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It’s extremely difficult to stay competitive in any industry today, including the cannabis industry, without a customer relationship management (CRM) system in place, and the data proves it. For example, Nucleus Research discovered that the average return on a company’s CRM investment is $8.71 for each dollar spent, and research from Trackvia found that companies using a CRM realize a 41% increase in revenue.
Let’s take a closer look at the top 10 ways cannabis businesses and cannabis-related businesses can benefit from CRM.
According to Salesforce, 79% of marketing leads are never converted to sales without a CRM. However, with a CRM, marketers can track prospects across the entire customer journey, which allows them to more accurately identify them as unqualified, marketing qualified, or sales qualified. Ultimately, both the marketing and sales teams can spend time communicating with the right audiences at the right times rather than wasting time on the wrong leads.
A CRM puts a wealth of data about your customers at your fingertips and allows you to use that data to segment people into target audience segments based on demographics, behaviors, and psychographics. You can use that information to identify your best customer profiles and more effectively target matching leads through your marketing initiatives. You’ll also be able to develop a system to qualify leads as sales-ready and pass them to the sales team at the right times.
For example, when you use the email marketing and CRM tools built into the Cannabiz Media License Database, it’s extremely easy to identify leads, categorize them, and develop detailed targeting criteria to boost your ROI. You can also score leads based on their engagement with your communications to determine where they are in the customer journey and develop new marketing campaigns and sales outreach initiatives to convert those leads into buying custoners.
Research from Cloudswave found that using a CRM software can boost sales conversion rates by as much as 300%. That’s because a CRM helps people sell smarter and faster.
Your sales team can manage deals and track the entire sales pipeline at all stages without missing important tasks and milestones when they have access to the right CRM software. They can also gain valuable insights so they can invest in more of what’s working and improve what’s not. Managing your sales pipeline more effectively will lead to significantly higher ROI over time.
A CRM makes it easy for marketers to keep people engaged with your brand and nurture them through the marketing funnel from cold leads to buying customers. It also helps you stay in touch with customers so they’re motivated to buy again and become loyal advocates of your brand.
In addition, your marketing team can use the data in your CRM to explore the problems and challenges your customers face and engage with them using relevant content that matters to them. This is a crucial part of building a strong relationship between customers and your brand that leads to sales, loyalty, and word-of-mouth marketing.
Leveraging your CRM software is also important for your customer service team who need to keep customers happy over time so they’ll buy from your business again. Delivering excellent customer service experiences is much easier when all team members have access to the same historical customer data rather than keeping that data in separate silos that aren’t shared and accessible between different departments in your company.
It’s always easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to sell to a brand new customer. CRM makes it even easier by giving you tools to better understand your customers. Having access to tools and data gives you the ability to develop very specific targeting criteria so the right people always get the personalized messages and offers they’re most likely to respond to.
For example, if your business wants to target adult-use cannabis retailer license holders in a specific state that use a certain point-of-sale software system, you can do it using the CRM and email marketing tools in the Cannabiz Media License Database.
The more you know about your customers, the easier it is to convince them to buy more from your cannabis business or ancillary business across the entire customer lifetime.
CRM software provides you with a variety of communications opportunities that make it possible for you to increase customer lifetime value and generate new business from existing customers through targeted upsell and cross-sell offers.
For example, you can set up a variety of cross-sell and upsell email marketing campaigns triggered by actions, such as when a customer purchases a specific product, or triggered by timing, such as when it’s a customer’s birthday. Similarly, these actions could signal it’s time for a salesperson to reach out on a one-to-one basis to start a conversation via phone or email.
Research from Salesforce shows that businesses using CRM software see sales increase by 29% while sales productivity jumps by 34% and sales forecast accuracy climbs by 42%. The reason is simple. When you have the right technology and break down business silos, you can automate processes and free up your employees’ time so they can focus on other tasks to boost your ROI.
In addition, a CRM gives your team the tools they need to build repeatable processes. For example, if you have a long sales cycle and a sales team, they can build a sales pipeline in your CRM software complete with automated notifications, reminders, histories, and more. At any moment, a salesperson or leader can log into the CRM and instantly see where a deal is in the pipeline and what needs to be done next to move the deal closer to closing.
The same can be done to increase repeat purchases and reduce churn. Having access to a CRM software that not only provides the features you need to build and track sales pipelines but also helps you streamline and automate many marketing and sales-related tasks will save a significant amount of time and effort for everyone involved.
With marketing and sales processes and automated actions and communications set up in your CRM software, sales and marketing ROI should go up. A CRM tool gives your team access to data that helps them develop better programs, attract more qualified leads, and close sales faster.
For example, with a CRM, the sales team can analyze data to determine when the best time is to communicate with your audience to get the best response. This saves time and reduces the cost of each sale while increasing your ROI.
If your audience includes cannabis license holders and you use the Cannabiz Media License Database, the software figures out the best time to send email messages to your specific audience and automatically provides it to you when you set up each email campaign. Want to reach out to a contact via phone, email, or social media? All of that information is a single click away from each contact’s record in the License Database!
Thanks to the segmentation capabilities inherent in a CRM tool, your cannabis business can send targeted messages personalized to each recipient. This goes beyond simply adding the recipient’s name in an email message subject line. It means tailoring offers based on your audience’s behaviors and demographics.
Since CRM software gives you access to so much data about your customers, you can completely customize your communications and their experiences with your brand, which leads not only to more purchases but also to improved brand sentiment and vocal brand advocacy.
Positive word-of-mouth marketing is the best promotion you can generate, and you can jumpstart those conversations by consistently delivering personalized communications that exceed customer expectations.
CRM software gives everyone on your team instant access to customer histories. As a result, everyone can provide the best customer service possible and solve customer problems faster than ever.
This doesn’t just include your customer service team. It also includes your sales and marketing teams. All communications or brand experiences should support your overall CRM goals and be rooted in your CRM strategy.
Consistent interactions through every touchpoint are essential to keeping customers happy today. A CRM makes consistency possible because everyone has instant access to the information they need to deliver the personalized service that customers expect.
From a business leadership perspective, CRM can help you measure many of your investment results so you can grow your business while maximizing your team’s performance. CRM tools provide a wide variety of reports that give you deep insights into what’s working and what’s not so you can hold your teams accountable and optimize your investments at all times.
When you understand your customers – including their histories, behaviors, needs, and problems – your cannabis business will be more successful. That’s what customer relationship management is all about. CRM software gives you a single source to access all of the data and tools you need to improve sales, marketing, customer service, employee productivity, customer happiness, and more.
Develop a solid CRM strategy, choose a reliable and robust CRM software, train your team members to think collaboratively with a customer-first mindset, and you’ll be on your way to realizing the 10 benefits discussed in this article for your cannabis or cannabis-related business.
The Cannabiz Media License Database includes all of the CRM, email marketing, data, and business intelligence tools that you need to connect with cannabis and hemp license holders in the United States, Canada, and other international markets. Schedule a demo and see how it can improve your sales, marketing, customer service, and more.
Originally published 4/17/20. Updated 5/20/22.
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