I thought that this quick blog would be quite timely as we are holding our first ever Lunch & Learn in conjunction with SugarCRM next Thursday, July 25th. The topic is about being a Cloud Powered Business with SugarCRM and I encourage you to sign up as we do have a few spots left.
During our outreach to prospects this past week I found that a lot of the people we spoke to really think of a CRM as a sales tool and only a sales tool. This is a very common misconception about CRM systems and it’s one that most people think of when they talk about products like Sugar or Salesforce or Dynamics. The reality is though, a CRM system is the foundation for greater things in your organization, NOT just sales.
Sure, a CRM system is a great tool for sales people. Don’t get me wrong on that as it is entirely true that it is a very powerful tool that can enhance the way sales people do their jobs and how organizations forecast their businesses. The two pillars that people tend to forget when it comes to a CRM system is that there is still marketing and operations/customer service. They all share the data, it just happens to be that the sales people in the middle are the ones that are focused on the most.
Let’s talk a bit more about how the marketing and service pillars of the CRM world see things.
Marketing
The marketing people in your organization are the inputs into your sales and opportunities cycles. The data captured in the sales pillar allows the marketing teams to better effectively target and adjust their marketing campaigns. The sales people have a benefit here where they can get more quality and qualified leads sent to them rather than simply tracking leads based on a phone list. Marketing is measuring and improving throughout the entire cycle of leads to sales to close.
The marketing people can also rely on the service teams (service is where the sale has closed and we’re now onto the after sales communications with clients) to provide them relevant information and possible marketing opportunities to their existing clients.
The goal of a CRM is the whole relationship of the customer for when they are not a customer, become a prospect and become a customer.
Service
The service people or operations or customer service, however you call it in your organization, rely on everything from above. How about retaining existing clients if they subscribe to products purchased in the sales pillar? What about identifying new sales offers for when clients call into your office and speak with customer service? Using all of the data in your organization you can design an effective way of predicting what your customers might be most likely to buy.
This is just a quick high level overview of CRM as a platform. At Eligeo we work closely with SugarCRM to build platforms that enable organizations to do more and take things to the next level.
Come and join me along with executives from SugarCRM and a special presenter from YYCHelps on Thursday, July 25th, 2013 at Melrose Cafe & Bar in Calgary to learn more on how Sugar can take your business into more than just a sales organization.