Author: Artemy

In today’s competitive business landscape, customer retention is more critical than ever. Retaining existing customers is a cost-effective way to grow your business and create long-term success.

With the average cost of new customer acquisition on the rise, it’s crucial to focus on keeping your existing customers happy and loyal. But how can you ensure that your customers keep coming back for more?

In this blog, we will explore five practical steps to boost customer retention and generate opportunities for growth within your business. By implementing these strategies, you can create a positive customer experience, enhance loyalty, and drive long-term business success.

1. Create a Customer Success Team

Keeping your customers happy is so fundamental that it will undoubtedly pay to have
a dedicated team who leads the way in ensuring that Customer Experience lies at the
heart of your operations.

It also sends out a clear message that you are proactive in caring about your
customers, making sure that their expectations are met and that they get the best
results from your products or services. To put it another way customers want to feel
loved! When asked for the reasons they feel a strong emotional connection to a
particular brand, 65% of US consumers recently said it is because they feel as if the
company cares about people like them.

2. Maximize Opportunities For Feedback

The adage about not relying on assumptions applies to customer retention as much
as acquisition. Dont be fooled into thinking you know what it is your customer expects
or needs in their ongoing relationship with you. Aim to give them regular opportunities
to feed back on all aspects of your delivery, from onboarding to the product itself to
overall satisfaction and experience.

Customer satisfaction surveys certainly retain a role in retention marketing, but this
doesnt have to be restricted to a formal (possibly annual) mass send-out. You can
ask customers to complete ad-hoc surveys after any engagement exercise, such as a
webinar. Immediate, activity-specific feedback like this can be immensely useful to
help you tweak your approach mid-campaign. Consider getting loyal customers
involved in focus groups and dont underestimate the value of timely and concise
email updates, blogs like this one! and engaging with customers on social media.

In essence, aim to keep the dialogue going at all points in the customer journey so
that you are equipped with the insight you need to make informed decisions about
future retention activity and make your customers feel valued at the same time.

3. Value Reviews For Deeper Understanding

As you will read in our Customer Success blog I referred to above, Value Reviews
form a key element of best practice retention strategy, not only to gauge satisfaction
levels but to check that your customers are reaping maximum benefit from your
services and to support them in doing so. This really helps build trust and loyalty
from a relationship perspective, not to mention the practical matter of embedding your
services deeper within their company.

Weve found that these in-depth reviews which can be undertaken by phone or face
to face tend to surface new areas for growth and development for both our business
and our customers.

4. Educate And Advise

Todays consumers are masters in self-education. Between 60% and 90% of the
buyers journey is now self-guided, and both Forrester and Gartner have predicted that
80% of the buying process will take place without any direct human-to-human
interaction by 2020. You can try to exploit this trend by ensuring there are plenty of
opportunities for customer-based learning on all your communication channels. For
example, providing webinars, videos, online user guides and even case studies can
further customers understanding of how your services can be adopted and extended,
helping you to create more valuable and stronger relationships.

5. Create A Customer-Centric Culture

This last step essentially joins all the others together to establish a coherent path to
customer satisfaction and loyalty across your whole organization. Everyone within
your business (not just those in customer-facing roles) needs to understand their
contribution and impact on your customers experience. Fostering a positive, forward looking, customer-centric culture may require training to secure buy-in from all teams.

To End it Off

Customer retention is crucial for the growth and success of your business. By implementing a dedicated customer success team, maximizing opportunities for feedback, valuing reviews for deeper understanding, educating and advising your customers, and creating a customer-centric culture, you can improve the overall customer experience, enhance loyalty, and generate opportunities for growth.

It is essential to keep the dialogue going, listen to your customers, and implement changes based on their feedback. By prioritizing customer retention, you can reduce costs associated with customer acquisition and drive long-term business success.

Finding buyers for manufactured product is essential. Making on its own will not drive economic growth it will only come when those goods are sold. Customer Relationship Management for manufacturing (CRM) could be the difference between success and failure, but manufacturing companies are very different to other industries. What works in the financial services sector doesnt always work for the engineers, fabricators and component suppliers that drive manufacturing.

Growing Manufacturing Sales

Following the pandemic, confidence is returning to certain sectors. Consumers are once again hitting the high street and low interest rates are encouraging some growth in capital projects. After some lean months, demand in the economy is building.

Unfortunately, others are looking at the same customers you are. They will do everything in their power to take your business and to take your customers.

