CRM (Customer relationship management) software empowers businesses to incorporate all their sales and marketing systems; accounts, contacts, activities, campaigns and new business onto one platform. But in order to fully benefit from the possibilities of CRM software; a 360 degree view of your operations, advantages with time to market, flexibility and improved cash flow - CRM should be incorporated with additional business systems.
For example, the BPA Platform can integrate CRM software (Agile CRM, Brightstar CRM, SugarCRM ERP, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Infor CRM, Sage CRM, Salesforce) with accounting, courier, eCommerce or ERP systems to synchronise customer data in real-time. This gets rid of manual processing and ensures systems have accurate, up-to-date information.
Incorporating business data into CRM systems
Data related to new products including pricing, stock availability and new suppliers, which may have previously been stored in an ERP or warehouse management system, can be instantly uploaded into a CRM system. This allows sales staff to work seamlessly, without having to alternate between different systems. Likewise, after an order has been completed, invoice data and tracking numbers can be uploaded - resulting in more efficiency in tracking what has been invoiced and dispatched.
Accounting data such as outstanding invoices, sales and purchase history, average days to pay etc. should also be pushed and absorbed into a CRM system. This will create better visibility in assessing financial information and new or existing clients.
We can utilise the BPA Platform to automate workflows and push accounting data (or data from ERP software) into the CRM system, for example - the invoice is overdue = follow up call, invoice has been paid = thank you call.
Marketing and CRM Integration
The majority of CRM systems comprise a variety of sales and marketing features to help drive business campaigns and strategies. Many businesses however utilise dedicated marketing applications (HubSpot, MailChimp,Active Campaign, Marketo) to manage their campaigns.
As many businesses will want to upload client and prospective business leads into CRM systems, a team that is using a dedicated marketing application will want that data pushed into these tools, ensuring they have the most updated data for their campaigns. In addition, all leads generated within their existing applications, need to be shared with the CRM system.
Key information for marketing teams such as the capturing of new leads visiting a website, the attending of a tradeshow or the downloading of a whitepaper - are all stored within the application. A system is therefore required to automatically notify staff to update the CRM system with this highly valuable information.
It is a legal requirement for businesses to action email campaign unsubscribers. Systems must therefore be set up to process and update these changes. A BPA Platform can easily integrate these applications; automatically creating or updating marketing lists, importing generated leads, processing unsubscribes and bounces from email campaigns, or creating and sending campaigns.
By incorporating all your existing business systems and applications into a CRM system, you will eliminate a lot of manual lead processes, improve data accuracy and efficiency and drive performance.
If you would like to discuss how VH3 can help enhance and improve your sales and marketing performance, don’t hesitate to book in a call with one of our system architects today or download our brochure at vh3.digital.
