Is CRM Good For B2B?
What Is A B2B CRM System Exactly?
When talking about B2B CRM systems, we may be referring to CRM as a technological system, a process, or a strategy.
Simply put, the word system means the software application that is used to collect information from each customer (from a website, social media, direct mail, phone call, email, online chat, and meeting, among others) and then analyze these interactions. This information may also include sales, inquiries, quotes, and reported issues, among others. This will keep you a better idea about each customer individually as well as about your overall company.
All the information that you collect is stored in a centralized database so all your staff can access and use it. In the case of our CRM system - Flowlu, this information is stored in the cloud.
The Goal Of Using A B2B CRM System
Now that you know what a B2B CRM system is, it's easier to understand why you should use one like Flowlu.
If you think about companies in general, the main idea of using a CRM system is to guide potential customers through a series of messages and content that starts with generating leads and brand awareness for a sale. If you can have comprehensive custom care after the sale is made, it may lead to repeat customers and brand advocacy.
However, you know that B2B companies work in a different way than B2C companies. After all, B2B companies are much more complex and multifaceted. You may have multiple requirements and considerations at each touchpoint. Obviously, this can make it very difficult to figure out what your customers need and where. This is where a CRM system like Flowlu comes in.
By collecting all the information from your customers, you'll be giving your marketing and sales teams the ability to better track each lead in detail and discover exactly how and when to influence them to move to the next stage of your funnel. Along the way, you also have the possibility to automate specific tasks.
The Main Differences Between A B2B CRM System & A B2C CRM System
As we already mentioned above, it's rather different to manage a B2B company or a B2C company and this is why you need a CRM system like Flowlu. Some of the differences include:
#1: The Number Of Leads:
There's no question that a B2C organization usually captures a very large number of leads. As you can easily understand, this makes it very hard for these companies to handle all the data and not the right time to make a sale. On the other, B2B organizations usually deal with a lot fewer leads due to the nature and usually higher value of the product. This means that B2B needs to spend more time on each lead and monitor them closely from the time of lead generation.
#2: The Number Of Stages In The Sales Process:
As we already mentioned above, B2B transactions are usually higher-value as well as they usually involve multiple decision-makers. This results in more stages in the sales process.
If you know where a lead is in your sales funnel, it will be easier to communicate with them. With a CRM system like Flowlu, you will always know what is happening at each stage.
On the other hand, for B2C organizations, you may not even need to keep track of each stage in the same detail.
#3: The Emphasis On Specific Data:
The way you look at data is different depending on whether you are running a B2B organization or a B2C organization. In the first case, CRM systems are specially designed to help sales reps handle the sales process efficiently and, at the same time, keep track of large amounts of lead-specific data. Data such as bills or purchase history can be used to monitor and predict the behavior and financial readiness of individual leads. As for B2C organizations, their main focus is to compile all data for a specific target group. This allows them to get a big-picture analysis.
How Can A B2B CRM System Help In Sales And Marketing?
Despite its name, a CRM system isn't meant to be used only by your customer support team. Instead, it can and should be used by all your company departments, including the sales and marketing departments.
The reality is that your goal is to make sure that your data is as meaningful as possible. This means that it should be mapped to your company's indivisible sales cycle, pipeline, or funnel. When you map these stages within your CRM system, you'll be able to see the different phases of your sales process allowing you easier tracking and measurement.
When you are using Flowlu, you can keep track of each potential customer through every stage of your funnel. As you can easily understand, this allows you to improve the way you will address their needs. But at the same time, you’ll be able to figure out why some are slipping out of the funnel.
But where does B2B CRM come into the sales process? The truth is that it comes right at the beginning, even before the customer has contact with sales reps. And if you are wondering why this happens at such an early stage, it is because you are using a CRM system that allows the most promising leads to be prioritized for communication. As for the less mature leads, you will also be able to prevent them from dropping out of the pipeline.
When you can accurately map to the sales cycle, a CRM system like Flowlu can also help your sales team to leverage customer analytics data for nurturing customer relationships.
Ultimately, the detailed data that you can access when you use a CRM system like Flowlu helps both your sales and marketing teams anticipate customers' needs, track conversations, deliver a seamless customer experience, and build strong customer profiles for tailored content delivery.
As you can easily understand, the main goal of a CRM system is to help you nurture leads at every stage of your sales funnel and gently ease their progression from one stage to the next. When you use a system like Flowlu properly, you'll also be able to monitor the outcomes of your marketing efforts and determine where the best-qualified leads come from.
3 Benefits Of Using A CRM System In The Sales Cycle
#1: Improve Visibility:
Before CRMs, B2B sales reps used to spend a huge amount of time compiling data about different customers to determine how and when to contact them. However, the results were far from the expected ones. But now, B2B organizations can already benefit from CRM systems like Flowlu that allow them to effortlessly see where leads are in the pipeline at any time. This will make it easy to channel their efforts.
#2: Increase Efficiency:
There's no question that B2B admin tasks are a burden. Fortunately, you can now turn to CRM systems that can help decrease the waste of time on pulling together data and nurturing low-prospect leads. This extra time can be better spent patching up newly identified holes in your B2B sales funnel.
As you can understand, all these actions are not only more targeted but also offer a greater return on investment. After all, you'll be removing the element of trial and error.
#3: Take Data-Driven Decisions Though Lead Scoring:
Since your sales team can determine which leads are better qualified based on their previous behavior and interaction, a CRM system may also help in predictive lead scoring. This is simply the process of rating or grading leads depending on how likely they are to result in a sale.
Bottom Line
B2B CRM systems aren't only good; they are crucial tools for these organizations. Instead of focusing on only one goal, when you are using a CRM system in your B2B organization, you can focus on many. After all, you will now have easy access to all your business data that allows all your staff to be in sync.
