Before we delve into the article, let’s start by asking you some questions:
- Do you feel that your sales and marketing teams are not aligned and operate independently of one another?
- Are your marketing team looking for more input from sales on customers to enable you to create better campaigns?
- Do you feel that your sales teams are not contributing enough towards your marketing strategies and campaigns?
- Do you have a sales CRM but require a marketing CRM?
- Is it unclear between sales and marketing who is responsible for what?
If you have given a yes to any of the questions outlined above and are looking for a fast and cost-effective solution, then you should be turning to a marketing automation tool such as ClickDimensions. You will find that a marketing automation tool sits in and engages with your existing sales CRM, enabling you to gain quick wins for teams all over your business. In our latest blog article, we will showcase exactly why you should never underestimate the value of having a fully integrated sales and marketing CRM solution.
More consistent lead management and nurturing
You will find that having integrated sales and marketing in your CRM system will enable you to streamline the overall lead management process from start to finish, thus allowing a constant flow of information to go in and out of sales and marketing functions. In this case, the marketing teams will be able to capture leads via different channels and make sure they are nurtured before they are passed over to the sales team.
This integration will stop any manual data entry and duplication happening which will lead to less errors and improved efficiency. Furthermore, the change will make it easier for marketing teams to follow the progress of leads in real-time, enabling them to build much more efficient lead nurturing strategies that can align with the sales objectives.
The results speak for themselves, businesses who integrate sales and marketing dramatically improve lead conversion rates, increase overall productivity and speed up the sales cycle.
Better collaboration and communication
It can often be the case where sales and marketing teams work separately in their own departments, leading to misalignment and inefficiencies. You will find that the use of an integrated CRM prevents this from happening by improving collaboration and communication between the two departments.
By being able to have shared access to the same customer data, both teams can work together on strategies, deliver insights and better align their efforts to generate the greatest impact. From this, sales teams will be able to give feedback to marketing when it comes to overall lead quality, thus allowing marketing teams to adjust their campaigns to generate higher-quality leads. By going through this process, you will empower marketers to be able to consistently score leads much more efficiently – something that sales teams will enjoy.
On the other hand, marketing teams will be able to deliver better insights into customer preferences, enabling sales teams to personalise their pitches more efficiently. Better still, this streamlined collaboration will showcase a unified approach, leading to better customer experiences as well as improved business outcomes.
Better accessibility to data and insights
Another core benefit of integrating sales and marketing in your CRM system is the capability to be able to have a better overall understanding of customer data. By bringing together data from sales and marketing departments, businesses will be able to put together a picture of the typical customer's journey, from initial marketing touchpoints right through to the final sale. This unified view will make it much easier to profile customers, segment data and deliver much more targeted marketing campaigns.
By having a better understanding of customer behaviour and preferences, sales teams will be able to adapt their strategies and conversations to deliver better conversion rates and better customer satisfaction.
Better reporting and analytics
Bringing together sales and marketing CRM systems will give you the ability to deliver better and much more accurate reporting and analytics. Being able to track and analyse data across both departments can help businesses to effectively measure how effective marketing campaigns are from the start of the sales funnel to the end.
Using closed-loop reporting which helps to make accessible certain information to both teams, can deliver game changing insights into which marketing initiatives and channels help to drive the best leads for the business, which campaigns deliver the best revenues, and which specific activities help to drive the greatest ROI. Data-driven approaches are the way forward and this type of approach will give businesses the ability to optimise their marketing spend, make data-driven decisions and continuously improve their marketing and sales activities.
Therefore, the value of integrated sales and marketing CRM solutions cannot be underestimated. By separating silos and increasing collaboration between these two important business functions, businesses can unlock a whole host of benefits. Some of these include better data visibility, improved lead management, streamlined communication and more efficient reporting and analytics to name a few.
You therefore need to make sure that you embrace this integration as it gives businesses the ability to build more personalised customer experiences, increase revenues and hold a competitive advantage. In a society where the customer is king, CRM integration is vital for any business looking to deliver long-term success.
Next Steps?
So, what do I do now? This is where Advantage can come to your aid. We have a whole host of marketing CRM tools such as ClickDimensions PowerPacks that can be customised to suit your specific business requirements. If you don’t have a CRM system already, we can help you to implement a Dynamics 365 / CRM through our Quick Start offering. To discuss these requirements with us please give our team of CRM experts a call today.
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