Our CRM trends to watch in 2011 were among the most-read words here, all year. Now let’s look forward to what’s in store for sales and marketing data in 2012 … FUSION OF SFA WITH EMA = TRUE CRM: With continuing innovation, sales force automation systems (SFA) have been transformed into a sales rep’s best friend, as discussed in an insightful blog post at Software Advice: easier implementation, data accessibility and now the benefits of analytics and marketing automation are aiding the success of sales teams using these systems. The success of CRM and Marketing Automation is no secret. More B2B organizations will take advantage of this profitable alliance to create a true lead generation life cycle platform, so that the handoffs throughout the prospect -> lead -> nurture -> sale pipeline will become more seamless and accountable. To accomplish this, data, analytics and best practices will play an integral part in relevant communication. (Also see our slide presentation, “What CRM was supposed to be.”) MORE PRODUCTIVE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS: The customer value equation will go further so companies and sales teams can generate more revenue and profit from existing customers. This means examining every aspect of customer value, determining where it will come from and coaching/training to empower sales teams with …Read More
Unsubscribing from email campaigns: Relevance in the eye of the beholder
Nearly all of our focus is on driving incremental revenues through predictive analytics via sales. That’s all good, but what prospects and customers see and use, interact with and judge are the actual sales and marketing communication vehicles. No matter how precise the analytics and the lead scoring in marketing automation systems, there needs to be an option for the recipient to “just take a break.” We call it correcting for outliers. We faced one such moment on an overseas trip. When I powered up the Blackberry, a message popped up from the carrier: INTERNATIONAL ROAMING: Calls $2.50/min, Data $0.008/KB. Internet use and emails can really put a shocking dent in your Euro budget (or Rupee or Yen). Like my finding out later it cost $40 per hour of connectivity via the satellite card. Sure, I could limit how many minutes I’d spend on calls, but with email it’s not easy to keep track of data in KB units. I really liked the convenience of getting emails on my Blackberry without messing with new devices or sim cards. Determined not to be taken in by my carrier for all the non-work email communications, I wanted to “opt-out” for a limited …Read More