The 4 types of CRM and what they do

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.

Sales rarely happen on the first contact. For a sale to happen, you need strategies, practices, policies and everything else involved in managing, analyzing and staying in touch with the customer. That is what CRM software does, which means its main goal is to build loyalty and keep the customer satisfied at every stage of their experience with your product (acquiring new customers, purchase, after-sales and retention).

Why do companies need a CRM?

Productivity

A well-planned CRM creates an environment that raises the productivity and efficiency of salespeople and, above all, increases sales. A sales CRM makes information easy to reach for anyone in the company, keeping every team involved fast and focused. It is not only Sales that benefits: Marketing and customer service do too.

Higher profits

With the data a CRM collects, you can route emails and calls to the right people in the right departments, which raises the chance of conversion and, in turn, revenue.

All of the customer's data in one place

Imagine having all of a customer's data on one platform. With a CRM you can find out which product was sold to each customer individually, how many times they contacted the company after the purchase, and other important data.

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The 4 main types of CRM

We can split CRMs into:

Operational CRM

The most common type of CRM, and one with enormous potential in a negotiation and for the sales team, it is about managing, creating and tracking the day-to-day activities with the customer.

This way, through the system, the salesperson can see everything that has already been done with that lead since the first contact. That makes for a much more assertive approach and more concrete arguments to meet the demand placed on them and, as a result, to convert the lead into a customer more effectively.

According to Pimentel (2008), it is the means a company creates to keep a direct relationship with the customer, usually used by call centers to handle operational actions. Rainer Jr. and Cegielski (2011) explain that operational CRM can use techniques such as loyalty programs, help desks, chat support, sales representatives and emails, providing back-office support such as:

• The customer's history;
• Every interaction already had with them;
• Purchases made;
• Support provided;
• Pipeline stage;
• among others …

Operational CRM also helps organize the sales department:

• Giving a view of all prospects and leads;
• Gathering contact data;
• Showing the next activity the salesperson should carry out with each contact;
• Collecting email templates and call scripts;
• Providing a calendar of scheduled contacts;
• and much more…

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Analytical CRM

This type of CRM has analytical features, meaning they let the manager draw conclusions and make decisions by analyzing and cross-referencing day-to-day data.

According to Laudon and Laudon (2014), analytical CRM is based on analyzing all the data collected and generated by operational CRM, providing information and reports that make decision-making easier and improve the company's performance. Rainer Jr. and Cegielski (2011) add that the main benefits of analytical CRM are:

• Easier sales management;
• Identifying the customers who bring the most profit;
• Identifying customers' needs.

Knowing the characteristics of each customer group makes it easier to personalize an offer, which will make your customers buy more, and more often.

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Collaborative CRM

Collaborative CRM is one of the types of CRM systems with the most potential for integration (in the case of SaaS). It is the tool that brings all the teams together, helping with the work and, above all, with retaining customers and winning new ones in a less bureaucratic way, serving them better and faster.

For marketing, collaborative CRM helps a great deal with prospecting and retaining customers. With the information and data recorded there, it is possible to qualify leads more and more and hand salespeople potential customers at the top of the funnel.

For the support team, this may be the type of CRM system that helps the most. With integrated access, quotes, invoicing and other administrative tasks are available quickly and easily, which helps with service and with generating reports.

On top of that, the best example of collaborative CRM is the integration between sales and marketing inside the CRM tool.

Marketing qualifies leads as business opportunities and the sales team evaluates and develops those opportunities, all of it recorded in marketing funnels, sales funnels and the CRM's contact modules.

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Strategic CRM

This type of CRM is defined by combining the features of the operational and the analytical types, plus the collaboration of the teams.

With this type of CRM system you can see:

• which processes work,
• which ones are stuck,
• which changes could improve them.

Looking at the bigger picture, it is also possible to define new segments and plan new marketing actions, generating more qualified leads for Sales.

Using strategic CRM gives you an overview so you can act more assertively, cutting the cost of attempts that would have had lower chances of success.

According to Pimentel (2008), strategic CRM concerns the way the company treats the customer: a satisfied customer is the path to the company's success. For greater customer satisfaction, the more information is gathered, the better the personalization of contact will be, using the IDIP technique (Identify, Differentiate, Interact and Personalize), which makes it possible to reach a large customer base. Pimentel (2008) also states that, regardless of the customer, every contact must be recorded, so that service has the information to solve any problems that arise. To support this process, the company needs CRM tools and solutions, which should be introduced starting from sales management and extending their essence to other departments. Pimentel (2008) says some factors must be part of the technology implementation stage of a CRM project. These are the resources that will make the technology reach the desired goals:

• Skilled people;
• Structured processes;
• Training for those involved;
• Implementation of an Information Management System.

A good strategic CRM also has modules and features that allow data analysis and the creation of strategies, such as Business Intelligence (B.I.) features that make this work more efficient.

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It is clear that CRM is a very important tool within a company, because it supports acquisition, transaction, service, retention and the building of long-term relationships with customers, which means the company's actions are focused on their needs.

Winning new customers costs 5 to 7 times more than keeping the ones you already have. — Kotler (2000)

That is why using tools like analytical CRM to make decisions from the data operational CRM collects is necessary: it allows customer loyalty to be built strategically, keeping customers from switching to the competition.

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References:

Article: CRM como Ferramenta de Análise de Dados: https://www.aedb.br/seget/arquivos/artigos16/22924229.pdf

Post: 4 tipos de sistemas de CRM para seu negócio: qual é o ideal?: https://blog.lahar.com.br/vendas/tipos-de-sistema-de-crm/

Post: 4 tipos de CRM que existem no Mercado: https://blog.nectarcrm.com.br/4-tipos-de-crm/

Originally published onMedium(opens in a new tab)