In the absence of efficient client relationship management, marketing serves no purpose. Certain management experts even assert that customer relationship management (CRM) serves as the foundation for the entire marketing discipline. CRM is centered on managing present and prospective client interactions.
It is possible for salespeople and managers to gain valuable insights from each consumer interaction, be it in person, over the phone, or online. Frequently, the employee’s personal files, inbox, or even their own thoughts obscure these insights. Customer relationship management is preoccupied with converting these data elements into actionable insights pertaining to the clientele.
Before implementing a CRM initiative, your organization must first formulate a CRM strategy. Commencing an endeavor without a well-defined objective raises the probability of becoming diverted and ultimately failing to accomplish the intended undertaking. A customer relationship management strategy should comprise the following: establishing unambiguous goals, determining key performance indicators, documenting the approach to accomplishing objectives, and delineating strategies to alleviate risks.
In the contemporary era, businesses are obligated to at minimum conform to the demands of the informed and sophisticated consumer. It ultimately boils down to how a company can construct its strategy with its customers in mind and make them its top priority. Potentially crucial to the success of a project management strategy is the choice of CRM software. You must complete a diagnostic exercise to ascertain which link in the chain is absent prior to making a decision. Immediately gain a comprehensive understanding of Salesforce by enrolling in our course.
Salesforce, a customer relationship management system, does all of the aforementioned and more. From lead creation to transaction conclusion, this program streamlines the entire process. First, we’ll try to break down the process into its component parts:
1 Entering leads into Salesforce
This phase involves the detection of a potential sales prospect. In addition to advertisements and trade show attendance, a marketer conducts online marketing across multiple platforms and engages in a variety of other marketing activities. Every effort is made to acquire contacts that may develop into sales prospects. A sales lead is an unqualified sales prospect who expresses interest in the services or products offered by a marketer and consents to receiving further communication in the form of contact information.
You have the ability to input data regarding different prospects, their origins, and potential opportunities that may arise as a result on Salesforce. It is up to the organization to determine how it wishes to generate data views, allocate leads to different personnel, and collect information from the source survey or form.
2 Qualification of sales leads
The second stage is about the qualification of a sales lead. When a decision is taken to pursue a sales lead, the lead becomes a contact. At this point, the system creates three objects: an account, a contact and an opportunity.
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A contact is a field that stores all the relevant data about the particular individual – his/her designation, contact details, address, role in the sales process etc.
For converting leads into contacts, Salesforce provides a ‘convert’ option. Link the lead to an existing account name or add a new one if required. There is a default field for describing the ‘opportunity’ on hand. Any follow up tasks can also be listed down which reduces the person dependency. You could also add tasks that are relevant to your internal processes. Get your Salesforce PD1 certification to know more about it.
3 Creating an account
In Salesforce, an account represents an entity, which could be a current or prospective customer, supplier, partner, and maybe even a competitor. All your communication with an entity – be it documentation of deals closed in the past, decision maker’s contact details and even the progress of current deals – gets recorded under its account in the system.. It is a one-stop shop to know whatever has been exchanged with a particular entity.
4 Assigning leads
You may have an internal workflow process every time you convert a new lead, such as an email to the team or the assignment of the lead to a specific member in the sales team. Assignment of leads can take place based on certain parameters that have been designed by you. Manual entries are also permitted in case if you want to overwrite what is recorded in the system. There may also be an event causing the need for a shift of ownership of a lead, creating a need for re-assignment. All these and more are possible in Salesforce.
5 Creating opportunities
The opportunities section in Salesforce captures data relating to sales, deals which have not yet been closed, negotiation details, expected date of closure and the like. Details regarding products and quotes that you have provided to prospective leads also need to be mentioned.
The opportunity field is the nucleus of what the sales process is all about – getting more and more sales for the company. If this section of the system is kept updated timely with precise data, it can also provide an insight into the sales pipeline. Details about the owner of the opportunity, the opportunity name, indicative amount, expected closure date, stage of the deal cycle and probability of winning the deal are some details that form a part of this object field.