Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are available in an assortment of platforms, serving a variety of needs for government contractors. The process of Capture Management – both planning and management – requires a complex mix of data collecting, customer intimacy and understanding of their requirements, teaming, competitive analysis, pricing, communication, reminders and continuous internal management reporting and updates.
Managing customer relationships is an important element in today’s increasingly digital marketplace. Customers have more potential touchpoints than ever, with communication happening via multiple social media platforms, as well as traditional avenues.
Salesforce has become the go-to CRM for many B2C companies, but that doesn’t make it the right choice for every business. What it offers to consumer businesses is not quite what it delivers to businesses that handle government contracts — capture management rarely follows the same paths as private commercial ventures.
Here are a few things to consider about Salesforce before you choose your CRM… Read More
You’ve probably heard about customer relationship management systems. You might even be using one to work your capture process. But, like all technology, capture management is dynamic, not static. As new ways of processing data become available for cross-industry applications, new systems, such as automated capture solutions, hit the market. Do you need to make the switch to an automated business solution or is a CRM platform enough?
If you’re wondering if market-specific software solutions can help grow your business, the short answer is yes, they can. In fact, in today’s world of automation, businesses should consider this step a necessity. To gain a competitive edge, you need a software solution, built for your industry, that allows you to clearly assess risk and make informed decisions.
Government contracts can provide a great source of steady revenue. But closing the deal in order to ensure that revenue is no easy task; in fact, it’s quite a process. That’s where customer relationship management (CRM) software can help. CRM technology is useful in managing and analyzing customer interactions. In the era of “the customer experience”, it’s increasingly vital to solve your client’s needs quickly and effectively. As a contractor, the government is your client.
While considering whether or not to purchase a CRM to support your capture efforts, cost typically plays a significant role in the decision making process. As a business, the return on investment (ROI) for resources spent has an impact on large purchases – whether determined through the analysis of cost or commitment. So, are you asking yourself, how much should I spend on a CRM?
Customer relationship management (CRM) comes with a shift in buying culture. Today’s consumer expects personalized service at every stage of the sales funnel. CRM platforms help businesses deliver that personalization, but most are designed to work best for B2C companies.
For capture management, the functions you need are not the same. With that in mind, you need to manage any change to your CRM with care. If you’re migrating to a CRM for the first time, you’ll face a series of challenges, and many of those challenges also apply to changing your provider.
Learn how to avoid the five most common mistakes companies make during a CRM rollout. Read More
Consolidating customer information and files into a single database simplifies the management and analysis of customer interactions and data. Historically, customer relationship management (CRM) data has been organized and stored in everything from Excel spreadsheets to physical Rolodexes. Now, most companies have several systems that manage different, (most times – the same), data that has to be accessed and updated.
As you review the various types of CRM capabilities that exist across many of your potential solutions, it can be a challenge to define the types of capabilities that are most important to your organization. Elaborate branding may have you focused on specific capabilities that are not necessarily aligned with what adds the most value to your organization, especially since the pipeline of a government contractor can be incredibly different from other organizations’ pipelines.
Is there a true need for your organization to access the CRM via an app, if the information captured doesn’t specifically address the strategic direction and processes of your organization?
Probably not.
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Effectively implementing and using a CRM may seem like an easy task but – when done incorrectly – doing so can lead to more headaches than triumphs. Many people are so distracted by the flashy features and “can do” capabilities of CRM’s that they forget to focus on the important decisions at hand…
