Ask someone who is in a B2B environment what drives new customer acquisition, and many will respond with something along the lines of “it’s all about personal relationships”. These are absolutely the most valuable connections … the customer relationships that last decades and survive the longest. However, these are certainly the most difficult to find, nurture, and close. We are constantly faced with the question of how to find more of these golden goose eggs. Enter Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Marketing Automation (MA).
That brings me to reason #1:
Marketing automation can reveal the bottom half of the iceberg – the prospects you don’t even know are there.
Personal relationships in business are a scarce resource. I liken personal relationships to only the opportunities that we can see right in front of us – or viewed another way, the tip of the iceberg. This leaves us with the question of how to either achieve more success in closing the available opportunities, or alternatively, increasing the population of opportunities. I propose that discovering the unseen part of the iceberg lies in the potential of the combination of both CRM/MA. The combination of these tools, coupled with the right strategy, can pull the curtain back on an entirely new world we didn’t know existed.
You might be thinking, “sure, but how on earth does that relate to personal relationships”? The answer is that when a proper CRM/MA strategy is done correctly, it doesn’t replace the personal connection – it creates a personal introduction with prospects who are equally interested in a mutually beneficial relationship.
Again, let me stress that point. CRM/MA does not replace personal connections and relationships with low-value and unseen customers. It helps to deliver higher value, more qualified, and more willing opportunities.
Fine you say – but that sounds like a great deal of work, requiring additional resources that you may not have. In a tight economy with cloudy skies on the horizon, one of the last things a company wants to do is increase head count in softer areas such as marketing.
That brings me to reason #2:
It doesn’t take an army of sales and marketing professionals to bring to life a tailored and value-adding CRM/MA strategy.
I believe that the time has finally arrived where outstanding and affordable CRM and Marketing Automation solutions are available to more than just the big guys. There are solutions that fit a wide variety of needs and price points. These solutions can get a company moving in a matter of days if not hours. For me, that means you’re closer to creating a positive impact on your bottom line.
Tools today are not only very intuitive, but also provide a wealth of tutorial and training materials and assistance. And in most cases, they simply help you to automate the already successful processes that you do by second nature – thus just helping you build a better mousetrap. However, this process does need than just added efficiency and productivity. Let’s talk about information, because knowledge is power.
And lastly, reason #3:
Valuable and actionable information has never been more available.
Big Brother fears set aside for the moment, we are awash in data. Everything you ever wanted to know about an untapped world of potential customers is out there waiting for you. Valuable information about companies, key members, pain points, priorities and initiatives, and their needs – all very readily available via that “repository of all human knowledge” named the Internet. A well-designed CRM/MA solution helps to capture that information and make it available to you at your fingertips –without requiring you to hire a data scientist to master big data.
Take the first step:
In conclusion, if you haven’t done it lately I strongly suggest you dive into the world of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Marketing Automation (MA) solutions as a high priority. Learn firsthand and form your own opinions. You will encounter both brilliant and lackluster solutions – however, along the way you will see how much potential these tools have to open an entirely new world for your B2B business development efforts. Then it’s up to you to make those potential relationships personal.
Scott Capistrano
