If you’re like many marketers, you may already be using a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) like Salesforce, Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics or any number of other tools. CRM tools are extremely powerful and have endless capabilities, but many businesses fail to utilize them to their full potential. Here are some key practices that will help you optimize your CRM tool, achieve measurable results, and improve your ROI.
PLAN FOR SUCCESS
• Envision the future and determine end goals for your CRM. What do you need? Who are your users? What reports will help you succeed?
• Establish the key pieces of data to require as leads or customers are created.
• Collaboratively design with sales, marketing, and customer support teams to define your sales process and what occurs as a lead moves through the sales pipeline.
IMPLEMENT YOUR PLAN
• Structure your CRM to capture your unique data.
• Migrate “clean” data from existing contact lists and determine which past clients should be redefined as lead opportunities.
• Create expert users by providing training to all system users. Without comfort & confidence users will revert back to old methods of managing their contacts.
OPTIMIZE 
• Automate workflow with email alerts for contact transfer and field updates.
• Set notifications to remind you to follow-up. This keeps leads from slipping through the cracks.
• Connect lead capture from your website to your CRM to automatically add new leads into your contacts and begin marketing automation.
• Automate your CRM to trigger prompt and relevant communication delivery while you’re still on the contacts mind.
Optimizing your CRM tool will lead to increased ROI. By automating processes and tasks, you will save time and ensure a consistent cultivation experience for your contacts. If you’d like to learn more about optimizing your CRM, contact us at Starkmedia.
