As a publisher, an integral part of growing your business involves choosing the right technology to support your sales team in generating advertising revenue. This becomes increasingly important the wider your potential customer base expands and the more your sales cycle evolves to serve your advertisers’ needs.
A solid customer relationship management (CRM) system can have a powerful impact on streamlining and supercharging your sales process. In this article, we’ll explore what a CRM is and why it’s a must-have tool for media companies. We’ll also offer 5 tips for selecting the best CRM for 100+ users, and share 5 ways a large team can benefit from Lineup Systems’ Adpoint CRM solution.
What is a CRM and why do you need one?
A CRM enables you to gather, organize, and manage advertiser data so you can optimize your customer journey and increase your sales. It allows your sales reps to create and maintain detailed records of their communication with current and potential customers, as well as set reminders for future follow-ups.
“The CRM market is expected to grow in size to $43.5 billion globally in 2024,” according to HubSpot. “CRMs can help you expedite business growth while eliminating friction, collaborate cross-team, sync data, automate daily tasks, and more.”
Despite the widespread use of CRM tools, 87% of sales reps underestimate the value of this technology, believing their managers only use it to keep tabs on their work. This is one reason why it’s crucial to take the time to educate your team on the purpose your CRM serves and involve them in the process of selecting a CRM if you don’t already have one or if you’re looking for a new enterprise-level solution.
5 tips for choosing the best CRM for over 100 users
Purchasing technology for a large team is often a big investment. You can make the most of your budget by doing some work upfront to ensure you select a tool that will support your media organization for years to come.
Confirm that the tool offers all of the features you need
or you—and one your sales team will thank you for. These requirements for your new CRM could include features such as automation, integrations, reporting, and more. Think about what features you’ll need today, but also in the future. Categorize each item on your list as “mission critical” or “nice to have” and score each potential vendor accordingly.
Choose a user friendly system
Technology needs to be easy to use for it to be useful, so have your employees trial each CRM tool you’re considering to see how well they can execute their daily tasks with the software. Ask them to consider all angles of usability.
“Often we see user-friendliness evaluated only from the perspective of end-users doing data collection or capture—that’s a crucial lens, but the technology’s friendliness for data management, data analysis, and data visualization may be equally important,” suggests this article by Vera Solutions.
Find a CRM that can promote internal alignment
It’s likely that your sales, marketing, and customer service staff will all use your new CRM. Leverage this opportunity to foster greater collaboration between these teams by scheduling cross-team training sessions. The more closely aligned various departments within your media organization are, the better everyone can work in sync toward your goals (with the same robust set of data), and the more consistent your customer experience will be.
Select a work-from-home friendly system
It appears that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic is behind us, but the way we work has likely been forever changed by the public health crisis. That’s why it’s essential that any technology your business uses can be accessed anywhere, on the go, by your sales reps. Ensure whatever CRM you choose will function on home computers and internet networks.
Choose an innovative vendor
In addition to considering the CRM features you’ll require today and in the future, you need to know whether your vendor will be able to keep up with your media organization’s evolution. Otherwise, you may find yourself looking for a new tool sooner than later.
“To evaluate innovation, you’ll want to know how many releases per year to expect, what the current high-level roadmap looks like, how the roadmap is prioritized, and what kind of influence you’ll have (as a customer) on the roadmap,” suggests this article by Vera Solutions.
5 ways a large team can benefit from Adpoint CRM
Lineup Systems’ Adpoint CRM was created specifically for publishers by media industry experts who have been where you are and who know how to help overcome your most pressing challenges.
Automated lead generation
Adpoint enables you to pinpoint underperforming lead segments and forgotten prospects to optimize your lead generation efforts. The solution also highlights unsold inventory so you can be sure your premium positions don’t go unfilled.
Easy package creation
Today’s advertisers often want custom packages, but these can be labor intensive to develop. Adpoint takes the legwork out of creating bundled packages and producing quotes for multichannel sales. The tool also allows you to monitor inventory with ease in real time.
Accessibility on the go
Your CRM should move as quickly as your sales team. Use Adpoint anywhere, anytime, from any device with our mobile-responsive app, Adpoint Go. Your sales reps will have access to campaign performance and conversion data so they’ll always be able to bring their A game to every customer conversation.
Detailed analytics
As a savvy publisher, you make decisions driven by data, and Adpoint supports that strategy. The technology’s built-in media sales intelligence framework includes instant dashboard reports; sales performance reports at the individual, team, or company level, and more.
Regular software updates
As a SaaS solution, the product team behind Adpoint is constantly innovating to remain agile and current in our fast-paced media world.
Discover Adpoint CRM
Nearly 5,000 publications around the globe are leveraging Lineup’s Adpoint CRM to elevate their sales processes and grow their advertising revenue. Find out how Adpoint can help your media organization do the same.
