In the final installment of our three-part “Level Up your CRM” blog series, Michael Norris discusses how actionable CRM, purpose-built for capital markets, increases collaboration across the firm.
The service sector generates more than two-thirds of global gross domestic product (GDP), employs the most workers, and creates the newest jobs globally. Strong, productive relationships are the bedrock of service industries, including capital markets.
CRM for capital markets is transforming the way in which firms operate, enabling them to gain a 360-degree view of clients, a deep understanding of their needs – and ultimately, a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace, where differentiating yourself can be challenging.
Building a comprehensive view
As we have previously discussed, sell-side firms that need to drive business outcomes and are looking to expand cannot afford to rely on spreadsheets and other manual processes. Those just embarking on their CRM journey will need to level up to operational CRM, which introduces automation to customer relationship workflows, eliminating time-consuming, error-prone manual processes and increasing efficiency. It also lays a strong foundation for scaling the business.
As capital markets firms grow, their needs evolve, and workflows become increasingly complex. The ability to process, analyze and derive actionable intelligence from the vast amounts of data required to achieve business objectives is now more important than ever.
The key to extracting the value of this data is analytical CRM that has been designed specifically for capital markets and banking workflows. More efficient and cost-effective than in-house data analysts, analytical CRM provides critical analysis, identifies patterns, and trends, and enables teams to obtain feedback quickly.
Capital market firms that have already laid the foundation with operational CRM and are deriving value from their data with analytical CRM are now ready to enhance collaboration across the business by advancing to actionable CRM.
Actionable capital markets CRM builds firm-wide collaboration
Actionable CRM adds a layer of collaboration onto an operationally strong, analytical CRM, allowing teams to action the insights gleaned from their sophisticated analytics. When evaluating an actionable CRM solution, it is important to take into consideration the methods used to gather data and how it should be distributed. This will help to ensure that the data is timely, relevant, and part of an action plan that enables users to act and capitalize on all opportunities.
Collaboration is an indispensable part of an actionable CRM, enabling different business lines within a firm to share client data and intelligence. Determining how insights should be shared, and with whom, will be driven by data privacy and sharing regulations, proprietary requirements, and compliance with which is non-negotiable.
Unlike standard CRM, capital markets-specific CRM features actionable and collaborative capabilities that have already factored in business models, rules, and regulations. This includes sharing rules that can easily be configured to the specific requirements of the industry. This gives the firm confidence that it is sharing and actioning data appropriately, legally, and securely.
Actionable CRM enables better organization
A firm’s execution plans will be clear, opportunities will be identified, and next steps mapped out. This will result in a sell-side firm with a client-centric culture; a focus on products and services that can be easily extended as clients’ needs. Client satisfaction builds loyalty, increases retention rates, and leads to upsell opportunities for other products and services.
A capital markets CRM can expand as your profitability does and has the flexibility to change as the firm’s strategy evolves. While actionable CRM might be the ultimate goal, the level of CRM you’re at depends on what you need right now.
You don’t need a different system at different times of your firm’s growth. This is both costly and disruptive to business continuity and may defeat the purpose of building a solid CRM foundation. But when the time is right, and you’re working with a partner with an agile mindset and the capabilities you need (when you need them), actionable CRM will take you where you need to go.
Do you know what level of CRM you’re at? Is it time to level up? To learn more, download “Level Up Your CRM”, a Tier1 whitepaper.
For more information on Tier1’s advanced workflows for capital markets and how to unlock your CRM potential, or to arrange an evaluation of your current technology stack, contact us.