Fighting back is not just about the cost of goods. A race to the bottom will not drive growth. Before dropping your prices to compete, look at the other weapons in your arsenal. Low cost foreign imports rarely come with the customer service that a local provider can give. Often they are ill equipped to provide Just In Time (JIT) delivery services. Essentially, they rarely have the local feet on the street. Customer

relationships are a key determinant of why the customer buys and Maximizer CRM can give you an advantage.

Manufacturing Customer Relationships

Think of the process flows and production modelling techniques you use to drive your manufacturing processes. When was that amount of time, effort and brainpower applied to your sales processes? For most manufacturers, the answer is never. Sales are the forgotten department. Despite occasional complaints about the cost of the sales team, they dont get the forensic attention that they need.

KAIZAN and Lean manufacturing have revolutionized production, but sales are often doing the same things they did in the bad old days of manufacturing. Implementing a CRM system would mean exposing them to that same level of scrutiny.

Start with the basics

Who is the customer?

Not just the list of companies you sell to, but who in those companies actually makes the purchasing decisions?

What do they buy?

Beyond specifications, what motivates them to buy? Why would they buy one product over another?

How do they buy?

What are the procurement processes? Can you help them with their procurement?

How do they find out about new products?

How do they go from Never a Customer to Always a Customer?

Just understanding these, and other key questions, will help you identify your customer and the relationships they need to have with their suppliers. CRM software then provides the tools to help you manage the relationship in ways that work for you and your customers.

Armed with this understanding you are in a better position to refine your processes for competitive advantage. With improved understanding, you can improve production

forecasting. This potentially reduces your inventory costs and transport costs. It can improve cash flow and provide a timely warning of possible spikes in demand. CRM has been shown to improve profitability and reduce customer churn. Put like that whats not to like?

Taking the first step

Often, manufacturing companies will look to the provider of their ERP systems to provide a CRM solution. In some cases this makes good sense; however, in many cases it fails. The problem with ERP companies that implement CRM functionality is that they just dont understand how salespeople work. They attempt to apply analytic disciplines to processes that are intuitive, not structured.

Independent CRM vendors create products that meet these needs. Instead of bending your sales and marketing processes to fit with a model developed by an ERP vendor, they provide customizable off the shelf Manufacturing CRMs that builds a system that works for you and the customer. They have the experience to help you understand sales processes. Often they provide experience gained in delivering successful CRM projects for other manufacturers.

CRM Software is a hyper-competitive market. Just as you have to earn your orders, look for a CRM provider that work to earn your business, and wi;ll be there for you post-sale. Do they have other customers in your sector? Are they of a size that means you will be able to manage them, or will they attempt to manage you? Selecting the right CRM partner is an important step to claiming your place on the March of the makers.

If you would like to explore how Maximizer can accelerate your business growth and increase your revenues, sign up for a 30-day free trial or get in touch with one of our CRM experts today!

A CRM implementation isnt coin-operated

Achieving a successful CRM ROI instead takes focus. Its about planning, getting your technology and people working together. And there are many moving parts that can impact your total cost.

Indeed, businesses spend anywhere between $5,000 to $80,000+ getting a new CRM system up and running.

Those costs include expenses like software subscriptions advertised on your vendors pricing page and expenses your vendor will be less keen to share, such as the cost of extra user training, technical support and software customization. With an industry-leading solution, yourhidden costscan rack up significantly.

You want a solid return on your investment. And you know no matter how well your CRM strategy aligns with your business objectives and no matter how good the technology you will struggle to achieve your ROI if your team does not engage.

What follows are the top CRM adoption obstacles and 8 proven CRM adoption strategies.

The top CRM adoption obstacles

Youll ultimately confront several people-related issues during your implementation, as highlighted by repeated Forrester surveys.

These cited human pitfalls have included the following:

• 15% aligning their organization with new ways of working
• 35% inadequate change management and training
• 49% slow user adoption

According to CRM analysts, here are the most common user adoption roadblocks:

• Poor adoption strategy
• Lack of support from senior leadership
• Poor coordination with your intended end-users
• Few consequences for not using your CRM
• Software badly mismatched to your teams existing workflow
• Software poorly integrated with your other systems
• Lack of relevant training
• Lack of training support across your solutions lifetime

Thankfully, there are some relatively simple strategies that significantly boost your chances without adding significantly to your final tally.

Well address each factor impacting your adoption fortunes.

• Building a robust adoption outreach strategy
• Choosing the right CRM system to spur, not frustrate, adoption

Building a robust CRM adoption strategy

People dont like change and may resist it. Its a common instinct, especially when change isnt clearly articulated and entails potential liabilities. Here are some ways to communicate effectively with your team.

