Valgen - Analytics for Sales Productivity Blog

Marketing Automation

Top CRM Trends to Watch in 2012

By admin

January 2, 2012

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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

5 ways sales can benefit from marketing automation

By admin

April 25, 2011

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Marketing automation has evolved over the last decade from typically managing a single channel (direct mail or email) to facilitating multi-channel, multi-touch campaigns that are at the core of revenue performance. One valuable aspect of marketing automation tools is to nurture a lead until the prospect is ready to engage with sales. Coupled with the new reality that prospective customers do not contact the sales person until well into the decision process, marketing automation is now front and center to enabling sales to maximize the chance of winning new customers. While lead nurturing and scoring are well-documented uses of marketing automation, we focus here on a few tactical examples of further leveraging marketing automation tools by adding data and analytic capabilities to benefit the sales teams. You can use analytics in marketing automation to: 1. Estimate an early outcome: Early in the sales process, look at pivotal needs that leads and customers might be searching for, and what critical paths they might take within your organization. You can develop and use analytic models to predict what path the prospect is most likely to take. For example, you might be interested to predict that prospects would be likely to ”buy 50+ units” or want to talk about …Read More