CRM in Marketing

Marketers use CRM strategies and tactics to manage their relationships with their customers throughout the customer lifecycle. CRM marketing refers to the strategies and tactics, as well as the technologies supporting the execution of said strategies and tactics, that they employ to manage their relationships with their customers throughout the customer lifecycle. Client Relationship Management marketing has as its purpose the improvement and optimisation of customer connections in order to increase client loyalty, retention, revenue, and lifetime value.

CRM in Marketing

CRM databases are software platforms that are used to support a com- pany’s CRM strategy and efforts. There are several levels of sophistication in CRM databases, ranging from merely gathering and organising customer data to performing advanced customer data analysis, including customer segmentation and next best action recommendations.

CRM increases the value of an organisation’s client base by leveraging and amplifying it through effective and efficient marketing. In fact, CRM has opened up new horizons in the world of marketing by greatly increasing the functioning and execution of marketing campaigns. In recent years, intuitive CRM-related marketing tactics such as direct marketing, web marketing, e-mail marketing, and so on, have become more refined and sophisticated.

The effectiveness of these marketing strategies is greater when compared to the standard methods of marketing because they assist in producing higher-up performance and walloping business. They also assist in improving response rates in marketing efforts, reducing costs associated with promotions due to low asset valuations, and increasing the scrutiny placed on organisational investments.

For example, Salesforce is considered as the world’s #1 CRM platform which helps in marketing, sales, commerce, service and IT teams work as one from anywhere — so companies can keep their customers happy everywhere.

Salesforce has worked for many companies, like

• Genpact- for building a scalable ecosystem
• Balaji wafers- for managing and enhancing their distributor experience
• RBL Bank- for offering speedy consumer onboarding and credit decisioning
• Pepe Jeans fashion- for seamless D2C interactions
• IDFC- for a personalised Online experience

Cross-selling

Cross-selling is the practice of offering similar, extra products or ser- vices to customers who have expressed interest in or purchased one of a company’s products. Cross-selling is a marketing approach that is commonly utilised in the financial services industry and is considered to be one of the most effective marketing tactics available. Why?

First and foremost, cross-selling contributes to the development of customer loyalty since firms are able to provide their customers with a greater variety of products and services. Because customers do not have to go elsewhere to get complementary or related products, cus- tomer happiness is increased as a result of the increased convenience.

Furthermore, cross-selling prepares firms to be in a better position to sell additional goods as they become more aware of the expectations and aspirations of their customers as a result of their increased aware- ness.

Cross-selling can take many forms, such as an electronics merchant offering a discount on a computer case, mouse, and screen cleaning wipes to a customer who purchases a new laptop, or an insurance firm offering renters’ insurance to its car policyholders.

How Does Cross Selling Work?

Consider the following scenario: you are an existing customer of a small business. If you are looking to buy a pair of jeans, look no further. After that, you proceed to place your order on an e-commerce website. After you have placed your order, you may notice that more related or complimentary products are available from the same manufacturer.

These products might be a pair of jeans that is identical to the one in question, or gear that works well with that pair of jeans. In a similar vein, if you purchase a book online, you may discover that there are more books in the same genre available for purchase.

Up-selling

Up-selling is the practice of enticing customers to acquire a product or service that is more valuable than the one they originally purchased by providing them with additional features or upgrades.

Let’s look at some frequent situations that we all come across to better grasp upselling:

• A software firm that offers a premium upgrade plan with more features and capabilities to an existing customer is a perfect example of up-selling to a current customer.
  
  
• In the second scenario, a credit card business offers its exist- ing cardholders a premium credit card that includes additional rewards and privileges based on their spending habits and risk assessment.

Generally speaking, up-selling is a sales tactic that involves enticing customers to acquire a more expensive version of a product than they initially intended to purchase. Given that recruiting new clients can be far more expensive than selling to existing customers, businesses will frequently employ strategies such as up-selling to enhance sales earnings.

For example, a salesman could demonstrate to a customer the differences between the luxury model of a car and the basic model, or explain the advantages of upgrading a computer to one with a speedier hard drive.

Up-selling and cross-selling are terms that are sometimes misinterpreted or used interchangeably. Cross-selling is the process of providing clients other products to complement their current purchase. Cross-selling can take the form of recommending speakers to go with a computer rather than recommending an upgraded version of the computer itself as an example. When it comes to expanding sales to existing clients, both up-selling and cross-selling are effective strategies of doing so. However, they use significantly different tactics in doing so.

Up-selling Example

Consider the case of a company that sells sales automation software to small to midsize businesses in order to provide a more practical and realistic example. Your company offers three different tiers of service, each with its own progressively broad set of features to choose from.

A representative from the company is currently in the process of negotiating a contract with a small business that has decided to purchase the least expensive of the three options currently available. Those significant characteristics that the middle-tier option provides that the lower-tier option does not are likely to be highlighted by the representative if they wish to upsell their prospect.

Consider the scenario in which the prospect’s business is maturing to the point where it will rely more significantly on precise forecasting in the near future. In our situation, the bottom-tier plan does not have the forecasting resources that the middle-tier alternative does, and as a result, it is unsuccessful.

With this in mind, the sales representative may attempt to upsell the prospect by emphasising how upgrading to the higher choice will ensure that their company is appropriately prepared to readily make accurate, productive predictions as it grows.

How to Cross-sell and Up-sell?

In many cases, cross-selling and up-selling take place at the point of sale with a salesperson — as in the examples above — but customer success managers can also play a part in either process if they choose to. The ability to cross-sell and upsell is available to CRMs when they see an opportunity with a customer later in the sales cycle – after they have already purchased the first product.

Customers may express an interest in expanding into a different vertical or desiring more capabilities with the product they’re currently using during email exchanges or phone calls, which might be an indication that they’re ready to hear about other options.

The following are the recommended practices for learning how to cross-sell and upsell as a customer service representative:

• Get to know the audience: Although the company may be familiar with buyer personas, it is equally crucial to get to know the audience after they have purchased a product. Use of demographic and psychographic information about customers — as well as customer feedback — to develop personas for customers and better understand their goals and challenges. This will help identifying the most helpful, relevant products that companies cross-sell and upsell to customers.
  
  
• Build out customer journey: Drawing on the first step, sketch out client journeys to determine how customers will use a product and how it will assist them in growing their businesses. When consumers reach the stage where they are seeing results (as a result of using the product), they will begin to tell others about it, hence increasing the number of referrals. Having reached that point in the customer journey, they will most likely be eager to hear the cross-sell or upsell presentation and will be willing to part with a little extra cash for an additional item.
  
  
  
• Think about problems and offer solutions that map to products: It is necessary to take some time to analyse what a product offers and managers should try to match them with the customer journey before even picking up the phone or sending an email to try to sell to an existing customer. In this way, managers have a clear understanding of the common difficulties the clients experience — and they’ll know exactly which goods should the company try to cross-sell or upsell as a potential solution.
  
  
  
• Practice active listening: During a phone call or an email exchange, it is possible to cross-sell or up-sell to consumers on the go. To do so, active listening and reading skills are required to identify signs that the customer is ready to hear an offer. If a customer expresses a need for greater capabilities or a desire to achieve their objectives more quickly, it may be appropriate to point out how other products or services can assist them in getting there more quickly.