Moving beyond CRM adoption and achieving nirvana in CRM utilization requires adherence to a few principles. Companies can start by elevating their concept of a CRM beyond a fancy rolodex or contact database – tracking customer interactions to manage their sales process.
Revenue is unpredictable. Lack of visibility into future revenue growth creates blind spots which limit productivity and interfere with your efforts to attract customers and investors. Create a crystal ball which gives you line-of-sight into revenue growth.
The concept of a sales funnel is nothing new, but in a world where customers and investors demand fast results, having an intimate knowledge of the nuances of each funnel stage can be a tremendous competitive advantage.
To develop the fictional representation of your ideal customer known as a customer persona, we start by gathering data from existing customers (referencing the questions above). This can be augmented with market research to provide more context on the people and organizations that are most affected by the social problem.
Long before the product can be sold, it has to be desired by someone. A well-crafted marketing strategy lays groundwork at scale, utilizing mass communication to condition the audience and lighten the load on the sales team.
Your customers come in all shapes and sizes, but there are certain characteristics that isolate the best prospects from the rest of the pack. Without a clear profile to pursue, you risk spinning your wheels on the wrong prospects.
We start by identifying a range of potential channel partners, by building a list of companies that reach your same target market and have a good reputation. This list can be augmented with companies offering complementary products or services (the classic example being peanut butter and jelly).
We start by identifying the segments most likely to but your product and how much they are willing to pay. This includes surveying potential customers to get their feedback on the product, followed by an analysis of how much competitors are charging for similar products.
Generally they are still in the early stages of development. Without significant revenue, they do not have the resources to hire a large sales team or invest in complex sales infrastructure.