Does Your CRM Include Maximum Marketing Automation?
A broker in the arena of online trading can only expect to be as successful as the technology powering his or her business allows. The goal here is for the underlying platform to present an effortless frontend and backend. It’s got to be dead simple for the end user (the trader) to use, or they will soon be looking for a new company with which to place their trades. The same goes for the broker running the show. The backend that guides the services and interactions with the client needs to be easy to use and full-featured. With these ideas in mind, Pini Peter and SpotOption have invested heavily in its state-of-the-art Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and automated marketing systems.
How to Evaluate Your CRM Needs
It’s easy for a business owner to develop a jaded attitude about adopting every piece of the “latest and greatest” technology that rolls off the assembly line. The honest truth is you don’t need ALL the new apps and add-ons and software that cross your field of vision, but you should never doubt the wisdom of underpinning your brokerage on the best trading platform available. It’s that important.
Today’s reality is that perhaps in the financial sector more than any, we live in a global economy. Buying and selling and communicating happens in too many different ways to count. Happy customers don’t hesitate to sing your praises to the world. Alternatively, unhappy customers will gladly trash your reputation in a heartbeat.
Seeing the Future: CRM is a catch-all term for the software tool that processes and analyzes all interactions with all customers. There are plenty of accounting systems in place to provide a historical record of business activities. Consider a good CRM as the thing that uncovers the trends and processes that will create ever-greater profits in the future.
Forget About Salespeople: Actually, you shouldn’t forget about salespeople, but don’t miss the point that prospecting, cross-selling, and up-selling – traditional salesperson activities – are what a quality CRM is designed to do. Think about the process of acquiring new customers in today’s high tech world. They likely come to you via the website, email, online seminars, clickable advertising, and more. There will always be a need for the human element in the brokerage business, but this is a shining example of working smarter, not harder. In other words, let the software do the work.
Standardize Best Practices: There’s a good chance you already have an idea about the best approach for engaging present customers and getting new ones. The trick is to standardize that process so that it is the same each and every time. Here’s a question: Do you trust a salesperson or computer more to do the same thing over and over without fail? If you said the latter, you’re beginning to grasp the inherent power in finding the best CRM software on the market.
Cashing in on the 80/20 Rule: Most business owners have heard the following at some point. 80% of your business comes from only 20% of your customers. That means that the vast majority of those who do business with you at some point are an opportunity left untapped if you just shrug your shoulders and say, “That’s how the cookie crumbles.” When you have great CRM on your side, it allows you to go after that mass of not-so-profitable customers and see if you can lead them down the path to spending more money. Creating marketing campaigns aimed at this group is achievable with much less work when you automate it.
The Power of Automation: SpotOption and its Spot+
We’ve spent quite a bit of time discussing how CRM like that created by the whiz-kid engineers at SpotOption can change your entire business, but that’s not all of the story. The latest generation of this company’s CRM was created with a strict focus on automating backend business activities to the maximum of extent of present technology. If you’re interested in this latest iteration of CRM automation, it’s called Spot+.
When you talk about CRM automation, you’re talking about sales and marketing. The term CRM refers to all those processes and systems that are devoted to collecting and organizing the massive amount of customer data that flows into your business in what probably seems like an out-of-control torrent. Automating the singular task of taking that data and analyzing it in order to determine what exact actions to take to increase profitability is the job of a system like Spot+.
Impersonal is Not a Bad Word
The old (pre-Internet) way of doing business was more personal and time-consuming. Developing and maintaining relationships over the phone is simply a lot of hassle. Rewarding sometimes but still a hassle. To survive and profit in today’s world means a new way of thinking that includes the more impersonal automation of activities that used to be carried out by humans. Here’s a reality. Humans are often not the most efficient means for a task.
Don’t let the idea of all this automation freak you out. The entire history of humanity has been one long march towards increasing automation. Farmers used to break the ground and plant seeds by hand, which was incredibly backbreaking, tedious work. These days they sit in the climate-controlled cab of a John Deere and listen to their favorite music piped in from satellite radio. The bottom line here is to not be afraid of automation. Embrace it. That’s where the money lies.
Final Thought
There are dozens of capable CRM systems on the market. Some follow the curve and some lead it. You owe it to yourself and the long-term success of your business to do the proper research before choosing. Talk to company reps. Understand the features offered and how they match up with your needs. Consider how much marketing automation they offer because, ultimately, that’s where all this is headed as we march without trepidation into the future. Well, maybe a little trepidation, but that’s what makes this online trading adventure such fun, right?