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Manage Customer Relationships with B2B CRM to Win More Revenue

Andrew Repin

CRM Consultant, ScienceSoft

CRM
Published:
4 min read

Editor’s note: In this article, Andrew goes over the specifics that make B2B customer relationship management and the best software options the market has to offer. If you’re looking to improve your business with CRM, ScienceSoft’s customer relationship management services are at your disposal.

Nowadays, CRM software is widely used by businesses to enhance sales, marketing and customer service with the help of process automation, unified customer data and advanced analytics. For both B2C and B2B businesses, CRM provides general functionality such as 360-degree customer view and workflow automation, empowering your sales, marketing and customer service departments.

B2B CRM: Automation Capabilities

B2B CRM: General overview

In brief, B2B CRM, similarly to B2C, provides automation capabilities for your marketing, sales and customer service. Yet, B2B processes are usually longer and more complex than in B2C. They involve building tighter relations with your clients and collaborating with multiple stakeholders within marketing sales, and customer service activities. Gladly, B2B CRM is up for the task.

#1 Marketing

While in B2C, businesses usually focus on generating as many leads as possible, B2B businesses care more about the quality of leads and attracting those who will potentially stay loyal. B2B CRM attracts leads through targeted and personalized marketing campaigns with the help of email marketing, ads and other means.

#2 Sales

Once the lead got qualified, your sales team starts a conversation with it. This stage is likely to involve multiple stakeholders from your customer’s side. To keep the conversation effective, B2B CRM stores all the contact information of each respective representative, as well as notifies you of important sales milestones and activities, like quota deadlines, meetings, etc., up until the deal is closed.

#3 Customer Service

While B2C and B2B customer service processes have a lot in common, in B2B, customers tend to stay with your brand longer. Thus, in B2B, it’s important to maintain your clients’ trust and loyalty by personalized in-depth help. So, practices common for B2C customer service, like bulk actions and chatbot assistance would not be so relevant in the B2B sector.

B2B CRM core features

  • Customer journeys

To design your sales process and plan your customer interactions across all stages of a customer lifecycle, from a prospect to a contract.

  • Marketing and sales workflow automation

To automate your marketing and sales repetitive tasks and streamline content delivery with various templates, including emails and landing pages.

  • Sales and marketing performance analytics

To track sales and marketing teams’ progress and timely spot opportunities for improvement.

  • Lead and opportunity scoring

Via advanced analytics based on your sales data and AI- based predictions on how likely you are to close the deal with a particular customer.

  • 360-view of a customer

Unifies all customer data, including all the decision makers contacts, requests and interactions at every stage of the customer journey.

  • Omni-channel outreach

For the wide coverage of marketing campaigns and extended collaboration opportunities during the sales process and after.

  • Case and knowledge management

To set automated case assignment rules and provide your clients with documentation and fulfillment of customer’s inquiries through the use of customizable templates

Best CRM software for B2B market

1. Salesforce

Suitable for businesses of all sizes. According to 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant, Salesforce yet for another year holds a position of market-leading CRM provider. To aid B2B businesses, Salesforce provides the following key features:

  • Contact Management
  • Customer Journey Management
  • Lead and Opportunity Management
  • Reports and Dashboards
  • Sales Forecasting
  • Workflow and Approvals
  • Partner Management
  • Case and Knowledge Management
  • Omni-Channel Outreach

Pricing: Starts at $25 user/month

Watch an Interactive Salesforce Demo 

2. Dynamics 365

Suitable for businesses of all sizes. Listed as one of the market leaders in Gartner Magic Quadrant 2020, Dynamics 365 provides the following key features for the B2B market:

  • Advanced Lead & Opportunity Scoring
  • Workflow Automation
  • AI-power Insights and Analytics
  • 360-degree Customer View
  • Business Card Scanner
  • Customer Journeys
  • Prospects Segmentation
  • Event Management
  • Case and Knowledge Management
  • Omni-Channel Outreach

Pricing: Starts at $95 user/month for the Enterprise edition

Watch an Interactive Dynamics 365 Demo 

HubSpot

Suitable for small businesses. While in general, it may seem more appealing to B2C businesses, here are some more prominent HubSpot features for B2B are:

  • Reporting Dashboard and Company Insights
  • Deal Tracking
  • Sales Pipeline Management
  • Automated Logging and Updating of Customer Deals and Sales Activities
  • Email Automation
  • Activity Stream with notifications on email opens, link clicks, etc.
  • Case and Knowledge Management
  • Omni-Channel Outreach

Pricing: Starts at $40 user/months

Zoho

Perfect for small and mid-sized companies, Zoho CRM is listed as leading software for niche businesses in Gartner Magic Quadrant 2020. Here are some prominent features for the B2B market:

  • Lead and Opportunity Scoring
  • Lead and Deal Management
  • Advanced Contract Management
  • Workflow Automation
  • Sales Process Builder
  • Sales and Marketing Analytics
  • Case and Knowledge Management
  • Omni-Channel Outreach

Pricing: Starts at $12 user/month

Custom CRM development

If none of the platform-based solutions seem to fit your business needs due to the nature of your marketing and sales processes, you may always go for custom CRM. You may either obtain it via deep customization of a platform-based solution or by full custom development of your own custom CRM. Both options are viable and may bring up to 123% ROI. Here is an example of how one of ScienceSoft’s customers obtained a custom Dynamics CRM solution to address their specific sales management needs.

Get B2B CRM

For your B2B CRM to bring the desired value, at its core, it should provide the functionality to streamline your collaboration with clients on various stages, tailored to your and your client’s business specifics. If you’re looking for a CRM solution to support your CRM objectives, ScienceSoft is ready to help you choose the most feasible option and assist with its technical implementation, just let us know.