CRM Solution Study

Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
Insights, Landscape & Vendor Analysis
© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Solution Study
By: Clare Price, VP Research
With: Kristen Maida, Research Analyst
April 2014

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Executive Summary
What is Customer Relationship Management?
Benefits of CRM
The CRM Solutions Landscape
CRM Deployment Lifecycle
Vendor Selection Criteria
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About the Research Analysts
Our Solution Study Methodology
About Demand Metric
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Action Plan
Analyst Bottom Line
Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Customer Relationship Management: Insights, Landscape & Vendor Analysis
Effective Sales Enablement is a multi-stage process. In our Sales Enablement Solution Study Series, we examine each key stage of Sales
Enablement from initial marketing and sales alignment to the final deal close and revenue capture.
In this report, we focus on one of the two foundation technologies of Sales Enablement – Customer Relationship Management
(CRM).
The insights and analysis presented in this report are given to provide marketers with a baseline understanding of the CRM landscape. This
Solution Study will cover:
 Definition of the Solution
 The Benefits of the Solution
 The CRM Solutions Landscape
If your organization is considering CRM software, currently implementing a CRM system or providing a CRM-related product or
service, this report will provide you with fresh insights on the landscape, technology, strategies and vendor solutions.
 CRM Deployment Lifecycle
 Vendor Selection Criteria
 Action Plan & Toolkit

Demand Metric defines Customer Relationship Management
as the strategies, processes, tools and technologies to develop,
manage and support customer interactions, relationships and
experiences across the organization.
At their most basic, CRM systems support sales, marketing and
customer service functions. Advanced Enterprise CRM systems
now support the entire customer relationship, including activities
and interactions from the back office to social communities.
WHAT IS CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT?
Modern
CRM
Solutions
Integrated
Architecture &
Platform
Sales &
Business
Intelligence
eCommerce
Integration
Field Service
Channel &
Partner
Management
Contact
Management
Sales Support
& Email
Marketing
Helpdesk &
Trouble-ticket
Figure 1: Modern CRM Solutions

The primary benefits of CRM are associated with the three
functional areas these systems support – sales, marketing and
customer service. Here we explore the fundamental
features/benefits of a standard CRM solution. We will explore the
advanced and emerging features and benefits such as customer
experience and lifecycle management discussed in the CRM
Solutions Landscape section of this report.
Sales Benefits
The primary sales benefits of CRM include:
 Prospect customer profiling to provide a comprehensive view of
customer details, interests and activities
 Lead scoring and account management to enable sales to manage
the account as it moves from lead to close
 Opportunity management to enable sales to quickly determine
where to spend their time for the highest ROI
 Territory and quote management to maintain performance and
margins
 Social selling tools to integrate insights on prospect/customer
social activity into the sales cycle and knowledge base
 Pipeline management and forecasting with dashboard analytics
for better sales performance management
 Mobility apps to provide sales the ability to present and sell
anywhere on any device (PC, tablet, Smartphone)
Benefits to Marketing
The primary benefits to marketing include:
 List management to create campaigns targeted at the right
customer groups
 Email marketing campaigns based on deep prospect/customer
knowledge
BENEFITS OF CRM

 Campaign templates to streamline marketing campaigns
 Lead generation and scoring to qualify sales leads
 Automated lead nurturing to develop leads into opportunities
 Social Marketing to enable marketers to listen, engage, publish
and advertise across all social channels and communities
 The ability to measure and track email marketing campaigns to
determine ROI
Benefits to Customer Service
The primary benefits to customer service include:
 A single-view console for faster case management
 Access to the complete customer history to quickly answer
questions and resolve issues
 Detailed product information through access to an online
product directory with online query search
 Real-time access to customer services metrics through
dashboards, reports and alerts
 Management of service contracts
Additional Benefits
Advanced CRM solutions offer many benefits beyond those directly
related to the sales cycle. These include:
 Architecture/Platform Integration – depending on the
sophistication of the vendor, the vendor will either integrate
with a leading CRM Enterprise platform like Salesforce.com,
Oracle or SAP or allow this level of application integration
 Business intelligence and reporting for better customer insights
 Back office ERP integration to extend CRM functionality from
the frontlines to business operations functions enriching the
customer/contact information with payment and invoicing
history, etc.
 Workflow automation for streamlining processes, activity
monitoring and inquiry routing

ABOUT THE RESEARCH ANALYSTS
Clare Price, VP Research – Demand Metric
Clare is an expert in marketing strategy, branding, strategic communications, sales enablement, social media marketing,
content marketing and leveraging marketing technologies. Clare is a former Gartner Research Director at and helped
build their Internet Strategies Services division with clients such as Microsoft, IBM, HP, Cisco, Proctor & Gamble and
Wells Fargo. Her specialties include: brand strategy, brand development, customer acquisition and relationship
development, content and digital marketing strategy, sales enablement and social media marketing.
Kristen Maida, Research Analyst – Demand Metric
Kristen has worked with Demand Metric for the past 4 years, learning about and gaining experience in all aspects of
the organization. She has developed job functions in almost every department to help with Demand Metric’s rapid
growth. Her specialties include: social media marketing, digital marketing, content marketing & management and
business process development.

OUR SOLUTION STUDY METHODOLOGY
The Modern Marketing landscape is an ever changing, ever evolving environment in which new strategies, technologies, vendors and products
appear continually. Demand Metric Solution Studies provide marketers with a focus on a specific technology solution set or focus area so that
they are armed with the knowledge, information and tools they need to development effective strategies and action plans for their organizations.
Each Solution Study involves hours of analyst research, draws information from interviews with vendor executives and established vendor clients
for a specific technology solution and is usually accompanied by a mini Tool-kit of practical resources. Solution Study Tool-kits are designed to
provide marketers with the tools & templates they need to plan for an initiative in a given focus area, analyze the vendor landscape and select the
best vendor for their organization.
Our Sales Enablement report series includes Solution Studies on:
 Enablement Knowledge Management
 Configure, Price Quote (CPQ)
 Sales Intelligence
We provide a comprehensive overview of Sales Enablement in the companion report – Sales Enablement in 2013 Best Practices Report
 Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
 Marketing Automation (MA)
 Sales Communications Tools.

Solution Study
ABOUT DEMAND METRIC
Demand Metric is a global marketing research & advisory firm serving a membership community of over 40,000 marketing professionals,
CEOs, and business owners with advisory services, custom research & benchmarking reports, vendor studies, consulting methodologies,
training, and a library of 500+ tools and templates.
Using Demand Metric resources, members complete projects faster and with greater confidence, boosting respect for the marketing team and
making it easier to justify needed resources. Our 1,000+ clients range from start-ups to members of the Global 1000.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT DEMAND METRIC
To read the rest of this Benchmark Report, become a Demand Metric member today!

CRM Solution Study

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