1. Create an inclusive vision:

Its almost cliche to say this, but getting people on board early is essential to nipping status quo bias in the bud. Host luncheons and meetings where you can visually demo your new software. Then once youve got their attention, consider asking the following: How are they interacting with existing apps that they rely on every day?

• Do they find them easy to use? Where do they get stuck?
• Do they ever waste time waiting for systems to respond?
• How can you leverage the new system to eliminate interruptions that distract them from selling, solving problems and delighting customers

A clear implementation game plan and clear messaging are equally crucial. Plan out your messaging to be as clear and consistent as possible, and be sure to cover all the bases, including

2. Layout a clear game plan:

• Why the new software is necessary
• Why staying the same is impossible
• What is about to happen
• Where your project is at on an ongoing basis
• A realistic completion date
• How your project’s success will be measured

3. Sell your CRM using a CRM Champion

You will also need ways to sell your solution to your team. Like anyone, theyll want to know what is in it for them. If CRM becomes a synonym for extra IT admin work, distracting from calling prospects then no matter how hard you push, your team still wont want to use it. Appointing a dedicated CRM Champion can help you bridge the divide. Ideally, your CRM Champion is a team leader who understands how your solution will help your team become more productive without doing more work and can communicate the benefits of your new system in terms they will appreciate.

4. Make CRM-use mandatory

Finally, youll need to get rid of the old ways of working as soon as your CRM is up and running. Consider doing the following:

• Restrict access to duplicate data sources and system
• Require sales reps to enter key prospect information into their CRM during their first sales call
• Mandate sales reps close their opportunities inside their CRM

Getting the right CRM software

Next, lets talk about software. Ideally, you want a solution that helps learners adjust quickly and collaborate painlessly and with minimal delay!

Therefore:

5. Embrace debate

When you engage users they might request costly or impractical capabilities. Dont be afraid to push back. Your aim is to strike a balance between high levels of customization and automation, and reasonable scope of work. Fine-tune your software within practical limits to help end-users achieve their aspirations

6. Consider getting every department hooked up:

Your sales team will want to see their prospects, opportunities, contacts and accounts all in one place. Consider getting sales, marketing and customer service on the same page so they can collaborate on a shared 360-degree view of your customer. A mid-tier

vendor who offers an all-in-one subscription at a reasonable price can help you add new user subscriptions at a reasonable price.

7. Get the right integrations:

Additionally or alternatively, consider a CRM that connects easily with your other business-critical apps. That way, if your marketing team wants to keep working in familiar marketing apps, like Marketo or Hubspot they can continue doing so! Meanwhile, you can automatically flow lead information to your sales team working in your CRM so they can take effective action further down the buyer journey. A solution that comes with an app directory stocked with the right (free!) pre-built integrations can be of huge benefit here.

8. Personalize your UX:

Clunky, slow or cluttered interfaces will only make matters worse. So will CRM solutions that shoehorn you into their workflow, forcing you to contemplate more coercive, time consuming or expensive measures to guarantee adoption, including extra training services or software customization involving pricey third-party consultants. Instead, consider smoothing your transition and keeping costs down with a more flexible solution. One that doesnt take a one-size-fits-all approach and expects you to fit into its workflow, but rather, one that can be adapted to how you do things. At Maximizer, for example, we consult with customers thoroughly to build a CRM that matches their workflow as closely as possible. We then empower them to personalize their UX even further by leveraging our CRMs built-in configuration features. Youll find some CRMs like Maximizer come with heightened personalization, allowing you to self-tailor your process stages and data capture fields as much as you want to work just as you need them to

Bottom Line

A CRM implementation can feel intimidating. And its true, without the proper approach, you may incur needless expenses that can rack up quite quickly. In a worst- case scenario unlikely but possible your implementation may fail, leaving you to start again from scratch. Assuming theres a second chance.

Thankfully, the strategies for ensuring user CRM adoption and locking down your CRM ROI are well understood. A good vendor can also help hand hold you all the way to a successful completion

In today’s digital age, sales professionals and business owners must adapt to modern prospects’ preferences and behaviours to expand their customer base. Instead of relying on traditional outbound sales techniques and hard selling, companies need to focus on engaging prospects and creating personalized, emotional connections with their brands.

This article provides tips and strategies to help businesses convert prospects into loyal customers, from using customer data to deliver personalized engagement to offering webinars and useful content.

