CRM as a Strategy to improve your business

Why do you need a CRM Strategy?

An implementation strategy is critical to the success of your CRM rollout. Simply put, the project is likely fail without one. While a CRM is at its heart a mechanism to improve business performance, it’s crucial to understand that technology only enables your CRM Strategy; it is never the solution.

We’ve been helping our clients implement CRM strategies for over 25 years. As Australia’s foremost CRM consultant, we’re here to guide you through every step in the journey. Read more about CRM as a business strategy or get in touch with us directly.

Crafting a CRM Strategy

CRM Strategy success stories

CRM for marketing and sales

CRM Strategy client services

Your Melbourne SugarCRM and Zoho experts. From marketing and strategy to complete customer and sales lifecycle management. Services include consultancy, audits, design, software development, training and more.

CRM for Wholesale

Delivering just in time stock management and demand driven ordering to provide each person in the value chain with exactly what they needed to handle the transaction, with little to no need for middle-management supervision.

Learn more here.

CRM for Financial Services

You have an idea to deliver a new financial service to the market, and the idea is so novel that there isn’t a solution available. Do you build a bespoke platform from scratch, or do you try to buy something close and integrate? What are your options?

Learn more here.

CRM for Building & Construction

How do you ensure that the next team gets what they need early so there isn’t a break in the quality chain? We protect all aspects of the value chain and run to a quality process, but still provide market agility to gain new business in changing times.

Learn more here.

CRM for Nonprofits

As you grow, the number of people focused on programs scales and the need to manage stakeholders, councils, groups, activities and projects expand. Do you solve this with endless spreadsheets and word documents, or is there another way?

Learn more here.

Crafting a CRM Strategy

A CRM Implementation Strategy

If the sequence above is followed, the probability of achieving your business is high and risks of underperformance or unanticipated budget consequences are lowered substantially.

You can read more about setting your CRM Strategy here.

Each of the steps above are discussed in detail via the links. Following this sequence will provide your business a blueprint that will deliver your business a successful CRM strategy.

CRM as a strategy to improve your business

Frequently asked questions

The decision to introduce CRM into your organisation involves far more than choosing the right technology. The best CRM implementations always follow a considered business strategy.

You need to consider multiple factors, many of which impact one another.

Confusing? It doesn’t have to be.

If you’re considering implementing a CRM, the following discussion points might be helpful. These are probably only a fraction of the questions you may have, so please call us, or get in touch via our webform if you’d like to have a one-on-one chat.

1. Is CRM just a software package?
CRM is both technology and a methodology to engage with clients to deliver a great buying experience.
2. Isn’t CRM just another contact management tool?
CRM is about creating engagement with your client base with the intent to know them, their needs and their habits so you can serve them better. By using all your company’s resources you keep them as a client, and get them returning.
3. Once installed, do we need to maintain the CRM?
CRM both from a technology and strategy point of view is a journey not a destination and needs to be an underlying activity in the organisation.
4. After we have the CRM in place, what next?
Start with simple goals, focusing on no more that 3 improvements at any one time, then work to complete them. This results in constant, controllable improvements.
5. Do we need to have everything configured in order to launch?
No – just start with the essentials. Build a plan for success that launches the CRM in 30 days. Don’t do too much at the start. It will take time.
6. What should I expect in terms of automation?
Many business functions can be automated, but implementing a CRM always starts with foundational outcomes first, supported by automation later.
7. Does my data need to be 100% accurate before deploying the CRM?
Data quality is a process, not a destination. Never hold off starting whilst you fix the data. The CRM and the strategy will fix it.
8. How many / what features should I use?
You will be able to deploy technology faster than you can implement it in the business. So always plan the technology rollout, how to implement it from a business point of view and measure the impact on the organisation. Add the minimum amount of features to get the job done, then when your business is using these effectively, expand.

