Harnessing a CRM System to Make Data-Driven Decisions
In business today, data is the modern currency. By using data businesses are able to make shrewd decisions and innovations within their daily operations, allowing them to streamline the functionality of their company, improve customer service, and ultimately bolster sales. With a CRM system in place, you can collect a vast amount of useful data, so you just as well put it to good use! Here’s how.
Understanding data-driven decision making
Data-driven decision making is all about keeping up with what is current and adapting, as opposed to repeating your previous methods based on older tactics. If you want to keep up you need to understand that the market is forever evolving, thus business owners who wish to succeed must be willing to pivot accordingly if they’re to remain on target.
It’s all about making decisions using solid data and intelligence, based on information collected. When you conduct market research and fuse it together with your automated data collection software, you will be able to make well-informed decisions that can ultimately bolster the health of your business, acting as key performance indicators.
Those who are willing and able to adapt their methods by incorporating data-driven actions are able to see at least an 8-10% increase in profits, whilst reducing their overall running costs by 10%. Of course, these are generalisations based on data collected from a range of industries, so the results will largely depend on your specific business model. However, it is clear that by adopting a CRM system to collect and utilise valuable customer-centric data, you will be able to invariably increase your pipeline sales and deliver a higher standard of customer service.
How data-driven decision making can increase customer satisfaction & sales
By raising the bar and innovating as often as you can, you can not only exceed your customer’s expectations, but also improve your overall retention rates. 60% of leading companies in their industry, use data and intelligence when they make decisions which directly impact their growth and the diversification of their business. The very fact that they are the leaders in their industries shows that there is great value in analysing data and implementing data-driven decisions. Simply put: Data is king!
Of course, it’s difficult to strip your way of doing business down to its core and changing your mindset when you’ve been set in your ways for so long. However, if you open yourself up to change, then letting go of the old will be much easier.
Data doesn’t lie, that’s important to remember. In business, it’s all about numbers. So, if you already have an amazing product and exceptional copy writing to back it up, then implementing data into your new business model can only allow you to thrive.
Here are some ways in which you can adopt a data-driven approach:
Investing in sales force automation tools
Tracking sales and activities manually is not only incredibly time consuming, but exhausting. Time is a precious commodity in sales (and life in general), so you shouldn’t be wasting it on something which can now be handled instantly with the correct software.
Using an advanced sales force automation tool, you can delegate the time-consuming tasks such as deal-tracking, customer follow-ups, and lead generation, to the experts (which is in this case, the software).
Using SFA you can explore new or existing CRM software in order to derive vita and game-changing metrics. Data such as sales calls, closed deals, and other outcomes can allow the business manager’s in your employ to monitor business situations more effectively, and thus make smarter decisions in real-time.
Get to know your customers
You can never have too much information on your customer. Your sales reps must be able to understand the ins and outs of your ideal customers. This could be what their objections may be, their biggest concerns, and what they desire most. By understanding the customer on a deeper level, your sales representatives will be much more effective at closing deals and will also be delivering a higher standard of customer care whilst they are at it. We humans simply want to be understood!
With an advanced CRM system in place, customer detail tracking capabilities such as past purchases, support issues, and their demographic data, can be used to resolve interactions faster and ultimately enable your reps to be proactive in their customer-focused approach.
Machine learning
Artificial intelligence is the future of customer service which is why machine learning is so vital when it comes to understanding the customer. AI can analyse past customer records and interactions allowing them to calculate which approach will be the most likely to lead to a positive outcome. By using tools like this, you will be able to bolster your client/agent relationships by having vital customer-centric information on screen at all times throughout their engagements.
Using an advanced tool that can present collected data efficiently
If you want to make fast data-driven decisions, then you’ll need to gather & store vital information using effective software that your sales and marketing teams can use to analyse and implement in real-time. In addition to that, collecting data from reliable sources is paramount. You must also use a tool which has advanced reporting capabilities so that you will be able to present the collected data in a digestible and simply visual manner.
Accept that data is the future of doing business
If you want to keep up and remain relevant then you must be receptive of the fact that data is the future of doing business—good business, that is. Thus, you should be prepared to fuse it with your company culture and bring your employees up to speed with the new changes that you will be implementing from the ground up.
This means training your employees so that they will be able to make smart decisions on the spot using the data collected. Work together with your staff to create data-driven strategies using factual figures and adjust your copywriting to ensure that your brand voice is in sync with your new strategies. Once you’re in a position to make customer-centric and data driven decisions, you will notice a rapid and positive change in your business, allowing you to not only survive, but thrive in the future.
Conclusion
We understand that changing the way that you do business is scary, especially if you’ve been comfortable coasting along as you are for a while. “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”, might feel like the right approach, but in business, it absolutely is not. Instead should be forever focused on ways that you can improve and innovate the way that you work, in keeping with the current climate. Right now, data is the hot-topic and as such, you should be looking at ways to harness it for the benefit of your business.