UNAPEN: What is CRM?

Client Relationship Management (CRM) is the management of people, process, and technology for turning relationships into revenue. It enables companies to develop effective marketing strategies targeted to their client base. Companies which implement a CRM solution build lifetime value for their long-term clients, as well as take a proactive approach to their company growth. CRM creates a feedback loop between the sales and marketing departments, enabling them to better focus their efforts.

By streamlining processes and providing sales and marketing personnel with comprehensive client information, CRM facilitates organizations to increase the profitability of client relationships and decrease operating costs. This is particularly relevant in the current challenging economic environment, where making the business run as efficiently as possible can be as much of an operational focus as retaining and increasing sales.

Many companies have approached CRM with the single goal of improving client knowledge to drive sales strategies. In the past, understanding your client meant easy access to consistent information about sales history. As a result, many companies have been sold CRM as an extension to the 'contact management' concept, and have therefore focused on delivering client information to the sales force. However, CRM offers much more than the contact management systems of the past. Visibility across finance, sales, marketing, client service and operations provides firms with the business understanding required to achieve ROI and drive operational strategy while supporting the CRM objective of enabling improved client value.

CRM provides a platform for information visibility across the organization. By pulling information from finance, sales, marketing, and support into a central, client focused database, an organization can attain significant insight into business performance and achieve attendant benefits including enhanced financial control, improved forecasting, and in-depth business understanding. Tracking client buying patterns is a key tool in proactively managing the client relationship and spotting early potential problems that may result in client loss. The sales and marketing teams can leverage this information to facilitate the cross selling and up-selling that is key to increasing the client value, a vital factor in managing business success in the financial services industry.

	Develop better communication channels
	Collect vital data, such as sales history and communication trail, into one repository
	Create detailed profiles, such as client preferences
	Deliver instant, company-wide access to client histories
	Identify new selling opportunities
	Reduce operating costs
	Provide a higher percentage of cross-selling because it offers a single point of contact with your company
	Ensure more success in attracting new customers and closing deals faster, through quicker and more efficient responses to client leads and client information
	Simplify the marketing and sales processes by understanding client needs and trends
	Provide better client service—through improved responsiveness and understanding that builds client loyalty