We will briefly outline the steps to create a CRM strategy for your business. This post will cover how to find potential customers, why marketing automation is important, and what you need to collect data on. For instance, you can make use of free quoting software to increase sales and enhance your business.
- Figure out who your target audience is. For example, are they most likely male or female? Do they have kids? Do they live in a rural or urban area? Do most of them work in finance or internet marketing? You should also take note of what their hobbies are – maybe most of them play golf!
- Create a list of “qualified prospects.” The keyword here is “qualified” – don’t just say, everyone. The main point here is that your CRM should only contain only people who you think have a chance of buying from you. A good online CRM solution will help you with this.
- Build rapport. With any new customer, especially one who’s outside your network, build rapport by asking them questions about themselves, about their business or industry, and about their needs or goals. Find out what kind of person they are, what they value, and why.
- Identify their problems. If you can ask them questions about their issues or needs without seeming too pushy, great! If you can only ascertain that they have an issue by asking “so what’s the problem?”, or if they’re already making a sale then they probably have a problem.
- Figure out their needs by asking questions. Maybe the target audience is currently interested but is seeking other options in their industry. Maybe your product fills one of those other options that was left unfulfilled for now. The main thing is to determine the needs and not necessarily the solution.
- Identify potential buyers. Now that you’ve got a list of potential customers, you need to figure out who has a genuine interest in buying your product or service. You want to avoid wasting time or money on products or services that people aren’t going to buy at this point.
- Determine their objections. People are generally afraid of failure when making new business decisions – they don’t want to make bad decisions even though they desperately need help with their problems. Once you’ve pinpointed each of their objections, you want to address those as quickly as possible so that your customer feels confident buying from you. You must also avoid getting caught up in the objections of others; if they don’t like a particular price, don’t lower your prices.
- Become a trusted advisor by giving value. To make the sale, you need to give your customers something more than what they’re looking for – something beyond really good advice that is free. Give them a free consultation and ask them questions about their business – find out why they want to take this action and not another, or what problems they have and how this can help!
- Find ways to engage customers over time. Regular customers are the best kind of customers! But they won’t keep coming back if they don’t feel that you’re always delivering more value than what you’re charging. Find ways to occasionally surprise them with a little extra gift, a surprise coupon, or just email updates and information that doesn’t always include offers for your product. This will keep them coming back!
Getting your target audience to buy should never be difficult once you’ve followed this strategic process.
Tips
- Remember that it’s not a one-time sale. For your business to thrive, you have to get people coming back over and over again. You also need to create a sustainable product or service that can be delivered month after month. Remember that a new customer doesn’t necessarily mean a new moneymaker (and you might not get as much money if they don’t buy anything from you). However, make sure that each time they do buy something, the value of their investment is greater than what they’ve paid before! And don’t worry about the sales as you have the option to make use of free quoting software.
- Determine the main objection(s). If people find a way to get around the sales pitch or your product/service doesn’t meet their expectations, they’ll stop buying.
* You can figure this out using Google Analytics or other analytics software (e.g. GTM). You can also ask yourself whether your website has any steps that someone would have trouble with. If so, figure out which steps are most difficult for your target audience to accomplish and devise a plan to improve it (e.g., some sort of incentive if they follow instructions).
- Design custom templates for easy purchase from the front end of your website or mobile app (if applicable).
- Make sure your product is properly organized. Make sure it fits on a page or screen with no space on either side (the sidebar is a lifeline); make sure that the images are formatted correctly and don’t have extraneous elements, and make sure an estimated number of clicks is visible. This is sometimes referred to as “click magic.”
- Find out as much information as you can about your target audience (what they want, what they need). There’s a lot of information out there, but if you want to get to know your target audience, you need to go out and ask them about their problems and challenges.
- Once you’ve identified your target audience, don’t just focus on the demographics (age, gender, family size, income level). While this is important, there are many other ways to segment your audience so that buying becomes easier for them. For example, someone with one child might have different needs than someone with four children. Someone single may have different needs than someone married. Someone who is self-employed or an entrepreneur may have different needs and challenges than someone who works 9-5 every day for an employer. Remember that the needs of a single person might be different from those of a married couple.
- Don’t just educate your audience, empower them! Help them come up with their solutions to their problems, but help them along the way so that they know you’re providing value and not just selling to them.
- Determine what you can offer your customers beyond just the product itself. A great product is usually only part of the package; this is why customer service and support are so important in online retail. Don’t neglect these aspects if your customers will leave for another company!
- Be ready for things to go wrong (because they will). Know how to deal with “no” responses and objections. Many people make the mistake of assuming that they’ve struck gold when they get a “yes!” in response to their offer, but many times they didn’t ask the right questions or investigate their market enough to see what their competition is offering.
- Don’t offer up your product or service for free! Far too many businesses give away an abundance of valuable resources for free (or at a very low cost) because it’s hard to imagine how these products can be used.
These are the tips that you need to keep in mind for a CRM strategy for your business. For sales, you can rely on the free quoting software and if you are looking for professional help then you can seek help from Osmos Cloud and get the best help.
Abdul Qadeer is highly experienced in creating engaging content that adds real value to a blog, website, or brand. He is creating content for multiple niches like technology, SEO, Marketing, Health, Education and Career Development, etc.