3 main process of working with clients, which should automate the CRM system. How not to miss with a choice. Part 1
Part 1. Lead Generation
Practically in any organization in the process of working with clients, there are three main stages:
The first stage of Lead Generation is the creation of a stream of potential customers. Not all clients are equally useful for our business, it makes no sense to spend time on unpromising customers. No need to run for the "paper hare", sellers should focus only on those requests that will bring revenue, this is especially important in B2B sales. If your transaction cost is small and the client makes a decision fairly quickly, then most likely you need one end-to-end ordering process, where the seller will have pre-configured tasks that he must complete in order for the potential client to be converted into the client with the maximum probability.
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The second stage of Lead Conversion is the conversion of a potential client into a client. This, in fact, is the process of making a purchase, which can be divided into two main stages: the process of making a decision by the customer about the purchase and execution of the transaction (signing the contract, invoicing, delivery - in general, everything that relates to contractual obligations, and this functions of a non-classical CRM system, although most customers want to see them as part of a CRM system). Usually in CRM systems, this process is controlled by the “Opportunity” object, or Transaction, sometimes also called Sale. But the “Sale” in classic ERP systems automates the process associated with the provision of services to the client or the delivery of goods, tracking of mutual obligations, activation. In most western CRM systems, we meet only the object Opportunity and Lead.
Account Management is a customer base management, customer loyalty, repeat sales, etc. Managing this process depends on your business model and may consist in regular mailing to the “who has already bought” database, or an account manager can be assigned to a specific customer.
So, these are three processes that need to be managed using a single CRM system or a business automation system. Most CRM systems have only a part of the functionality.
The management system for placing an order, invoicing and tracking payments, forming a contract, reconciliation is not a classic CRM system. This may be part of a CRM system or it may be implemented in another system, for example, in ERP or in a workflow system. These are all functions of the system responsible for processing the transaction. Of course, in many companies it is advisable to include part of these processes in the CRM system and integrate data with the accounting system. But you need to clearly understand that this is not a classic sales process, the main purpose of which is for the customer to say “I take, wrap” or “Prepare an agreement”.
When a client comes to you and says “I want to buy, bill me and ship”, the first two steps have already been completed - they pass for the seller or his manager imperceptibly. This is mainly the case in the FMCG market, where the purchase price is low, the risks of buying are quite low. If the customer remains unsatisfied with the purchase, he will never buy from this seller again or in the worst case, he will demand a refund for the defective goods.
It is necessary to understand that not all potential customers who write, call, come to the store, become customers.
There may be many reasons why they did not buy: the right balance of price and value did not form in the head, or the time for purchase did not come, or at the moment it is in the very first way of making a decision.
At this point, you should begin to control the behavior of the potential client. You must take it through all the steps of decision making, comparing options, etc. And do it in such a way as to bring it smoothly to the purchase of your product or service.
How to do it? This is not an extra difficult task, it’s just an established marketing and sales process in your company and the proper use of a CRM system for this purpose.
Let's understand all these processes in order and formulate requirements for a CRM system and describe their processes. Process description is an important part of the entire project for the selection and implementation of a CRM system . You can not compare business systems by price or feature. It is important to understand how your sales process lies in the possibility of a selectable system and, in fact, that you are automating.
And now there is a very interesting trend : the decision to purchase a CRM system is shifting towards the purchase of a business process management system (more precisely, a platform that provides a process approach in automation). And classic CRM systems are increasingly endowed with the capabilities of BPM systems. Observing this trend, we created a flexible Flexbby Parametric platform that allows you to quickly automate all the details of the sales process.
Creating a stream of potential customers (Lead Generation) and new requests.
Basic requirements for the effective automation of the Lead Generation process using a business management system.
We are increasingly convinced that the expectations of a CRM system are in the desire to have a full-fledged business management system, and not limited marketing and sales management functionality.
The solution for managing the processes of attracting potential customers should have the following basic functionality :
• Flexible customizable directories of relationship types, categories of contacts and organizations, industries and roles, so that you can clearly segment the customer base and work purposefully with segments. Also for these purposes, such functionality as a “sales territory” can serve, a certain basic object, which, according to certain rules, manually or based on predefined rules, the system includes / excludes clients and forms a set of actions, tasks, processes related to clients.