Focus on Engagement, Rather Than Promotion

As sales professionals and business owners, its crucial that we acknowledge our modern prospects desire to interact with us on their terms, how and when they choose. There has been a fundamental shift away from outbound sales techniques and the hard sell cold calling, for instance. In fact I would say that the challenge for businesses like ours today is to sell without selling; modern consumers are simply turned off by what are perceived as old-fashioned methods, preferring to deal with suppliers who let them control the pace and direction of their buying journey.

Todays smartphone society increasingly rely on social media, blogs, peer reviews and comparison sites to self-educate on products or services they are interested in. This is a trend which is accelerating fast, and is part of the growing appetite for engagement rather than overt promotion. People are seeking more authentic, personalised and emotional connections with their chosen brands, which of course is partially driven by the immediacy of the online world. A Forbes article recently stated that over 60% of Millennials are more likely to become brand loyal if a company engages with them, sincerely, on social media. This is likely to hold far greater sway these days than anything sent to them directly by a traditional sales rep.

As such, when prospects do reach out and make contact, they are further along in their decision-making process with some commentators estimating that 75% of the buying journey is already complete.

From Hot Prospect To Customer

So with this in mind, how can you seal the deal and convert prospects interest into sales and revenue? Actually, the fact that prospects are further along their buying journey than ever before should make closing the deal easier. Here are some key points to bear in mind to avoid potential customers slipping through your fingers.

1. Personalization

Use the wealth of customer data already at your fingertips through business tools such as CRM to identify new prospects and to deliver the truly personalized level of engagement expected today. This involves profiling customer segments to paint a figurative picture of your likely prospects. But its important to go beyond this and drill down deeper into your companys data to individual customer level, analyzing key information such as purchase, billing and service history alongside communication preferences such as which online or offline channel they use and at which time of day. It is this degree of insight which allows you to personalize the all-important final steps in their journey to purchase

2. Commitment

When building any relationship its always a helpful strategy to stage commitment by breaking it down into manageable steps that feel less intimidating. Start by asking prospects to make small pledges of loyalty to you, such as booking meetings, engaging with you about an email you sent them or completing an online survey. These all help to pave the way for future, larger commitments, as well as giving you actionable business intelligence on their preferences that will influence the nature of future interactions.

3. Visibility

As we mentioned earlier, todays consumer is likely to verify your claims through a range of online means, from peer reviews and press articles to demo videos and blogs. Improving your visibility and customer reviews on the right channels will help you to progress prospects to the next stage. Remember, over 80% of consumers seek peer referrals before making a purchase.

4. Reciprocity

Giving tends to inspire a reciprocal gesture, so bear this in mind in your interactions with prospective customers. You could offer consultancy sessions, webinars or useful content such as eBooks all of which satisfy the prospects preference to self-educate but at the same time make them feel valued and help to create stronger, more enduring relationships.

5. Effective Sales Process

Research shows that the difference between a sales team that executes and one that struggles to hit targets is process, so the importance of a trackable and repeatable sales process cant be emphasised enough. Teams who work in a consistent way are more likely to move deals through the pipeline and close them. Developing a Sales Playbook

will help define your process and provides a transparent, detailed, honed roadmap for you team to implement, evolve and adjust to your new customer journey and buying behaviours.

To Conclude

To succeed in today’s competitive business landscape, companies need to understand and cater to modern prospects’ preferences and behaviors. By focusing on engagement and personalization instead of promotion and hard selling, businesses can create authentic and emotional connections with their customers, resulting in brand loyalty and increased revenue. By following the strategies outlined in this article, sales professionals and business owners can effectively convert prospects into loyal customers, making the most out of their customer base and ultimately growing their business.

The debate over the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of cloud vs. on premise software choices is still a much-debated topic. Complicated questions like quantifying the long-term costs of IT management, plus the intangibles (uncertainties like downtime) can make comparing the two a bit like apples to oranges.

In 2019, according to a recent ZDnet Cloud Computing article, cloud services are accelerating, and faster than ever. We increasingly rely on cloud services in both our professional and personal lives, like NetFlix, GMail, Amazon, and many others.

We wanted to confirm for ourselves what the advantages of a Cloud CRM vs. an On-premises installation and heres what the experts had to say.

Cloud CRM has the edge in terms of stability, ease-of-use and scalability – and comes at a predictable price most SMB’s can easily absorb

However, there’s no straight answer on which costs less – cloud or on-prem?

According to VP and Corporate Counsel at Pemeco, Jonathan Gross, the answer depends on the app under consideration and the factors at play in your business, incluing timeline, staffing and related opportunity costs.

