Both B2C and B2B companies need effective customer relationship management systems. However, the content and features of these CRMs will be different, as each business type has its specifics. Thus, B2B customer relations are often considered to be more complicated, as the sales process here involves more participants, and decision-making is always carefully weighted.
A B2B CRM system must perform a function of an effective tool for boosting sales and improving interaction with customers. In our guide, we are going to tell about the features of a good B2B CRM software, its benefits, and real examples of working B2B CRMs.
B2B CRM Overview: What Is It?
Broadly speaking, B2B customer relationship management is a philosophy of communication with customers. This is a complex system consisting of several essential components – the customer relation strategy, the process of communication, and CRM software. The main goals of B2B CRM can be described as finding real customer needs and using every chance to fulfill these needs in all stages of cooperation.
CRM software is a perfect tool for understanding clients’ needs and working out recommendations for further relations improvement, which, in turn, results in a sales boost. That is why it’s crucial to hire professionals for custom CRM software development. Essentially, B2B CRM software is a huge database that stores tons of information about customers and lets you process and systemize this information automatically. CRM software makes it possible to keep track of all the client’s actions, the history of his purchases, and so on. In the long run, it allows you to develop a targeted and personalized marketing strategy, which leads to increased sales.
Advantages of B2B CRM
A properly functioning B2B CRM system can bring a lot of benefits to various departments of the company. Let’s see in closer detail who and why can win from implementing CRM software. Here is a list of advantages of CRM systems for business.
Effective Contact Management
No spreadsheet can ever provide the same ease and convenience of managing contacts. CRM software offers almost unlimited possibilities for effective maintenance of the customer database. You can store huge volumes of data, categorize it in a convenient way, set targets and reminders, and find the needed information in one click.
Improved Client Experience
The importance of a personalized approach in sales is hard to overestimate. After all, any business is driven by people, and sometimes, good relationships matter more than finances. B2B CRM systems provide a lot of flexibility in terms of making special offers and working out personalized solutions based on a comprehensive analysis of the customer’s biography.
Instant Information Updating
CRM systems make it possible to manage the data in real time. All the changes are displayed immediately. This approach helps avoid situations where customers get outdated quotes, wrong prices, and irrelevant information. Any piece of information can be added, edited, updated, or deleted in a real-time mode.
Targeted Marketing Campaigns
Advertising campaigns are always expensive, so you always want to be sure your marketing efforts will turn effective. A B2B CRM system sets you to figure out the target audience and their needs most quickly and precisely. This, in turn, allows us to launch personalized marketing campaigns, which helps reduce costs and boost efficiency.
Powerful Tools for Analytics and Statistics
It’s crucial to estimate the efficiency of your marketing campaigns regularly just to understand whether you are moving in the right direction. CRM products offer powerful analytical and reporting tools that help form accurate reports using multiple metrics. After getting the needed reports in a convenient graphical form, you will be able to make precise forecasts for the next month or quarter.
As you see, CRM software not just helps automate routine processes but also enhances the overall efficiency of your communication with customers.
Top-5 B2B CRM Strategies to Consider
While it is important to have good B2B CRM software, it is equally important to use it properly. Here are top-five strategies that help make your customer relations management as effective as possible.
- Understand your customers’ needs. This is an essential point to begin with. The easiest way to do it is to ask direct questions like “What are you looking for?”, ”Why you’ve chosen us?”, and so on. Input the answers into the CRM program. After you accumulate some data, you’ll figure out the requirements of most clients.
- Focus on businesses, not people. You are working with corporate clients, not individuals. While personal contacts are important, always keep in mind that the employee you are working with can leave the company at any moment, so don’t rely on personal ties too much. Instead, try to offer competitive products to companies.
- Collect feedback. Those who can listen to others and hear them always win. While it may seem simple, collecting feedback is a skill that needs to be developed. Try to encourage your clients to express their opinions without being obtrusive. Practice asking open-ended questions like “What can we improve?” or “What extra services would you like to get?”
- Produce the right content. Make sure you provide precise and complete information about your products or services. Prepare the answers to frequently asked questions. Customers are looking for high-quality content, so, you must give it to them.
- Track the customers’ engagement. In other words, check how intensively they use your product and whether there is any progress. It can be done with the analytical tools of the CRM software.
These strategies are basic: they are just something that customer relations management can’t do without. Over time, you will work out your own rules and principles of collaboration with clients.
Real Examples of B2B CRM Solutions
The best motivation to do something is a real story of success. Let’s have a closer look at three inspiring real-life use cases of B2B CRM systems.
Unilever
This giant managing over 40 brands knows how to make use of CRM. Their CRM platform is called Traction – they actively use it to collect and analyze data about their customers. It lets them stay informed about clients’ needs and consistently improve the customer experience.
British Airways
Being a major international brand, the company is focused on the top quality of the services provided. They use Teradata CRM to collect feedback and find out their customers’ needs. The use of this platform helped them increase the number of requests processed by 150% and launch cheaper and more effective marketing campaigns.
Cisco
This top-rated American brand uses award-winning WebEx CRM software to manage customer relations. The result is a boost in the company’s efficiency and quality of customer support. Effective customer management allowed them to spend 20% more time on working in strategic directions and decrease the overall working time by 10%.
The Bottom Line
One of the primary goals of any business is increasing customer loyalty. This is achieved through effective customer relationship management. B2B CRM systems let you make the most of communication with corporate clients, which always results in enhancing the overall efficiency of business processes in the company.