CRM is a solution, not the solution

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is an integral tool for marketers and salespeople to use, however, the technology should not be the be-all and end-all for customer acquisition and retention.

Petra Markova, founder and director at Redvantage said, “There is no doubt there's a lot of very useful tech out there in the market. But let's not forget one thing, the tool is only as good as the effort you put in.”

Markova said CRM and other marketing technology that helps serve the customers is the foundation.

“When you're building a house, you have to have doors and windows, you can't do without it. If you don't have CRM, in this day and age, you're going to struggle.

“You can have a new shiny CRM and if you never clean your data as a marketer, for example, and your sales reps don't input information properly, it will become a useless tangled mess within the next three years.

“Everyone will abandon using it because it just won't be serving the purpose that it's there to serve,” she added.                

Markova said the best marketers are close to the customer, have a good understanding of the business commercials and their overall business goals.

“They tend to have skin in the game and when I say that, I mean they have a commitment to deliver revenue. That means, the methodology that their sales teams are using, they study reasons for winning deals, losing deals, they really proactively work with sales to support the overall business needs.

“Because of that, they tend to have a seat at the leadership table, and to great marketers that I know, they really are aware of how their solutions can help solve business problems and challenges in various scenarios.”

Markova said marketers are very good at articulating their value propositions for individual personas, and individual market segments.

“You need to have that business acumen for that,” she said.