On-premises vs. Cloud: What is the difference?

With the liberal use of “cloud” as a marketing slogan, it can sometimes be easy to confuse definitions. Which is why it’s critical to first understand the difference.

On-premises CRM Solution

An on-premises CRM solution is hosted on your own server or data centre. People used to get on-premises software from a CD or a flash stick. Today, it’s usually accessed through an emailed download link

Analysts agree: On premise will cost you less up front. You pay a one-time license fee, along with a maintenance subscription covering things like vendor support. These are far cheaper than the cost of your cloud subscription over time.

However, Gross wrote the biggest error when evaluating on-premises’s total cost of ownership is to forget to factor in ongoing costs.

According to Gartner, the annual cost to own and manage software app can be up ot four times the cost of the initial purchase.

Think of it this way: on-prem software is effectively a capital investment. You can buy it and you’re responsible for it. You need to make sure it’s set up properly – or call in costly, time-consuming third party consultants – which can significantly prolong your implementation. There’s also the cost of maintaining supporting infrastructure: hardware and database software needs to be maintaned and periodically refreshed (usually every 5 years) to ensure it’s free of database corruption and latency issues.

And then there are the regular software updates, patches and fixes; making sure your software and network is secure; setting up your network connection so your CRM can be accessed remotely. All of that consumes many hours of your time.

Plus, customizations done on on-premises tend to get less vendor support; if an integration breaks because of a software update, you’ll likely have to pay to have it re-written while you temporarily lose access to that functionality.

Cloud CRM Solution

A Cloud CRM Solution, in contrast, is accessed through the internet. Your data is hosted on your provider’s data centre. They take care of IT management: that includes maintenance, updates, patches and fixes, network access, backups, server redundancy, security and more.

Unlike its on-prem counterpart, cloud CRM functions more like an operating expense. After your initial setup (where you may pay extra for services like data migration, customization and training) you pay a predictable subscription rate. You’re essentially “renting” the software and its supporting infrastructure as a service; hence the correct term: Software-as-a-Service(SaaS)

ZDnet Columnist and Founder of tech research firm Vital Analysis, Brian Sommer, indicated one potential “massive” SaaS benefit: upgrades and patches come as part of your subscription. Meaning, you don’t have to buy a new solution every few years to retains access to the leading edge; instead, updates are installed automatically on your vendor’s data centre without you doing any work.

Brian Sommer added that there are additional savings when it comes to expansion: companies can leverage SaaS to establish “new offices anywhere in the world with no lost time, no hardware purchases and no extra anything. All these firms needed is n internet connection and a computing device to have a new instance”

In short, SaaS CRM offers companies stable, convenient and scalable access to leading edge software.

Nevertheless, SaaS isn’t perfect -there are risks. For example, you might end up paying more for SaaS compared to on-premises over the full lifecycle of the solution (which can be up to a decade or more in the case of a CRM)

Four things to keep in mind when comparing TCO

Ultimately, you’ll want to carefully evaluate your choice. There are a few critical decision factors, according to Gross.

1. Time horizon – what is expected lifecycle of your software? For a humongous Enterprise Resource Planning system with hundreds if not thousands of users, that timeline may span decades, making it worth doing in-house. Some office tools, however, may be only in use for a couple of years by a single team.
2. Available IT resources – Sure, if you’re a tech titan, the sky’s the limit: you can build your dream infrastructure in-house and reap huge benefits. But for many SMBs, working on a shoestring budget, you need to consider your limitations.
3. Opportunity costs – For examples ,how many people can you dedicate to maintaining your software – and what are the opportunity costs of having the preoccupied with IT management? You need to consider whether it’s worth it having your CGO, for example, pulling double duty maintaining your CRM and finances. By freeing up workers with cloud CRM, you can have them focus elsewhere.
4. Uncertainty and risk – One final consideration is risks of downtime or security breaches. In smaller organizations, a single individual might be responsible for all IT-related responsibilities. But employees need to take vacations and sick days: what happens if your server goes down while your sole IT person is still in Barbados, their cell phone switched off while they’re sipping mojitos on the beach?

The advantage of cloud CRM for SMBs

Ultimately, cloud service offerings can have substantial advantages, and cloud adopters often experience at least a 40% reduction in their IT spend.

For those with limited capital expense budgets and difficulty predicting future usage and business needs, SaaS models can be liberating. It helps them to reduce operating expenses and offer services that compete with larger organizations – while freeing up staff to focus on revenue-generating activities.