Develop a Successful CRM Strategy in 6 Steps

1. What is a CRM strategy?
2. What are the advantages of a CRM strategy?
3. These are the goals of a CRM strategy
4. This is what makes a CRM strategy
5. How to develop a CRM strategy in 6 steps

A CRM strategy defines the communication between the users and you in your company and ultimately contributes to whether these users develop into loyal buyers and consume again with you.

To achieve this goal, there are some challenges that you have to overcome, which our guest author Udo Pielke will explain to you in the next points.

Are you still not quite sure what CRM means? Then read our contribution about Customer-Relationship-Management (CRM) – translated customer relationship management –.

What is a CRM strategy?

A CRM strategy is a planned approach on how to improve the relationship and interaction with existing and / or potential customers, thereby strengthening customer loyalty. The strategy includes the use of processes, methods and suitable CRM tools, to collect and manage certain CRM data from customers.

An effective CRM strategy not only improves the customer relationship, but also leads to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty as well as an increase in business growth. It is important to adjust a CRM strategy to the needs and goals of the company in order to achieve a maximum effect.

You notice that such a CRM project affects many, if not all, areas of your company and there are some stumbling blocks for CRM mistakes. Therefore, it is important to correctly position the project. Sales, marketing and customer service are most frequently affected.

The prioritization’s can be adjusted in a later process, but a beginning should be defined.

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What are the advantages of a CRM strategy?

A good CRM strategy always focuses on the customers. The whole action revolves around this person. But also the own products and the own customer service are to be seen here in the context with the competition. The employees form the basis of the whole thing, which must be completely picked up for such a long-term project.

Satisfied customers are in the long run the best and most cost-effective advertising that a company can have. This saves the company a lot of money.

So it's about improving the experience with your brand. No more, but no less.

These are the goals of a CRM strategy

The goals of a CRM strategy can be diverse. The most common and quickest to define CRM-targets are:

• Better growth > through more sales with happier customers
• Increased productivity > by gaining a deeper insight into the desires and problems of the customers
• Higher quality > A more efficient customer service that promotes customer satisfaction

This is what makes a CRM strategy

If you don't know your customers, you can't make them a good and especially a right offer. That's why it's important for a company to know what needs the customers have and where it needs to start. And this is where the CRM strategy comes into play.

Just like in the B2C sector, a pleasant and positive customer experience along all possible touchpoints during the Customer Journey is in the foreground in the B2B sector. All involved departments and areas of the company (see above) can and should cooperate as closely as possible to ensure a smooth process.

Above all, it boosts sales if a potential lead is quickly recognized as such and can be supplied by the relevant departments with relevant data / information / products. The same applies to existing customers.

To sum up briefly, it is clear what needs to be done. However, this should not be taken too lightly, because the devil is in the detail. That's why you'll now get a small guide to developing a CRM strategy that can set you on a first path.

How to develop a CRM strategy in 6 steps

1st step: Define the visions and the goal of your future customer relationship

Do you also regularly ask yourself what the visions and goals are that should bring about a better customer loyalty? Terms such as increased customer satisfaction, stronger customer loyalty or the reduction of the customer churn rate will be among the most common goals.

However, these should also be treated with caution, because these goals are always preceded by the business goals, which should not see themselves in a competition. Therefore, a holistic approach to the CRM strategy should always be considered.

2nd step: How well do you know your own product?

Best regularly reflect how potential customers can come into contact with an action, use the products and also take advantage of the services. It should be noted that the transition of the company's own values also matches what arrives “outside” at customers.

Does the message lose its content before it arrives?

What are USPs that your company emphasizes and makes customers choose you?

A point often underestimated here is, however, that company values are not always lived by all employees, which should be considered in the context of a holistic CRM strategy and when building customer relationships.

3rd step: Specify the target group within the existing Customer Journey

To make your target group more tangible, you cannot avoid so-called buyer personas. These should represent your ideal customers as well as possible. It is also useful to set up these personas as small figures within the company so that they are always present to the employees.

To collect as realistic information as possible about the personas, you should use all customer contact points to collect this information on the following topics:

• Demographic data
• Behavioral or interest-related data
• Challenges with products / services
• Specific wishes

If these data flow into the personas, you have a realistic idea of who your customers are and why they are shopping with you.

In the next step, you can go through the Customer Journey based on these personas and check if there are any problems or pitfalls within the Customer Experience. All customer interactions should be considered as soon as a customer discovers you or your company.

The first point of contact can be completely different here:

1. A digital web campaign
2. An Email marketing campaign
3. Direct contact with team members (sales or support)
4. Advertising in a magazine or an online portal

By observing the touchpoints using the buyer personas, you can define specific improvement potentials in the different areas (sales, marketing, customer service) and the relevant actors can also react better.

Perhaps it will also clarify why a communication chain does not continue at one point.

4th step: Implement a customer experience with a 360° view

At this point in planning, the areas of your CRM strategy should be defined that it should improve. The next step is to put all the knowledge into action.

You have to clarify within the company whether the resources are available to also offer the customers a 360° experience. It has proven to be a “golden path” to hold an audit that names responsible persons for all areas.

Examples that are most likely are:

• Pre-Sales: How are the relevant customer needs found, which business cases should be created for this and what is the quality of the collected information itself?
• Sales: Which tasks in this phase of the lifecycle can be automated to increase efficiency and effectiveness? Are the offers suitable for the customer's use case and is the communication optimized for the respective target group?
• After-Sales: Is there the possibility to process incoming information digitally and pass it on to the relevant places or collect it?

Summarized in one sentence: “Question the action from the point of view of the customers!”.

5th step: Keep an eye on your competition to position yourself better

In addition to looking at your own processes, it is always worth taking a look at the competitor companies. Here you can easily see what you can do better for your target group in order to differentiate yourself and your company.

You can compare how your company positions itself and differentiates itself from the competitors and which Unique Selling Point (USP) they emphasize.

A constant look at the further development of the market should not be neglected either. What trends and further developments are being discussed and developed within the industry?

6th step: Define your KPIs for your CRM

A good CRM strategy must also be measurable in the end, as here money and resources flow into it, which should finally pay off. However, it is also important that you define your own in addition to the classic CRM-KPIs.

The classic ones are advantageous to compare yourself with the competition (see point 5), the internal ones have the advantage that individual, company-internal processes become measurable, because every controller loves the ZDF (numbers, data, facts).

In addition to measuring success, the advantages of such KPIs are the controllability of processes when values deviate from the given norm and possibly have to be countersteered.

The often used S.M.A.R.T. approach is also helpful here. This means that set goals should meet the following criteria: Goals should be specific, measurable, attractive, realistic, and time-bound.

In the context of CRM strategies, often used key figures are:

• Customer satisfaction
• Customer loyalty
• Customer churn (Churn-Prevention)
• Profits.

Another very helpful fact is that a CRM strategy works best when all employees are on board and can read, interpret and also react to the numbers used.