You never become a customer by chance. Any act of purchase, even the most trivial, is the result of an elaborate process that takes place over a period ranging from a few minutes (“It’s raining; quickly, an umbrella”) to several years (“It’s going to need to replace the old generation of nuclear power plants”). With a few exceptions, this process is always the same. We must make ourselves known to our future customers and then, in return, give ourselves the means to (re)know them to be able to address them.
There are the famous leads that marketing must, like a gold digger, pass through a sieve, to extract the nuggets from the matrix that surrounds them (lead generation) and that commerce must shape to transform them into customers (customer generation). We push an open door by writing that lead generation is an essential component of CRM. Yet, less than a quarter of CRM projects address this issue and integrate the tools, data, and control indicators necessary to formalize and automate it.
What Advantages Do We Have, And What Are The Consequences For CRM?
Increase Prospecting Power
But this is expensive, and each new resource assigned to this task is mechanically less productive than the previous one. Each lead’s production cost is slightly higher than the previous one.
Purchasing Or Renting Files
The prospecting activity often starts with the purchase or rental of files. In terms of CRM, this imposes the following functions: The presence of an advanced external file import tool allows the processing of very diverse file formats:
- Ability to transcode during import (there is little chance that the codification of data from the repository, business activities, or functions of interlocutors, for example, chosen by your file provider, is the same as yours),
- ability to perform on-the-fly deduplication to avoid polluting already qualified files with raw data,
- ability to use import templates or scripts to automate future imports of updates to the same file,
- Ability to use a buffer zone that will store imported forms, also called silhouettes, awaiting qualification so as not to mix them with already qualified people.
The management of each data of its source or its origin allows later to carry out a follow-up of the purchased files and to calculate:
- The actual cost of the lead: Real cost = purchase price / ((1-TR) x Q) TR: Recovery rate = Number numbers already known to the company divided by the number numbers purchased, Q: Quality = Number oNumbereful” files, “i.e., corresponding to reality) divided by the number numbering files (not discarded due to overlap)
- The conversion rate: In value and volume after a given period. Conversion Value = Total amount of offers issued based on the acquired file / Price of the file Conversion Volume = Total number numbers issued based on the acquired file / Volume of the file.
- File performance is the first indicator that comes to mind, yet it is not the best. Even if it globally characterizes the capacity to transform the files acquired into customers (that is, the whole of the commercial activity), it only partly depends on the quality of the file. It should therefore be interpreted with caution. Yield = VA generated / File price.
Also Read: Provisioning: The Technology That Changes The World Of Telco
Scripting Tools
Once the file has been acquired, it must be used. For this, the company will implement scripting tools in its CRM. Their use is often criticized as it is sometimes misused.
- It is necessary to favor dynamic scripts, which, with each answer given, evaluate all of what is known about his interlocutor to determine which is the best next question. To conditional scripts, if he has answered A, the telemarketer goes to question 5, and if he answered B, he would go to question 6.
- It must be remembered that the script is to be considered a conversation guide and not a text to be mumbled until the correspondence is completely exasperated.
Lead-Buying
There are also many lead buying platforms, but it must be recognized that the quality is generally far from satisfactory and that the prices and commitments requested by the service providers are often exorbitant. It should also be noted that once the lead has been purchased, there is generally little time to validate its consistency.
Emails And Newsletters
Using it in moderation can turn into a false good idea. We will focus on taking care of the messages and targeting more rather than multiplying the number numbers, which often leads to an increase in the number oNumberbscribes. It is much better to send two targeted e-mailings, each covering 50% of the base, than two general e-mailings covering the entire base.
Customer Network
We frequently read that clients are the organization’s spokespersons. They have a more potent force of conviction than the business since they are not decided as one-sided, and their mediation will have more weight and believability. These clients fundamentally know other potential chiefs. This social limit is, in many cases, the under-took advantage of the organization. We will zero in here on two critical functionalities: the administration of relational connections (who can say for sure who?) and the capacity to connect a lead to a client.
CRM apparatuses often have the option to interface with person-to-person communication devices. It’s trusting simultaneously. It fails to remember that CRM is essentially an informal organization device. Why search somewhere else for what exists here? The degree of organizing these connections should be adjusted to the kind of offer of the organization. Assume it involves short and normalized processes or a more drawn-out and unambiguous methodology. We will adjust the accuracy of the connections similarly as we adjust the planning of the client’s making framework.
If “purchaser,” “pay, “pres,” or”er” are sufficient in primary cases, a complete dynamic plan is fundamental for project-type deals. Given (and it is fundamental) that the degree of accuracy mentioned relates well with the sort of offer of the organization, the work expected to structure relational connections is much lower than the advantage that the organization will get from it. At last, in computing the scoring of the conversationalists, and as long as we have guaranteed the capacity to connect a lead to its initiator, the Number of numbers given is a component to be thought of.
Build An Influencer Base
As we have seen in the section devoted to non-media, each domain has its influencers, gurus, and opinion leaders whose word carries. Among these, there are, of course, the journalists. From blogs to bookstores, from forums to interviews in the press, they have the advantage of being easy to identify. Too often, this area is still excluded (or forgotten) from CRM projects when it should be given an important place. Communication must be integrated into the CRM, and influencers must be managed with the same rigor in Customer Relations. Suppose specific sectors of activity relying heavily on prescription have understood this (the construction industry in particular). In that case, this is not yet far from the general case, and that is a shame.
- You have to manage influencers like you manage customers.
- Influencers must be identified with their specificities (critical information on a client is not the same as for a press title).
Buzz And SEO
Many companies are barely visible on the Internet. Being well-referenced on the leading generalist and specialized search engines (yes, there is life outside of Google) is a matter for professionals who boost the company’s visibility for a few thousand euros.
- Yes, but: which engines are the most efficient?
- Which keywords are most searched for?
- Is a banner on a partner site more effective than buying keywords on Google?
- Is the profile of Internet users returned by one site more or less attractive than another? To answer all these questions, the CRM, once again, can come to our rescue: visitor analysis, dynamic management of the website, banner management, and analysis of visitor profiles are all subjects to which the CRM must provide answers. Clear.
Industrialization Of Processes
Finally, we should not forget that in this commercial equation (Generation and transformation of a lead into a customer), there are three parameters:
- the Number numbers, of course, but also
- the transformation period or sales cycle (after how long will they become customers?)
The well-thought-out implementation of CRM allows the industrialization of lead processing processes and, therefore, a reduction in the sales cycle and an increase in the conversion rate. Increasing numbers are undoubtedly essential, but we should not forget that this is not the only parameter to play with. This optimization potential induced by the industrialization of lead generation processes and its very beneficial consequences on the ability to transform leads is often overlooked.
Also Read: E-Commerce And Digital Payments: The Practical Guide