9. What if some of my staff resist the CRM?
There will be levels of pushback from the team when you launch the solution, and this needs to be managed. In truth, you won’t get everyone on board. You will have to decide how to support / mentor people who resist change. The good news is, often these same people can be helpful in understanding the gaps in your process.
10. I’d like to phase in the CRM over time.
Once you start, the CRM must become the single source of truth regarding the customer experience. As a manager, you can’t accept reports or updates from any other source. If it’s not in the CRM, it didn’t happen.
11. How do I demonstrate to my staff that management has switched to the CRM?
Always use the CRM in meetings and reviews, so it’s clear this is the source of truth.
12. How do I keep the system current and relevant?
Create monthly meetings to support a continuous innovation strategy, where you review the customer experience and the processes. What is breaking, what needs help? What did you learn in the month? Then pick a focus and execute. Small steps and great implementation will always win.
13. Is a CRM worth the investment?
CRM will help you scale and trade in tough times as it will provide the intelligence to understand the clients, how they are engaging and what your future holds.
14. Can the CRM provide a unified view of my team’s activities?
Yes, and more. CRM will help the team work and act as one rather than as individuals, and load balance when needed.
15. My email system says it has a CRM. Why not use that?
CRM is a platform specifically designed to capture all the data needed to support a customer experience in a manner that an accounting system or email system isn’t. You need to store it somewhere, and CRM is the tool for this task.

What our clients say

GFG Alliance

“SugarCRM has helped us shift from poorly managed spreadsheets to having clear visibility of our opportunity pipeline over the next 2 years. The application of systemised processes, combined with a wealth of new data, is allowing us to target the deals we want to win, then invest resources to deliver more compelling value propositions.”

ARC – The Australian Reinforcing Company

Aaron HuntSales Capability Manager

Sequoia logo

“Sequoia Superannuation employed CRM Strategy for a long, complex project to improve our current systems with absolutely minimal disruptions to clients and staff operations. They have achieved both of these requirements whilst offering guidance and constructive suggestions along the way. Being able to understand our problem and actively assist us to improve, is vastly different from doing just what we ask. The latter has far less value, the former is invaluable. Thanks Brett, Jac & Team. Keep it up.“

Sequoia Financial Group

Brent JonesDirector

How do I create a marketing strategy with a CRM?

The days of sending an email campaign to a list and hoping for a response are gone. By combining your EDM and other marketing tools with your CRM you gain the benefit of building a complete client picture, allowing you to send the right message to the right person at the right time.

Start by synchronising your CRM lists with your marketing tools. Some CRM applications such as SugarCRM or Zoho have this function built in. Decide upon how best and when to communicate with your list. Some tools automatically calculate best time of day to send, while you decide upon the channel (such as email, SMS or social) by reviewing open rates and click throughs.

Automatically monitor the response to the campaigns and use the tools to redirect prospects to follow-up campaigns or further nurturing depending on their responses. By running responses through automatic sentiment analysis, you can feed these clients into even finer-grained follow-up campaigns. Finally, determine the revenue generated from your campaign activity by having the CRM report against opportunities-won for a complete picture.

This is just one method out of many. Get in touch to discuss your marketing plans.

How CRM improves business performance

Knowledge is power, so they say.

Your CRM is a trusted single source of truth for your entire business. Capture and store all relevant conversations between you and your clients, whether they are emails, phone records, text messages or social posts. In this way, you gain a complete history of promises made, client concerns, issues and wins.

Integrated sales forecasting and opportunity management mean you have complete clarity about the sales pipeline, and by using the automatic analysis tools and exception reporting you’re always on the front foot. By using the mobile or tablet apps to keep you up to date, you’ll never walk into a meeting unprepared again.

Acquire new clients smoothly through integrated marketing tools and save time servicing them by system-wide automation that frees staff to work on more productive tasks.

Have a performance goal in mind? Speak to us about the best way to achieve it.

What is a Customer Journey?

A customer journey map is your holistic guide to interacting with your clients to achieve a goal.

Do you want more lead conversions? Increase customer satisfaction? Boost sales? Gain a holistic client view?

Working from a customer journey map, you and your staff stay in control and accountable. Journey maps are tools that take guesswork out of important stages in the interaction with customers and not only increase customer satisfaction but improve conversion rates for new prospects.

Have a chat to us about how to set up your own customer journeys.

