I am a business development lead for independent CRM consultants Collier Pickard. We knew that our response to the pandemic needed to be swift and focussed, ensuring that we remained visible and relevant as business moved into one of the most difficult periods in recent history.
So much has changed, this current economic downturn has forced a lot of companies and individuals to think outside the box in an effort to remain viable in a marketplace that is evolving rapidly. The last couple of months have been a roller coaster of emotions, since moving to a working from home environment remaining positive and focussed has become somewhat of an art form.
The paths we chose
We correctly identified that the key to surviving this downturn would be team flexibility. Very quickly companies needed staff to understand that the rules had changed and that we all needed to do our part. It was the flexibility of the team at Collier Pickard that allowed us to piece together strategies and responses so that we could effectively respond to the volatile space that we found ourselves in.
Our strong management team proved pivotal to our success. Their experience has ensured that not only are we surviving but we are doing rather well under the circumstances.
As independent CRM consultants, we advised our clients to focus on communication and visibility activities and to look for new opportunities. Activities that we ourselves were taking supported by our CRM system.
Retention
As the pandemic struck, the business went immediately into retention mode. The stage was set for the marketing team to shine as they started putting together campaigns carrying the message from the mouths of management to the ears of our clients. Followed closely by the account managers and the technical consultants, the entire team was immediately on board to aid our clients in any way that we could.
Operating as independent CRM consultants denotes that our clients are in various sectors of industry, from travel to manufacturing, all were due to experience different levels of stress as they themselves started a process of responding to the pandemic.
The first thing we did was offer free support to all of our clients. Account managers were set the task of calling all of our clients and offering not only free support but a friendly voice in a time where the pressure was certainly on and most engagements being experienced, by our clients, were generally negative. Account managers were asked to process these calls every few weeks to ensure that our clients knew that they had our full support.
Visibility
Utilizing our own CRM system paired together with our expertise we started firing out various email campaigns to our clients that included tips for using CRM effectively whilst working from home as well as general tips and tricks when using our products. As we were all working from home ourselves, we processed multiple internal calls with our own staff to find out what was and what was not working, ensuring that we had an internal support structure that was effective.
We used the campaigns to share this knowledge with our client base and we used social media to share various articles like this one from Hubspot that details a transition to remote selling. What we achieved was visible rhetoric not only with our clients but with the industry at large, rhetoric that showed that we were evolving rapidly with the marketplace remaining a step ahead of the curve.
Another extremely successful example of our effort to remain visible was the hosting of a weekly “Open Forum” web call where we invited all of our clients to a call that had no agenda. In attendance from the Collier Pickard team, we always had an account director, an account manager, a marketing executive and a technical consultant. Having clients across various business sectors meant that the forum was an opportunity for people from different walks of life to not only share their experiences but the opportunity to ask our team any questions regarding the use of our products and services.
The Road to Recovery
Taking strength from our management team Collier Pickard is well on the road to recovery. As successful independent CRM consultants, we have used our experience to ensure that we have remained viable and visible to the UK industry at large. We have retained our client base and even managed to close sizable new business deals. As the weeks go by and we enjoy further engagement with our clients, we revel in the positivity being experienced as they themselves use our experience to launch their business out of the downturn and into the future.
If you want to find out more about how CRM can benefit your business, or about CRM in general, feel free to get in touch with one of our consultants or have a read through some more of our articles.
