A conjugate between sales and marketing

The CRM manager typically acts with many important functions within an organsiation but ultimately falls back into a high level strategic position that is the glue between the sales and marketing teams and should be treated in its own division. Often the CRM manager from HR is thrown into a IT division as they are usually the most savvy in the room and it shouldn’t be the case, assuming it is a supporting role. Instead the role really should be put into a strategic business analyst role providing guidance to both Sales and Marketing, giving information and intelligence on the best method to move marketing based on prospect data and improve technical skills of sales tools and change the behaviours of the sales team to improve conversion.

Every entrepreneur has his or her own vision of the business. Still, all they agree on the fact that success is derived from the clients’ satisfaction. Regardless of what you’re dealing with (either manufacturing goods or rendering services), a happy client is your goal.

However, providing a qualitative product/service is not always a prerequisite for success. A number of versatile activities and aspects shape the relationship between a service/product provider and a client. In the business world, it is necessary to control any detail to be prosperous. On this account, customer relationship management is an important term for any company.

The abbreviation “CRM” can be described as a technology or process aimed at interacting with clientage. Certainly, the aim of such interaction is to improve the interplay. Such improvement, in turn, is responsible for other benefits resulting to the final purpose of any commercial activity, namely to get profit. Similar to other essential business processes, this one is operated by a certain executive. So, let’s find out what is a CRM manager.

1. What is a CRM manager?

The answer to this question is simple as a pie. It is a person, who specializes in interaction with customers in an enterprise. Certainly, this is a very broad definition to get a grasp on. However, a description of CRM manager duties can shed more light on this job position.

Yet, the importance of the said position should be mentioned at first. Compared to other accustomed occupations in a regular company or business, the role of CRM manager is a bit undervalued. However, the situation is changing drastically especially during the digitalization progress. Today, companies with the implemented position of the executive to care about clients’ needs and wishes outperform their competitors who decided to neglect the modern trend. Sooner or later, they will realize their fault and try to swing on the moving train. Still, it may be late.

2. CRM Manager Job Description

If it is necessary to hire an attorney or an IT-expert, your HR department knows exactly what demands to establish. The matter with the CRM manager is a bit confusing due to the novelty of this type of professionals on the market. An experienced reader can raise objections using words “What a nonsense!” Indeed, companies have taken thought for clients’ satisfaction for dozens of years. Nevertheless, the dedicated function to manage customer relationship has evolved in recent years.

What about the marketing specialists? Perhaps, it is their function to learn wishes and demands of the clientage with the purpose to make the business prosperous. The CRM manager meaning includes the cooperation with the mentioned departments. Still, the said position stipulates a customer-focused attitude with an emphasis on customer’s lifetime activities.

The following practical example will help you get in the notion and role of CRM expert. A famous American motorcycle manufacturer, Harley-Davidson, Inc., has an experience of sending its specialized staff on the road with their clientage. The aim of such interaction was not to reveal possible complaints or wishes regarding the manufactured products but to solidify relationships. Still, even such a clear example does not provide the answer to the question “What are the responsibilities of a CRM manager?”, so let’s delve deeper.

3. Duties of a CRM Manager

All these beautiful and praiseful words about the importance of the said positions are good but not practical. The readers still lack understanding “What does a CRM manager do?” A simple motorcycle riding as in the mentioned example is not enough to bring benefit to the business. Perhaps, the following duties of CRM manager will strengthen your positive opinion about the relevance and necessity of that kind of specialist.

