The CRMs we know and use today did not evolve from thin air – it took years of innovators, thinkers, and analysts pushing the boundaries of the system. What started out as a massive, in house operation to track sales efforts at Oracle mainly used by the sales team, evolved into a cloud based online platform for both sales and marketing to track and analyze their efforts. It has taken much for CRMs to get to where they are today. Companies have started to realize the power these systems have, especially when used to their full potential.
Using your CRM system to its full potential is dependent on several things, the users, the quality of the data, and integrations – just to name a few. Bonnie Crater, a long time Salesforce.com user and champion, and CEO of Full Circle CRM sat down and gave us her top three best practice tips to get the most out of your CRM system.
Apply some science to marketing and “give visibility to the results of what is actually happening in your marketing campaigns.”
1. Keep a data mind set
The entire company needs a data mind set – keep data in mind in all activities. This may already be present for the sales team, but maybe not as much for marketing. Track all activities, use data to make decisions – always measure your efforts and use the results to optimize.
“Marketing is still caught up in the old world where activities are not tracked and measured” said Crater.
For example traditional marketing mediums like print ads and broadcasting could only be tracked through call-ins to the specific phone number. Today, data rules the marketing world; marketing efforts can be tracked and measured so companies need to be ready and eager to track information.
“70% of the consumers journey is digital, meaning 70% is over the internet and trackable!” Crater said.
2. What’s most important?
There are so many marketing metrics that you can measure and track. Don’t overwhelm yourself, start simple and pick only 5 things you would like to focus on, then track and measure those things on a regular basis. See if it works. Do the metrics provide insight and visibility into your efforts?
Bonnie recommends to not forget about volume, conversion rate and velocity . Crater and Full Circle CRM recommend to not just track leads, but track leads in the context of the whole funnel, conversion rate by stage in funnel, and track leads keeping velocity in mind.
3. Devote time to your sales and marketing process
Dedicate time to define your company’s sales and marketing processes – with a clear agreement between sales and marketing. Have clear definition of stages, steps, processes, and hand off. Be sure they are well understood and documented. It is time for sales and marketing to become BFFs.
Interested in learning more about the visibility your CRM can provide into all your marketing efforts? Join us October 10th for Heinz Marketing B2B FastTracks at the Columbia Tower Club in Seattle to hear from industry leaders like Full Circle CRM who will be sharing social marketing secrets.
More about Bonnie
President and CEO. Prior to joining Full Circle CRM, Bonnie Crater was vice president of marketing for VoiceObjects and Realization. Bonnie also held vice president and senior vice president roles at Genesys, Netscape, Network Computer Inc., Salesforce.com, and Stratify. A ten-year veteran of Oracle Corporation and its various subsidiaries, Bonnie was vice president, Compaq Products Division and vice president, Workgroup Products Division. Bonnie was also president and CEO of Zelerate, a provider of open source e-commerce solutions. In 2000, Bonnie was named one of the “Top 20 Female Executives in Silicon Valley” by San Jose Magazine. Bonnie holds a B.A. in biology from Princeton University.