• Convenient tool for importing contacts and organizations with the search for duplicate data and the possibility of combining them. Import must be able to customize the import depending on some events.
• Functional, allowing to assign responsible managers to contacts, organizations and sales territories. It is better to assign requests to managers automatically based on predefined algorithms, based on their qualifications or ability to work with a particular type of customer.
• Ability to create a work plan for the contact (telephone calls, mailings, etc.). This work plan should be created on the basis of certain rules, which depend on the parameters of a particular customer or the sales territory in which it belongs.
• Distribute personalized newsletters. Do not confuse this functionality with mass mailing systems - this is the task of other systems. CRM should help to clearly highlight the current need, the manager should make a note in the client card, which he agreed on, or refer this client to a certain type, category or include it in the required sales territory and then correctly generate the required information in accordance with the customized event template and the rules.
• Accounting for all incoming requests. The system should have a customizable catalog of goods and services so that you can mark in the request which products were in demand, and build statistics on the demand for goods and services by period.
The system should be able to account for marketing campaigns and referral channels so that you can keep track of the sources of requests, sources of contacts and organizations. For a marketing campaign, the budget must be taken into account. Most importantly, the system should be able to generate a report - the lead conversion ratio. It allows you to assess the effectiveness of various marketing campaigns, the cost of conversion, the cost of contact, the cost of lead. Collected statistics allows you to better understand the situation in sales, and outline specific steps to improve these indicators. And as our experience shows, 20% of marketing money brings 80% of revenue.
The system should have the ability to customize various types of requests and their stages and create a list of final actions for business process templateization. Sellers then, without thinking, act according to a chain of verified actions, with the maximum probability, leading to the desired result.
And, of course, the system should allow to display various reports on the activities of sellers, the number of leads, show the conversion rate, etc.
Possible additional requirements for process automation Lead Generation
What advanced requirements for automation of Lead Generation can potential users of a system present?
One example is the automation of calling a cold base or a base of former (lost) clients with the ability to record conversations, connect a supervisor, etc.
These requirements are taking place, and for some tasks they are needed, but these requirements will complicate the implementation of the system and increase the budget and project time frame. If there is such a need, and it is not critical, then at the first stage it is better to get by simply fixing the fact of a call in the CRM system, entering the information that was agreed, and setting the task for making the next call.
Another example is the automatic generation of a commercial offer depending on the services that are entered into the request card. This task can also be solved and automated in the CRM system, but each new functionality will complicate the implementation.
Another option is bulk email. In fact, the CRM system should not be in the literal sense a system of mass sending letters, it should be able to integrate with mail systems and sending letters. But for mass mailing it is better to use specialized mailing services, which allow you to send hundreds of thousands of e-mails in a matter of minutes. The CRM system should send precise letters to customers, for example, remind you of an unpaid invoice or thank you for the extended service on time, and only the approach associated with the parametrization of business logic provides such opportunities.
The main steps in formulating requirements for a CRM system and understanding what you need to effectively form a stream of incoming customers:
Step 1. Describe how the process of attracting customers in your organization, where they come from and why they come.
Step 2. Describe what parameters you are measuring or would like to measure, count what your conversion rate is and how much one potential lead (query) costs.
Step 3. Describe how you would like to control your sellers. What information they should bring when working and communicating with the client.
If you face serious challenges in automating customer interaction, then when choosing a CRM system you need to take into account not so much the current functionality of the system, but the technological capabilities of the solution for its configuration and refinement, scalability and cost of ownership of the system. An important factor in the success of a CRM system is not so much the presence of the classic sales automation functions, as the possibility of the process automation core, on which the CRM system is created.
Over time, CRM systems that do not move toward configuring individual processes will be crowded out by universal business process automation platforms.
In fact, the CRM process is a special case of a business process, and it can be configured in the automation system, rather than using a hard-coded product that at the beginning will seem to meet your requirements, and tomorrow it will simply become obsolete and you will fall behind your competitors .
