10 Tips for a Better Energy Broker CRM Experience
Energy brokers & marketers can benefit greatly from using an Energy Broker CRM management system. It’s very crucial for the sales department to understand what it is, how important it is to their workflow, and more importantly, how to use it effectively. Those are the topics we will be discussing here.
With a typical CRM management system the main goal is to maintain contact with current clients, attract new leads and prospects, and manage a pipeline of opportunities that will enhance your sales process. As an Energy Broker/Marketer you need more than just a sales enhancement tool, you also need a CRM that will deliver matrix & RFP pricing management, contract management and a way to reconcile those supplier payments & agent commissions each month.
Having a solid CRM strategy is also necessary to serve your initiatives best. If leads or prospects aren’t managed properly you can be a part of the huge financial loss that occurs every year.
CRM management has the power to make or break your workflow. When properly used, the best Energy Broker CRM systems can assist you and your team in boosting sales, increasing productivity, and being more professionally structured as a whole.
The Importance of Energy Broker CRM Management
The most effective way to enhance your relationship with your customer is through Energy Broker CRM management. The system will help nurture strong relationships with clients to keep them coming back for your services. Growth of this relationship will propel your company to new heights of success.
Many energy brokers can quickly determine the real needs of a customer and work with them to better accomplish client goals once this relationship is established. The majority of successful energy broker businesses have tools in place like the Edge on Demand, Edge360𝆩 (link to website) platform to effectively manage their book of business.
10 Energy Broker CRM Management Tips
Here are the top ten recommendations for using an Energy Broker CRM in your energy business:
1. Strategies for your CRM
Energy Broker CRM projects that are started without a plan are most often unsuccessful. This CRM software should not be viewed as an initiative from your overall business plan. It should be used to enhance your current processes with increased efficiency or help expose areas where these workflow strategies need to be developed. CRM management only functions when a company has a clear understanding of its processes and goals. Only at that point can a CRM system help to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, reduce expenses or boost income. Just remember you must “Plan the Work” before you can “Work the Plan”.
2. Making Technology Work For You
Energy Broker CRM projects that are started without a plan are most often unsuccessful. This CRM software should not be viewed as an initiative from your overall business plan. It should be used to enhance your current processes with increased efficiency or help expose areas where these workflow strategies need to be developed. CRM management only functions when a company has a clear understanding of its processes and goals. Only at that point can a CRM system help to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, reduce expenses or boost income. Just remember you must “Plan the Work” before you can “Work the Plan”.
An energy broker must understand the technology they use, which includes what it can and cannot do. Far too often, Energy Broker CRM’s are viewed as an IT effort rather than a business enhancement tool. The coordination and collaboration between the business and your CRM provider is the key to ensuring that your business is set up for success from the beginning.
3. Utilize Your CRM In Other Parts Of Your Business
Energy Broker CRM management is essential to understanding and managing client interactions for businesses with a customer-centric culture. However, an Energy Broker CRM system can be useful for other parts of your business as well. Integrations that are built with other marketing tools, customer support and the back end finance team are crucial in a company's success. Having all departments work from the same data keeps the integrity of that data and each department working in congruent harmony with one another.
4. What’s The Perfect Energy Broker CRM Management?
Simply put, there isn’t an Energy Broker CRM system out there that will fulfill everyone’s needs. It’s important to understand that a new CRM isn’t there to replicate your existing business procedures. You should instead acknowledge that not everyone on your team may get everything they ask for and make use of the new CRM system to create and implement brand-new procedures that enhance customer experience, cut expenses, and deliver new out of the box solutions that your business needs to grow.
5. CRM Integrations to Optimize Success
The majority of energy brokers rely on a variety of software programs to support various business functions. One of the actual benefits of an Energy Broker CRM comes from combining many of these activities into a single workflow. This may require a customized integration with another type of platform. By integrating your CRM with other systems like marketing automation, accounting, or communication tools, you may make your team’s life easier and increase productivity and utilization of the “new” CRM system. Just remember, happy employees work harder for your business than unhappy employees do.
6. Supporting Internal Processes & It’s Importance
Before your new Energy Broker CRM system can “Go-Live”, you can train your employees extensively. Some people will forget what they learn and start using the application in ways that weren’t intended. This might turn into “trouble in River City ''. The primary benefit of an Energy Broker CRM is to establish a standard approach to the data that has to be captured and a similar strategy to how it’s recorded. Make sure you and your CRM customer care team initiate some “Best Practices'' that will help ensure the training and success of your employees during the implementation process. It’s important to establish a check in several times each month during the first 90 days that your system is in place to head off any incorrect patterns that may develop in the early states or the learning process.
7. Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy
Similar to any other system out there, complexity can hinder CRM adoption and use. So establishing simple methods and workflows will increase success. According to reports, sales representatives spend just under 18% of their time in a CRM, with more than half of that time being dedicated to improving task management. One way to make your system more efficient and simple to use is to ensure that the CRM data is complete and accurate. This will cut down on lost time and productivity.
8. Training Is The Key To Performance
Once your new Energy Broker CRM management system is up and running, it is very important that your software solution provider establish a complete training program. Train each department in accordance with their unique requirements to make sure that those who are less “techy” can use the new system, even if you have to spend more time with them. Before gaining access to the system, each user should be required to attend a training session. This will optimize the user buy-in and the training process should not only inform them about the system but also explain its goals and any best practices or methods to ensure success.
9. Knowledge Is Power
You must present a system that helps each and every user and simplifies their day-to-day rather than complicates their tasks if you want to gain their support. Implementing a chat option between employees and departments more quickly may be one way to help increase speed and efficiency. The availability of mobile applications may also boost your salespeople’s productivity if they are out in the field. All of these factors must be considered when considering a new Energy Broker CRM.
10. Setting Business Goals
The software exists to facilitate the implementation of CRM management strategies, not the other way around. Don’t spend too much time focusing on the numerous functions that a CRM software can offer. It’s extremely unlikely that your company will require them all. Work with an Energy Broker CRM specialist, like Edge on Demand, to make sure that the system you are deploying will be able to track and measure those goals after you have established your quantifiable business goals.
Wrap It Up Like A Burrito
An Energy Broker CRM management system is critical for an organization’s expansion and client retention. You can build your customer relationships while increasing the return on your CRM investment by putting these best practices into effect. Edge360° by Edge on Demand is a revolutionary, all-in-one, cloud-based Saas software suite to maximize your sales, operations and financial efficiency. Whether your company is just getting started or you have decades of history, Edge will help streamline your energy management with data driven results. We understand that managing your day to day processes can be hard, and we’re here to help.
by Mike Harrison 10/11/2022