B sellers to wear their proverbial ‘proactive thinking cap,’ find out the new channels prospects are on, and share content that connect, convince and convert them.
Sales Engagement Gets An ‘Intelligence’ Uplift – By BuzzBoard And now for some news from home turf. In keeping up with the need for customer data consolidation, we are thrilled to announce that BuzzBoard’s small-business intelligence has now been added to the SalesLoft App Directory Marketplace, making it available for integration by users of SalesLoft’s leading sales engagement platform.
Now, companies using SalesLoft can easily access BuzzBoard data, including proprietary signals that indicate whether a business is growing, hiring new employees, adding locations, spending on new technologies, and more.