Your Enterprise Resource Planning system holds a ton of information to manage your business successfully. A lot of the data in your ERP system is extremely relevant to your marketing and sales department. If you know more about your customers, you can exceed their expectations.
ERP helps you to understand your customer’s needs
Let's face it; as an equipment dealership, your customer's journey is not as linear as you may think. Your ERP data should be used for building out your customer personas; because it holds historical data, specific to your company, and it can be used to scope out your customer's needs. Your ERP data provides hard numbers on your customer's buying cycle, what they spend on their equipment, and how often they purchase. Tracking your customer's behaviors with your ERP system helps you provide a better service to your customers. At the end of the day, your main objective should be to have happy customers.
Integrate ERP data with your marketing and sales efforts
Studies have shown that an ERP generates enough increase in the productivity of companies that use this management system. By integrating the ERP system with a marketing and sales strategy, you can ensure the access to real-time data; which provides you with reliable information for each department, and in return, it keeps the communication open throughout the business. Communication within the ERP system is critical for both your Marketing and Sales team; the data helps define the customer's current needs. For instances, if they know a customer's equipment is down, they can point out the possible savings of purchasing a new piece of equipment versus lost time and repairs cost for their current piece of equipment. Your Marketing and Sales department would miss out on this deal if they did not have access to the ERP's data.
Meet and exceed your customer’s expectations
Using ERP data is not only beneficial to your company, but it is also helpful to your customer. You will save your customer time and money if you can predict their needs ahead of time. In time you will have a loyal customer. These actions will show your customer you recognize them as an individual. Now you have proven you can meet and exceed their expectations. When making use of your ERP data, you will notice the ease and speed to better manage and monetize customer relationships.
April Potts is responsible for Marketing & Sales at Dysel North America and combines experiences in marketing, at dealerships and with ERP software to help dealerships move their business forward.