The primary function of the customer relationship expert is to define, evaluate and deliver the global CRM strategy aimed at encouraging client retention and loyalty. This function also contributes to:

• The development of a customer segmentation strategy
• The shaping and delivering of marketing and promotional campaigns
• The implementation of state-of-the-art technologies, systems and marketing instruments (like CRM tools)

The latter is highly sought after for overseeing direct communications with customers and providing an effective sales funnel. Other responsibilities of CRM manager may include:

• Developing marketing techniques to drive new clientage
• Maximizing customer lifetime value strategies
• Suggesting new methods to meet customers’ needs
• Analyzing marketing metrics (conversion rates, web analytics etc.)
• Assisting with promotional events to attract leads
• Numerous miscellaneous functions to maintain and enhance the company’s reputation in the eyes of clientage

The efficiency of a person holding a certain job position is measured by key performance indicators. The CRM expert is not an exception and you can assess his or her performance by such KPIs as customer lifetime value and rates of conversion, retention, and churn. These are the primary indicators. Though other values like response rates to campaigns and promotions, as well as average revenue per user, are also relevant.

4. Qualification of a CRM Manager

A CRM manager job description, as well as of any other job position, consists of not only duties but also requirements. Otherwise speaking, a candidate for a job must possess certain qualifications and skills for an effective performance. Versatile experience in management and working with certain software are also necessary for a person who wants to interact with customers in the 21st century. So, let’s arrange the most evident and relevant attainments that are in demand by the bulk of businesses.

In general, a decent professional must have strong skills in managing, analyzing and creating. In other words, if you managed to find a part manager, part scientist and part artist for the job, you’ve hit the jackpot.

Management Skills

These include attainments to manage people and projects, the ability to communicate, solve problems, being attentive to details, as well as the ability to be resistant to stress.

Analytical Skills

People, who can analyze data, understand customer behavior, monitor and evaluate versatile processes, can boast of strong analytical skills.

Creative Skills

Being creative denotes an unusual and original approach to most things like creating content, email marketing, working with social media etc.

5. What Else You Need to Know About CRM Manager

Hopefully, the picture is clear and your comprehension of the functions and duties of the said expert is not blurred. Still, you will appreciate other interesting facts about managing customer relationships.

• A clearer visibility of clients’ needs and desires allows managing interplay with them much better to make them satisfied, loyal, and increase the probability to convince them to pay money for your goods/services.
• Despite the possibility to automate numerous CRM aspects, this process is not an instrument but a component of a complex system to change business practices in order to meet clients’ needs.
• Learning the attainment of managing customer relationship is a new system or even a science that bears a tremendous cultural impact on staff.
• Short-term or immediate is not the epithet to characterize CRM execution. Otherwise speaking, have plenty of patience since the shaping of a CRM mindset is a long-term process.
• A three-hundred-sixty-degrees approach to interaction with clients is available via a decent CRM. It means that you will hardly miss an opportunity to satisfy the customer and, in turn, improve your reputation.
• If such questions as “Why did he/she make a certain decision?” or “When would she/he need this item?” are still relevant to your company, a decent CRM will provide you the long-awaited answers. A customer analysis will be more profound and efficient for the current and future state of affairs.
• Customization of the trade cycle for each individual client is accessible using the more refined approaches to CRM. As a result, chances to make the sale increase due to the contentment of demands and incentives of a certain client.
• CRM comprises versatile functions and aspects of any company. Regardless of customer relations type you are involved in (collecting money, manufacturing products, selling products etc.), your business will benefit from a decent approach to managing relationships with clients.

6. Conclusion

What conclusion should be made based on the above? Everything is simple. If your company lacks the CRM expert, make sure to have it. A decent specialist in managing customer relationship acts as a catalyst to create a frictionless sales experience for any business.

7. Now what … Need help with that CRM Role?

Torn Marketing support multiple clients around the world with their Enterprise CRM Systems, albeit Salesforce, Dynamics or their own very specialised propriety CRM.

The Digital Director of Torn Marketing, Dwayne Taylor along with his team has been implementing and maintaining CRM / Marketing Automation systems for a lifetime.

If you are looking for support or just a place to start, head over to our CRM support page and get a scope of our CRM services or hit that Lets Chat button.

CRM Consultancy – https://tornmarketing.com.au/services/propertybase-salesforce-crm-consultancy/