BE FLEXBBY !
Practically in any organization in the process of working with clients, there are three main stages:
The first stage of Lead Generation is the creation of a stream of potential customers. Not all clients are equally useful for our business, it makes no sense to spend time on unpromising customers. No need to run for the "paper hare", sellers should focus only on those requests that will bring revenue, this is especially important in B2B sales. If your transaction cost is small and the client makes a decision fairly quickly, then most likely you need one end-to-end ordering process, where the seller will have pre-configured tasks that he must complete in order for the potential client to be converted into the client with the maximum probability.
')
The second stage of Lead Conversion is the conversion of a potential client into a client. This, in fact, is the process of making a purchase, which can be divided into two main stages: the process of making a decision by the customer about the purchase and execution of the transaction (signing the contract, invoicing, delivery - in general, everything that relates to contractual obligations, and this functions of a non-classical CRM system, although most customers want to see them as part of a CRM system). Usually in CRM systems, this process is controlled by the “Opportunity” object, or Transaction, sometimes also called Sale. But the “Sale” in classic ERP systems automates the process associated with the provision of services to the client or the delivery of goods, tracking of mutual obligations, activation. In most western CRM systems, we meet only the object Opportunity and Lead.
Account Management is a customer base management, customer loyalty, repeat sales, etc. Managing this process depends on your business model and may consist in regular mailing to the “who has already bought” database, or an account manager can be assigned to a specific customer.
So, these are three processes that need to be managed using a single CRM system or a business automation system. Most CRM systems have only a part of the functionality.
The management system for placing an order, invoicing and tracking payments, forming a contract, reconciliation is not a classic CRM system. This may be part of a CRM system or it may be implemented in another system, for example, in ERP or in a workflow system. These are all functions of the system responsible for processing the transaction. Of course, in many companies it is advisable to include part of these processes in the CRM system and integrate data with the accounting system. But you need to clearly understand that this is not a classic sales process, the main purpose of which is for the customer to say “I take, wrap” or “Prepare an agreement”.
When a client comes to you and says “I want to buy, bill me and ship”, the first two steps have already been completed - they pass for the seller or his manager imperceptibly. This is mainly the case in the FMCG market, where the purchase price is low, the risks of buying are quite low. If the customer remains unsatisfied with the purchase, he will never buy from this seller again or in the worst case, he will demand a refund for the defective goods.
It is necessary to understand that not all potential customers who write, call, come to the store, become customers.
There may be many reasons why they did not buy: the right balance of price and value did not form in the head, or the time for purchase did not come, or at the moment it is in the very first way of making a decision.
At this point, you should begin to control the behavior of the potential client. You must take it through all the steps of decision making, comparing options, etc. And do it in such a way as to bring it smoothly to the purchase of your product or service.
How to do it? This is not an extra difficult task, it’s just an established marketing and sales process in your company and the proper use of a CRM system for this purpose.
Let's understand all these processes in order and formulate requirements for a CRM system and describe their processes. Process description is an important part of the entire project for the selection and implementation of a CRM system . You can not compare business systems by price or feature. It is important to understand how your sales process lies in the possibility of a selectable system and, in fact, that you are automating.
And now there is a very interesting trend : the decision to purchase a CRM system is shifting towards the purchase of a business process management system (more precisely, a platform that provides a process approach in automation). And classic CRM systems are increasingly endowed with the capabilities of BPM systems. Observing this trend, we created a flexible Flexbby Parametric platform that allows you to quickly automate all the details of the sales process.
Creating a stream of potential customers (Lead Generation) and new requests.
Basic requirements for the effective automation of the Lead Generation process using a business management system.
We are increasingly convinced that the expectations of a CRM system are in the desire to have a full-fledged business management system, and not limited marketing and sales management functionality.
The solution for managing the processes of attracting potential customers should have the following basic functionality :
• Flexible customizable directories of relationship types, categories of contacts and organizations, industries and roles, so that you can clearly segment the customer base and work purposefully with segments. Also for these purposes, such functionality as a “sales territory” can serve, a certain basic object, which, according to certain rules, manually or based on predefined rules, the system includes / excludes clients and forms a set of actions, tasks, processes related to clients.
