September 27, 2012 – Atlanta, Georgia – Jabian Consulting’s Chad McCloud, Chair of the Technology Association of Georgia’s (TAG) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Society, moderated a panel discussion on Where Georgia Leads in CRM.
Panelists included the following:
- Chris Murphy, Segment Marketing Manager at Silverpop
- Michael Perla, Marketing & Sales Effectiveness Consultant at Symmetrics Group
- Kyle Porter, CEO and Co-founder of SalesLoft
The panel discussion provided excellent information and interesting perspectives on customer relationship management and its role in the realm of marketing and business operations.
Though marketing is traditionally considered a soft science, when valuable and relevant data is fed through an effective CRM system, scientific rigor is applied. Panelists emphasized that traditional one-way communication is a thing of the past; understanding, listening to, and interactively responding to customers is imperative. In leveraging the functionality and capability of CRM systems, this can be achieved. Customer relationship management is no longer an application; it is a platform central to business.
An example: SalesLoft has recently developed the JobChangeAlert.com application, a bolt-on for LinkedIn. By indentifying individuals with recent job changes, companies have the opportunity to better connect with customers by providing more relevant offerings.
Understanding the customer well enough to know what makes the relationship between the individual and the business unique is vital. Customer relationship management should provide a 360 degree view of the customer. Gather the right data; make it count. It takes an effort, an interest, and commitment, as well as a sustainable plan, to successfully utilize a CRM system.
Chad McCloud, panel moderator and Executive Director at Jabian Consulting, says, “Many of our clients have found that dialogue in the social media world contains a lot of random noise. Companies are overwhelmed with the amount of information they could capture. What Jabian finds exciting about social media dialogue is the type of customer voice that can’t be gathered efficiently through traditional means. What’s important is drawing out the relevant information that enables real insights, so that companies can connect in ways that absolutely delight the customer. Applications we discussed from SalesLoft and SilverPop are great examples of finding those key ingredients.”
Chad McCloud has recently been promoted to Chair of the Technology Association of Georgia’s (TAG) Customer Relationship Management Society, furthering Jabian’s deep involvement with TAG. President Tino Mantella says, “Jabian’s participation in TAG has been indispensable.” For more information on the Technology Association of Georgia’s Customer Relationship Management Society, visit https://www.tagonline.org/tag-customer-relationship-management.php.