Traditional CRM is considered by many as the lifeblood of any direct sales operation, however, in many scenarios the transformation of CRM using automated systems has tended to prematurely optimise the process, fixing automation or personal interaction in the wrong places.

The balance of technology and process is critical in attaining a truly ‘tacit’ CRM system. That means being able to provide for personal, effective customer relationships without inappropriate and obvious interjection of automated systems.

Common issues include:

• Unstructured, disparate and poorly maintained customer databases
• Poor infrastructure hampering introduction of business process re-engineering
• Failure to identify and focus on specific business problems
• Trying to automate a poorly defined process
• Lack of active senior management sponsorship
• Poor user acceptance

Mercato fixes and automates the efficiency of customer relationships in the right places at the right time. We optimise relevant and appropriate parts of the workflow where others have focussed on buoying parts of the process that simply don’t need it.

Mercato’s solution starts with hosted Data Management aggregating, cleansing and enriching customer contacts into a highly accessible format. At the front end, the user experience is surfaced and delivered as a CRM functioning tool that accurately integrates sales resources and marketing strategies to provide better understanding and fulfilment of customer needs.

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Mercato CRM allows for multiple contact management of customers with full auditability across contact, quotes and orders plus support functionality. This ensures watertight alignment with Sarbanes Oxley compliance.

Sales driving real-time functionality includes desktop driven automated email marketing, standardised sales letters and deal sheets plus creation, log and merge quotations.

CRM

Mercato’s scaleable CRM solution provides a single repository for all information so any member of staff can complete a transaction with a customer. This means that sales also have historical data at their finger tips for an intuitive conversation every time.

Mercato CRM helps sales teams do a better job faster with myriad powerful functionality.

• Reassurance from complete future-proofed data accuracy
• Total multiple contact management for customers, profiles and history
• Graphical performance interface
• Creation, log and access all orders
• Call management, auto call lists, auto dial, call remind
• Alert system prompts follow-up contact in accordance with a malleable diary system and information to complete the interaction in the shortest timescale for the customer
• Complete reporting and analysis on every dimension of sale and source
• Full audit trail on communication chains including phone calls, emails, RFQs
• Tight management of very large volumes of customers
• Visibility and tracking of all customer activities
• Database interrogation and build, save and market to lists
• Create, save and manage eshot sends quickly with clear call to action
• eshot reporting functionality enables qualification of opens and clicks for accurate follow-ups and assessment of ROI on a campaign-by-campaign basis
• Communication of time limited supply chain driven discounts very quickly to your customer base

With interoperability between CRM and Procurement, the system can link customer activity to specific supplier activity.

The Mercato system joins up information received from any daily updated catalogue, so sales teams know when to call any specific customer in response to price or product movements they have shown interest in. This ensures timely customer calls with information to back up the reason for a call.

Mercato CRM is deployed through a SaaS model so customers don’t need to install any additional or intrusive interface. This provides a solid approach through which rapid ROI can be expected. Mercato is also capable of seamlessly integrating into ERP systems as a given.

As a market-leading subscription based SaaS solution that integrates and extends common ERP systems, the Mercato Application suite is modular and tools can be bolted on to meet specific demands. This overall end-to-end solution is hosted by Mercato and can integrate into existing FMS and back office systems if required.

The solution can be ‘live’ rapidly without hardware or software installation costs and there are no maintenance costs. 

The solution is highly intuitive but if needed, Mercato can offer implementation assistance and training to ensure swift deployment, company-wide adoption, and quick ROI.