• Convenient tool for importing contacts and organizations with the search for duplicate data and the possibility of combining them. Import must be able to customize the import depending on some events.
• Functional, allowing to assign responsible managers to contacts, organizations and sales territories. It is better to assign requests to managers automatically based on predefined algorithms, based on their qualifications or ability to work with a particular type of customer.
• Ability to create a work plan for the contact (telephone calls, mailings, etc.). This work plan should be created on the basis of certain rules, which depend on the parameters of a particular customer or the sales territory in which it belongs.
• Distribute personalized newsletters. Do not confuse this functionality with mass mailing systems - this is the task of other systems. CRM should help to clearly highlight the current need, the manager should make a note in the client card, which he agreed on, or refer this client to a certain type, category or include it in the required sales territory and then correctly generate the required information in accordance with the customized event template and the rules.
• Accounting for all incoming requests. The system should have a customizable catalog of goods and services so that you can mark in the request which products were in demand, and build statistics on the demand for goods and services by period.
The system should be able to account for marketing campaigns and referral channels so that you can keep track of the sources of requests, sources of contacts and organizations. For a marketing campaign, the budget must be taken into account. Most importantly, the system should be able to generate a report - the lead conversion ratio. It allows you to assess the effectiveness of various marketing campaigns, the cost of conversion, the cost of contact, the cost of lead. Collected statistics allows you to better understand the situation in sales, and outline specific steps to improve these indicators. And as our experience shows, 20% of marketing money brings 80% of revenue.
The system should have the ability to customize various types of requests and their stages and create a list of final actions for business process templateization. Sellers then, without thinking, act according to a chain of verified actions, with the maximum probability, leading to the desired result.
And, of course, the system should allow to display various reports on the activities of sellers, the number of leads, show the conversion rate, etc.
Possible additional requirements for process automation Lead Generation
What advanced requirements for automation of Lead Generation can potential users of a system present?
One example is the automation of calling a cold base or a base of former (lost) clients with the ability to record conversations, connect a supervisor, etc.
These requirements are taking place, and for some tasks they are needed, but these requirements will complicate the implementation of the system and increase the budget and project time frame. If there is such a need, and it is not critical, then at the first stage it is better to get by simply fixing the fact of a call in the CRM system, entering the information that was agreed, and setting the task for making the next call.
Another example is the automatic generation of a commercial offer depending on the services that are entered into the request card. This task can also be solved and automated in the CRM system, but each new functionality will complicate the implementation.
Another option is bulk email. In fact, the CRM system should not be in the literal sense a system of mass sending letters, it should be able to integrate with mail systems and sending letters. But for mass mailing it is better to use specialized mailing services, which allow you to send hundreds of thousands of e-mails in a matter of minutes. The CRM system should send precise letters to customers, for example, remind you of an unpaid invoice or thank you for the extended service on time, and only the approach associated with the parametrization of business logic provides such opportunities.
The main steps in formulating requirements for a CRM system and understanding what you need to effectively form a stream of incoming customers:
Step 1. Describe how the process of attracting customers in your organization, where they come from and why they come.
Step 2. Describe what parameters you are measuring or would like to measure, count what your conversion rate is and how much one potential lead (query) costs.
Step 3. Describe how you would like to control your sellers. What information they should bring when working and communicating with the client.
If you face serious challenges in automating customer interaction, then when choosing a CRM system you need to take into account not so much the current functionality of the system, but the technological capabilities of the solution for its configuration and refinement, scalability and cost of ownership of the system. An important factor in the success of a CRM system is not so much the presence of the classic sales automation functions, as the possibility of the process automation core, on which the CRM system is created.
Over time, CRM systems that do not move toward configuring individual processes will be crowded out by universal business process automation platforms.
In fact, the CRM process is a special case of a business process, and it can be configured in the automation system, rather than using a hard-coded product that at the beginning will seem to meet your requirements, and tomorrow it will simply become obsolete and you will fall behind your competitors .
BE FLEXBBY !
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/336542/
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