How To Use CRM Analytics to Power Your Business Decisions? In today's fast-paced business environment, retaining your customers and increasing their lifetime value is more important than ever.

One key factor in achieving this is by improving the customer experience. And the first step to creating a game plan for improving your customer experience is analyzing your CRM analytics.

This guide from Kapsys will teach you the analytical CRM tools you can use to gain powerful insights and make data-driven decisions. We'll also cover the basics of analytical CRM and CRM analytics, so you can understand how these tools can benefit your business. So, let's get started!

What Are CRM Analytics?

CRM analytics is a powerful tool that provides valuable insights into your business operations. By utilizing analytical CRM tools, you can gain a deeper understanding of your customers and make data-driven decisions that will improve your marketing, sales, and account management strategies. One of the key benefits of CRM analytics is the ability to create a more relevant and improved customer experience.

For example, by setting quarterly KPI goals centered around your "net-promoter score," you can track how likely customers are to recommend your product or service. As this metric increases, your product and customer experience are vital.

There are generally four aspects to data analytics in CRM:

1. Descriptive Analytics: helps you understand what's happening.
2. Diagnostic Analytics: enables you to understand why it's happening.
3. Predictive Analytics: lets you know what is likely to occur in the future.
4. Prescriptive Analytics: helps you understand what needs to be done.

You can create win-win scenarios for your customers and your internal operations by taking action based on your analytics.

What Does A CRM Analyst Do?

CRM analytics can provide valuable insights into your business operations, but you may consider hiring a CRM Analyst to make the most of it.

A CRM Analyst is a skilled professional that evaluates CRM data and helps companies improve their marketing, sales, and customer experience.

They can be employed internally, but it's common for them to be hired externally or for a specific period, depending on the company's needs.

One of the primary responsibilities of a CRM Analyst is to maximize customer value to the business while also maximizing its importance to the customer.

They do this by providing diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive information in 3 out of the 4 mentioned earlier.

A CRM Analyst's other specific responsibilities include:

• data analysis,
• creating sales and marketing plans and recommendations,
• noticing company data trends,
• pinpointing CRM data correlations,
• analyzing customer behavior,
• tailoring strategies that improve customer experience and customer value to the business.

If you're looking to improve your business operations and make the most of your CRM analytics, consider hiring a CRM Analyst who can help you make data-driven decisions using analytical CRM tools.

How Do Analytical CRM Tools Benefit Business?

Analytical CRM tools benefit businesses by providing valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends. Some specific benefits of analytical CRM tools include the following:

Establish Predictive Modeling

One of the key benefits of using CRM analytics is the ability to utilize predictive modeling. Predictive modeling is a technique that uses past data or overall data trends to forecast future results. By analyzing data from previous campaigns, businesses can use analytical CRM tools to understand future outcomes and make data-driven decisions. For example, companies can use predictive modeling to determine the best email subject lines for conversion rates. By analyzing data from the past 60 emails, they can understand which subject lines had the highest open rates and click-throughs. With predictive modeling, they can continue to use similar subject lines in the future to get similar results. Predictive modeling also helps businesses reduce risk by allowing them to pinpoint what's most likely to work, which saves money on the "testing" phase of a marketing campaign or new sales approach. Overall, CRM analytics and predictive modeling are essential for businesses looking to improve their outcomes. It allows companies to make data-driven decisions to improve customer satisfaction, increase sales, and reduce risk.

Better Identify Business Bottlenecks

By using analytical CRM tools, businesses can gain objective information on where certain slow-downs are happening. One example is using sales CRM's pipeline analytics to track sales velocity and pinpoint why some deals are falling through. This allows businesses to identify bottlenecks in their sales process and implement systems to fix them. It's important to note that when implementing new changes, giving them time to show their effectiveness is essential. A good benchmark is about a quarter. Physical product businesses, in particular, can benefit significantly from CRM analytics. By showing the sales volume of product purchases, companies can anticipate a high or low volume of purchase orders. That allows them to maximize profits with their inventory management.

More Relevant Messaging Thanks To Deeper Customer Insights

CRM analytics gives businesses the power to understand their customers more deeply. With analytical CRM tools, companies can gain insight into what works with specific customer segments and what doesn't. For example, by analyzing email response rates and using A/B testing on different customer groups, businesses can determine what elements are getting customers to open, click, and download content. Additionally, by segmenting audiences, businesses can use CRM analytics to help sales reps connect with customers on a more personal level. This can be done by identifying demographic and behavior-related characteristics of their customer base, which can then be used to tailor sales and marketing strategies to specific segments. 

How Analytics Support CRM?

CRM analytics provide your business with the necessary data and insights to strengthen customer relationships. By analyzing key metrics such as customer lifetime value and retention rate. Also, you can measure the effectiveness of your CRM strategy and make data-driven decisions. The ultimate goal of CRM is to create mutually beneficial relationships with customers, and the insights gained from accurate and actionable analytics can significantly contribute to achieving this goal.

Which Analytics Should Be Tracked & Evaluated?

There is a plethora of analytics that can be monitored, but the most valuable ones for your organization may vary. However, there is certain analytics that is generally considered essential to track. These include:

Sales Cycle Length

The sales cycle measures the average time it takes for a sales team member to close a deal. It is determined by analyzing historical data. Specifically, the number of days spent on sales about the number of deals closed during that period. According to a survey of B2B companies:

• 74.6% of sales take at least 4 months to close.
• 46.4% take 7 months or more.

These are general estimates, and comparing your company's average sales cycle length to the industry average is beneficial. To optimize performance, it is best practice to keep the sales cycle as short as possible by focusing on both sales effectiveness and efficiency.

Win Rate

The win rate is a metric that measures the effectiveness of a sales team member or team. It is calculated by dividing the total number of closed sales by the total number of potential deals. It is important to closely analyze the win rate as it reflects the success of the entire sales cycle. To improve the win rate, consider the following;

• Implementing a value ladder.
• Updating the sales playbook.
• Establishing a streamlined sales process.
• Qualifying leads using a proven sales methodology.

New Net Revenue

New Net Revenue measures the amount of new business coming into an organization and is a crucial indicator of the sales team's success. Introducing new strategies, such as a lead distribution method that assigns leads to specialized sales reps is essential. Since it can help determine if the approach results in more winning deals.

Customer Lifetime Value

The metric of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a powerful tool that predicts the overall value of a customer's long-term relationship with a business. The ultimate goal is to create a positive customer experience that leads to repeat business and a low churn rate. A high CLV is also cost-effective, as retaining a current customer is significantly cheaper than acquiring a new one. That can range from 5 to 25 times more expensive.

Which CRM Helps Track Key Analytics Well?

In conclusion, Salesforce CRM is a premium option for managing sales, marketing, and customer relationships. With built-in tracking and reporting features, it provides valuable insights into your operation. Furthermore, it allows you to make adjustments to keep your business running smoothly. Read How Do I Get CRM Analytics in Salesforce? Also, you can tailor the customizable interface to fit your specific business needs. If you're interested in seeing Salesforce CRM and learning more about how it can benefit your business, contact Kapsys for a demonstration.