Crisis management thanks to sales and marketing automation

Creating synergies between marketing and sales is more important than ever in the face of current economic challenges for companies. An easy way to realize this effective interlocking is the perfect combination of a CRM system and marketing automation. In this guest article, Martin Philipp, Managing Director of our partner SC-Networks, reports on the advantages that companies can generate through a close integration of marketing and sales.

Germany was not the only country to be characterized by economic stagnation and a high inflation rate in 2023. This was mainly due to the aftermath of the massive loss of purchasing power in the wake of the energy price crisis, which weakened private consumption. Added to this was the significantly slower growth momentum of the global economy and the crippling development of the geopolitical situation. All of this has also had an impact on the marketing and sales of numerous companies. Retaining or even acquiring new customers therefore requires modern solutions. These are created by itmX and Evalanche | SC-Networks – through the integration of CRM and marketing automation systems, a modern sales automation.

Today, decision-making processes are more digital than ever: Customers who contact a company do not ask for advice. In most cases, they have informed themselves through preliminary research and have already made their decision. In order to have a real chance, companies should therefore pick up potential customers early in their decision-making process. Marketing Automation (MA) helps them do this by automatically delivering valuable and relevant information to potential customers. This is a significant advantage, especially for corporate customers, whose decision-making processes have shown to take longer than those of end consumers. Automation relieves the sales team and frees up space to take care of them personally – for example, particularly large or lucrative customers, but above all those who are ready for a real sales call.

Another advantage: MA provides companies with valuable information about their potential customers, because such software records the click behavior of the recipients and thus shows which content was particularly relevant for whom. If companies rely on the analysis of click history, they can optimize their offer individually when they actually come into contact with the customer. The tailor-made customer approach resulting from the data brightens the mood of the customer – whether corporate customer or end consumer – and that of the provider in equal measure thanks to higher completion rates. Just one of many examples of how sales automation can increase sales.

Via a connector between the itmX crm suite and Evalanche, itmX customers now have the opportunity to use customer data from the CRM system for targeted marketing campaigns. On the other hand, data generated in Evalanche, such as form entries, clicked content or downloads, can be transferred directly to the CRM. With Evalanche, marketing generates high-quality leads, which it can then automatically hand over to sales – a “Made in Germany” marketing automation solution that is also interesting for medium-sized companies. The latest project shows how well the collaboration works: Since mid-2023, the new app area has been available to Evalanche users in the App Switch and in the Marketing Cockpit. This app section makes it possible to integrate partner apps or third-party applications. ItmX has taken this as an opportunity to integrate the already existing Power BI Evalanche template . For users of Evalanche, this means that they can now visualize their Evalanche data with the predefined Power BI template.

If you want to learn more, you can find more information in this webinar recording: Using Customer Intelligence: Successful Customer Journey Analysis with the itmX Power BI Template for Evalanche

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