What is a CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. When correctly implemented, your CRM program improves the quality of your organisation’s engagement with your customers and potential customers. It’s also known as customer retention management software.

Modern CRM software is cloud-based and runs on all devices (from desktop to mobile) and enables your staff to track conversations, create and monitor sales pipelines and forecasts. Additionally many CRMs facilitate your customer service and marketing.

Quality CRM systems are designed around user and client security and also have advanced tools such as Artificial Intelligence, automation and sentiment analysis for providing automatic insights into the current state of your relationship with your customers.

Questions about CRM? Just ask us.

How do I Choose a CRM?

With so many CRM systems in the market, and all of them promising to offer the complete solution to your organisation’s needs, where do you start? Oddly enough, you don’t start with the tool. It’s easy to get caught in the hype around any technology, but just like you don’t start building a house without a blueprint, you shouldn’t start with the CRM and try to reverse-engineer your needs into its structure. Whilst most CRMs share the same basic goals, how they operate can be vastly different.

Instead, start by identifying your business’s biggest pain point, and what will happen if you don’t address it. Does the software deal with this naturally or will there be customisation? Will the tool scale with your needs? What is the cost per user? Are there hidden costs in maintaining the system?

Most importantly, do you plan to go it alone or work with a partner to help you through the process? As a partner to many organisations that have implemented CRM successfully, we know the pitfalls and also how to get fast wins. We’d love to discuss the process with you.

We use and recommend both SugarCRM and Zoho One. Both CRMs are powerful and offer distinct and unique benefits, based on your needs. You can read more on both below.

SugarCRM

SugarCRM empowers your marketing, sales and services teams to collaborate across the entire customer lifecycle for more meaningful, memorable experiences. Capture the attention of your most promising prospects. Create more meaningful experiences and build lasting relationships.

CRM Strategy is a Sugar Elite Partner with a capacity to integrate your existing systems and scale your SugarCRM application to suit the growth of your business, no matter its size. With four PC Mag Business Choice awards for Best Customer Experience, SugarCRM is powerful, flexible, reliable and designed to scale.

Zoho One

Zoho One is an Operating System for your business. Integrated, online applications help you manage and automate business processes across your organisation. Choose apps that address your pain points, then deploy them to your employees. Every app comes with a mobile version, so you can work wherever you go.

With over forty connected applications in the Zoho One suite, including Zoho CRM, marketing and HR, your organisation will have access to a vast range of capabilities that are ready to use out of the box. Open and extensible, Zoho One has dedicated applications that address your business and remote working needs. CRM Strategy can extend this functionality even further with our ability to customise or even build new features into the suite.

CRM Strategy – Your Australian CRM expert.

At CRM Strategy we focus on business outcomes first, and technology second. We believe that tools should fit the need.

With over 25 years’ experience solely developing CRM solutions in Australia across many industry verticals, we’ve delivered hundreds of successful projects. We offer CRM consultant services and bespoke CRM system design, including web applications. We partner with industry leading technologies including SugarCRM, Zoho and Amazon and have a full time Melbourne-based staff comprising Analysts, Data Scientists and custom CRM developers, all supported by a friendly and dedicated Customer Success Team. We offer CRM solutions for small business, large enterprise and businesses in-between.

But enough about us. We want to learn about you and your needs. Let’s have a conversation.

The Success Formula:

SugarCRM

Success Formula graphic - Sugar New

Zoho One

Success formula - Zoho

Amazon Web Services

Success formula - AWS

CRM as a Strategy to improve your business

Your Melbourne SugarCRM and Zoho experts. From marketing and strategy to complete customer and sales lifecycle management. Services include consultancy, audits, design, software development, training and more.

Crafting a CRM Strategy

A CRM Implementation Strategy

CRM as a strategy to improve your business

Frequently asked questions

What our clients say

How do I create a marketing strategy with a CRM?

How CRM improves business performance

What is a Customer Journey?

What is a CRM?

How do I Choose a CRM?

SugarCRM

Zoho One

CRM Strategy – Your Australian CRM expert.

The Success Formula:

SugarCRM

Zoho One

Amazon Web Services

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