BoardEx helps clients across many industries create higher value from relationship capital management through seamless integrations with their internal CRM systems. We have developed high-performance applications for a wide array of CRMs such as Salesforce and MS Dynamics 365, delivering actionable people intelligence on decision-makers and buyers for a range of business scenarios.
For many firms – CRMs often fall short of being the single source of truth that it should be. Recently, the Head of CRM at a major strategic consulting firm was speaking with her BoardEx account lead about how her firm could get more value from its CRM system.
“I want to get our people to stay within the CRM system as much as possible,” she said. “To maximize the investment we’re making in the CRM, we need to make sure people are using the CRM regularly – which means increasing adoption and usage while also enhancing the user experience.”
Your single source of truth
If used correctly across the organization and populated constantly with up-to-the-minute data, the CRM can provide an accurate and timely view of clients across verticals, products and services to inform sales and marketing strategies, providing you a consistent source of truth within your data.
The result
When leveraged effectively, the business can meet the needs of both existing and potential customers more effectively all from one single system.
Hurdles to overcome
In most firms, the value of the CRM is plagued by poor data quality, lack of data maintenance and fragmented usage, with internal customers split between light and heavy users. Intermittent or no use results in potentially valuable data on customers, key buyers and influencers being old, inaccurate, or even missing entirely.
How do all these challenges arise?
Sales professionals often feel they work from too many systems. They may regard updating the activities and information in the CRM as an admin task that is cumbersome, tedious and laborious. Time spent on data management is time taken away from speaking to prospects.
The risk
Outdated and incomplete information, and duplicate contacts in the CRM erode trust in using that data for research, outreach and decision-making. This in turn impacts pipeline management and forecasting. A complaint that’s commonly raised by marketers is poor visibility into the success of acquisition and retention campaigns, with the sub-standard data in the CRM system making it very difficult to measure returns on investment and justify requests for new spending.
Boosting CRM system value and user experience with BoardEx integrations
When the consulting firm executive we mentioned earlier highlighted the need to get people to stay within the CRM system, these were the kinds of problems she was thinking about. But the great news is that a solution is to hand. High-performance applications that plug into CRM systems can convert contact and account data into actionable intelligence on relationships – thereby increasing sales and marketing effectiveness by helping the CRM to become the single source of truth across the enterprise.
Why are these plug-ins required? The reality is that the core technology alone will not stand the test of time. Additional solutions are imperative in order to augment the technology with external data on key buyers and influencers that include trigger events such as role changes. Such data is needed to build a strong sales pipeline, win more qualified opportunities and retain clients via executive engagement.
Liam Walsh, KPMG Principal in Charge of Front Office Transformation, comments: “KPMG has helped companies across the globe implement customer relationship management platforms and knows first-hand the benefits of integrating accurate, holistic and timely data on key buyers and senior decision-makers. This insight can greatly help sales teams identify business needs, offer the best service, and close deals more quickly.”
BoardEx’s experience with our own clients shows consistently that integrating applications that provide access to external data on board members, C-suite executives and influencers into the CRM produces three key benefits:
- Centralized CRM workflows — With the BoardEx application, CRM users get seamless access to accurate, complete, timely and relevant data on key buyers and senior decision-makers from across the BoardEx network in one location – your CRM.
- Deep, real-time insight on people and relationships (On-demand) — BoardEx reduces the time taken to perform research with reliable and objective data. It also enables users to harness and convert people intelligence that’s updated daily on ways to connect to existing and new decision-makers.
- Higher value from investments in CRM — Availability of timely, complete and contextual people data within the CRM helps teams to create winning sales and marketing strategies, by driving higher-quality interactions with accounts, clients and prospects.
For more insights and updates on optimizing your CRM System with BoardEx, follow us on LinkedIn. This article was updated on June 23, 2022.