5 steps in the CRM process

1. Generate brand awareness

The first step to acquiring new customers is introducing them to your business. The marketing team generally takes on this task using a number of measures:

1. Learning about your target audience
2. Marketers will conduct research to identify their audience’s target demographics, interests, preferred channels of communication, which type of messaging they respond to most and what they care about.
3. Segmenting your target audience
4. Audience personas are created to segment a brand’s target audience into similar groups based on similar interests or demographics. This helps marketers identify which types of people are most likely to become customers and who their campaigns should target.
5. Creating marketing campaigns that speak to those target demographics
6. A/B tests and marketing automation can identify what works and what does not, create unique campaigns for unique customer segments such as on social media or email, and create strategies for lead acquisition.

When it comes to completing these steps, CRM software contains a wealth of information. The tool can show patterns in past leads and customers to give marketing teams a clear picture of their target audience. Beyond understanding similarities in demographics, marketers can also analyse sales notes in their CRM to understand what led to conversions in the past. By understanding what resonated with leads, marketers are better equipped to create effective campaigns.

2. Acquire leads

Introducing your brand to a potential customer is just the beginning of the CRM process. From there, you have to encourage them to learn more about your business and engage with it.

Depending on how your company is structured, this lead-acquisition step could be a marketing or sales team responsibility – or both. Your marketing team, for example, might encourage website visitors to share their email with a newsletter sign-up CTA or a giveaway. On the other hand, the sales team could use their CRM system to set up a live chat on your site. With this feature, your team can proactively contact potential customers who land on your website.

If your CRM technology comes equipped with a lead enrichment tool like Reach, lead acquisition is unbelievably simple. All the tool needs is a lead’s email address to instantly reveal detailed information about the person. With customer data, you can personalise your outreach with the lead to start the relationship off on the right note. Not to mention that you can save a lot of time by not having to research leads yourself.

3. Convert leads into customers

You have successfully engaged with your leads, and they are interested. Now it is time to turn those leads into customers.

To do so, sales reps must first be skilled at identifying how interested leads are and, specifically, whether they are interested enough to make a purchase. A CRM system is very helpful here. The historical data from past successful sales can be used to identify lead-qualification criteria. These criteria can be added as ‘attributes’ to your CRM’s lead-scoring tool to help reps identify opportunities with the highest probability of a sale.

If leads do seem likely to make a purchase, reps must then be able to nurture them further and build their trust enough to convert. One way to do this is for reps to send leads case studies, white papers and other resources that may sway their decision.

4. Provide superior customer service

According to Zendesk’s 2020 Customer Experience Trends Report, customer service is the biggest factor that determines a consumer’s loyalty to a brand. Conversely, poor customer service can cost you customers and have a negative impact on your reputation. Support teams must be able to deliver superior support whenever, wherever and however their customers expect it.

With the right CRM, your agents have the customer information and resources they need to resolve a customer’s issues quickly and effortlessly. This allows for a stress-free and efficient experience for both the customer and the support agent.

5. Drive upsells

When we think of a returning customer, we imagine a shopper continually coming back to the same business to buy the products they know and love. But there is another key way in which existing customers provide value – by upgrading to the most expensive products.

How do you convince customers to switch products?

Personalised recommendations via email are a good place to start. You can use your CRM to organise customers into smart lists based on similar purchase histories. You can then create custom email templates that send relevant product releases to entire lists of customers at once. In this way, you can be sure that the promotional deals or releases you send are reaching the people most likely to buy them.

If your business is service-based, you may find upsell opportunities through check-in calls. Set reminders in your CRM to regularly reach out to repeat customers to ask how they are doing and whether there is any way you could improve your service. Their needs may very well have changed since the last time you spoke, and they may be ready for an upsell.

With a CRM process, the customer life cycle no longer feels abstract. The right CRM enables you to create a deliberate, personalized experience that naturally drives leads through your sales pipeline.