The individual elements such as sausage, curry sauce and fries are good on their own, but when combined, they become a classic and a favourite. It’s a similar story with the Marketing Automation Platform (MAP), the CRM system and LinkedIn. An ingenious combination that represents a quantum leap for sales and marketing.
What is a CRM system?
Many companies today utilise one element of the three-part combination more or less intensively with a CRM system. In the CRM system (Customer Relationship Management), relationships with customers and interested parties are stored, managed and analysed. The most important modules in a CRM system are:
- Leads
- Account
- Contact person
- Opportunity
- History / What has happened?
- Activities / What should happen in the future?
Some CRM systems offer additional modules for route planning, service, contracts and projects, for example.
The use of CRM systems can be roughly categorised:
- Operational CRM: The operational CRM system supports operational sales (contact, qualification, offers, projects, etc.) with a view to individual or groups of prospects / customers or accounts.
- Strategic CRM: It supports sales management with a view to planning and sales management.
The CRM system collects all the data that makes it possible to provide optimum support for prospective and existing customers. If the CRM system is used appropriately, all sales-relevant data is consistent and forms the basis for targeted sales tactics in the operational procedure. The consistent data enables detailed analyses at management level, supports the derivation of recommendations for action and provides a good basis for decision-making and planning. In the future, consistent data will also form the basis for the use of AI in marketing and sales.
Task and focus of CRM systems
The task of CRM systems is to support sales in operational sales support, lead management and existing customer management. The management level benefits from the reporting and valorisation functions of strategic CRM.
Limits of the CRM system
Many potential customers are in the early stages of their buying process and are not yet ready for a sales contact. If we manage to reach a contact at this early stage, it is daunting for them if we ask for a lot of data. As a result, we don’t even have any data for the CRM system in the early phase of the customer journey. Even with the first ‘gatet content’ (content only in return for entering an email and granting an opt-in), we still have too little data for the CRM system. But even if we had the data, it would often be far too early to hand these leads over to sales. This is because most leads are not yet ready for a sales contact after they have been generated.
I call this the ‘Green Banana Effect®’. If you open a green banana and bite into it, most people will not like the taste of the banana. Is the banana broken? No, it’s just not ripe yet. It’s the same with leads. Only sales-ready leads should be handed over to the sales department. This optimises efficiency, the probability of closing a deal and optimum cooperation between marketing and sales.
Automated processes of a marketing automation platform that develop leads individually and automatically until they are ready for sales and transfer to sales and the CRM systems are called lead nurturing processes. They are the centrepiece of marketing automation. The basis for these processes is a detailed profiling of the buyer persona and a nurturing-compliant analysis of the customer journey. Both enable functioning performance measures, the right approach, relevant content modules and the design of functioning nurturing processes. A marketing automation platform is ideal for developing generated leads to sales maturity.
What is a marketing automation platform (MAP)?
The most important use of a marketing automation platform is to develop leads to sales maturity or to reactivate existing customers. Corresponding nurturing processes are stored for this purpose. These nurturing processes are based on detailed buyer persona profiles and a marketing automation-compliant customer journey analysis. They accompany the prospective customer or customer on their buying journey and develop them until they are (once again) ready for sales. However, this only works if these processes are not just five sales emails in a row, but contain truly relevant content at the appropriate stage in the buying process.
The state of sales maturity should be defined together with marketing and sales. Once sales maturity (MQL = marketing qualified lead or MQN = marketing qualified need) has been reached, the lead/customer is transferred to the CRM system and sales (lead routing). In this process, data is collected from the lead/customer and stored in profiles (progressive profiling). This data should also be transferred to the CRM system so that sales can optimise its approach and content on this basis.
The main functions of marketing automation platforms:
- Mapping nurturing processes
- Process design with Campaign Designer functions
- Build profiles / progressive profiling
- Mapping scoring models for qualifying prospects and customers
- Routing of prospects and customers to the CRM system
Other automated processes can also be stored in a MAP:
- Invitation and follow-up of events
- Onboarding / offboarding
- Prevent customer churn
- B and C customer support
- Individualised customer communication
- Profile building
- …
Task and focus of marketing automation platforms
The task of marketing automation platforms is to develop prospective customers until they are ready to be sold and handed over to sales. In existing customer management, nurturing processes in the MAP reactivate existing customers and develop them until they are ready for sales again. The main task of marketing automation MAPs for sales is to support the pre-sales phase.
Limitations of a marketing automation platform?
Marketing automation platforms are not designed for use by sales. They automate pre-sales processes and transfer sales-ready leads (MQLs = marketing qualified leads and reactivated existing customers (MQN = marketing qualified need) to sales. They are therefore an ideal complement to the CRM system.
A marketing automation platform cannot generate leads. However, the fact that there are nurturing processes with relevant content in a marketing automation platform supports the generation of leads immensely. In the B2B sector, LinkedIn is the most important platform for lead generation and social selling.
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a business platform with more than 800 million members. Unlike other business platforms, LinkedIn is very dynamic and many members are very active and approachable. For most B2B sales targets, the potential customers on LinkedIn are easy to reach. However, if you want to reach the people out of these 800 million who are helpful for your sales goals, it makes sense to proceed in a planned and targeted manner. It is not expedient to randomly send contact requests and engage in ego-posting in your own posts. In general, it can be said that activities with personal profiles work much better for sales targets than content on company pages.
- Define your goals and who you want to reach.
- Expand your desired customer profiles to include the ‘digital buyer persona’. This allows you to define tags that can be used for targeted searches in LinkedIn.
- Analyse the visibility index of your ideal customers. Because people below a certain index are almost impossible to reach. This is where your activities fizzle out and efficiency suffers.
- Analyse which content formats, LinkedIn touchpoints and approaches your ideal customers prefer and adapt your editorial plan accordingly.
- Design your LinkedIn profile in line with your desired customers.
There are several ways to become active on LinkedIn:
- Expand your LinkedIn network with contacts you already know.
- Let people find you with your optimised profile.
- Approach potential customers ‘smartly’. The rule here is: less is more. Do not send mass requests with ‘You are also in business’, but take the time to address them in a relevant way. Take note of the LinkedIn algorithm’s operating principle for your posts and comments.
- Follow the posts in your network and make relevant comments. This increases your visibility and connection in the network.
- Plan your posts with buyer persona-compliant content and meaningful content formats.
- Use your nurturing processes from the marketing automation platform and adapt the content in your approach, touchpoints and content formats in LinkedIn.
Limitations of LinkedIn?
LinkedIn does not allow you to build automated development processes for prospects and customers. You have no control over the platform and the data. If the algorithm changes, this can affect your activities and results.
Conclusion
Each of the three systems/platforms has great advantages, but also limitations. In combination, they map the entire buying process of prospects and customers and are a real booster for sales and marketing in the B2B sector. This combination is an ideal basis for digitalisation in marketing and sales.
Combine or integrate LinkedIn with a marketing automation platform and a CRM system to maximise the performance of your lead management and existing customer business.
LinkedIn and marketing automation in combination with a CRM system increases your:
- Lead quality
- Efficiency in sales
- Probability of closing
- and the repurchase rate
Use the ‘Currywurst Pommes Effect®’ for more sales success.
