Business and CRM Trends 2021
There is no doubt that the Corona pandemic and the way companies had to adapt during the pandemic to ensure their survival have greatly changed our vision of what 2021 will look like.
What can companies do now to prepare for the coming year?
Table of Contents
Digitizing or expanding digitalization
A necessary condition for adapting to the new realities is the progress of digitalization in companies. Corona has made everyone involved aware of the urgency needed for this change – from management to individual employees.
However, in a video conference on their study “What’s Your Edge?” (together with Sopra Steria), experts from the Handelsblatt Research Institute urge them not to digitize at all costs. Rather, one should first rethink and modernize existing processes, with a radical focus on the customers. Only then will the appropriate technology come into the company.
The introduction of a CRM system or its expansion to the xRM is one of many options.
In general, the following applies: For a sustainable transformation, it requires a top sponsor in the management, who supports digitalization projects 100% and accompanies the implementation.
10 Business Trends for 2021
Very different topics have a great influence on future entrepreneurial efforts. Especially when it comes to securing competitive advantages or countering structural change. In this context, Forbes has identified The 10 Biggest Business Trends For 2021, for which everyone, not just entrepreneurs, should be prepared:
- Working from home
- Data as an asset
- Business model innovation
- Automation
- Decentralized finances
- Virtual interfaces
- From global to local
- Targeted & meaningful
- Sustainability
- Social Media Engagement
CRM Trends 2021 and business applications for the next 12 months
The study “IT Priorities in 2020 – 2021” by TechTarget and computerweekly.de shows that the expansion of digitalization is progressing. In addition to securing remote work, the concentration of IT professionals is clearly on customer contact.
The survey of almost 500 IT managers in Europe showed:
No gazing into the crystal ball
Predicting the future is not an easy task, but it is fun to deal with the challenges of the future and possible answers. But do we have the CRM trends in 2021? In any case, the answers of the IT professionals are very easy to understand.
#1: CRM and Sales Management
The pandemic has accelerated the acceptance of remote work, and thus remote sales. For sales departments, it is more important than ever to change the sole focus on traditional offline strategies and also to incorporate digital tactics.
Sales control with sales goals and dashboards for ad hoc reporting also shows whether the sales strategy is successful or needs customization.
The integration of videoconferencing into daily sales work partially compensates for the limitation of customer visits.
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#2: E-Commerce and ERP
This planning is not surprising at the moment. Companies examine and implement all possible distribution channels for their products. The eShop is the answer to the lockdowns to avoid major losses.
#3: Customer Experience Management and Marketing Automation
Buyers demand to be served in the channels they prefer. To meet these expectations, companies will experiment with many different advertising, sales, and purchase channels to provide a seamless shopping experience regardless of channels and devices. That’s why the digital customer journey will move far forward on the corporate agenda.
The lockdowns in the Corona crisis have also brought the topics of e-mail marketing and newsletter sending up-to-date. They are an important building block in customer engagement within the digital customer journey.
To be continued
For all planned business applications in the next 12 months, there could be a separate sales. But the applications have already been written more often, because it is striking that the CRM trends of previous years are now being implemented. This is not surprising: depending on the degree of digitization a company has already achieved, the CRM trends from previous years are the CRM trends 2021. Some pioneers see the use of artificial intelligence, account-based marketing or GPT-3 in B2B sales as their CRM trends in 2021.
But what can be confirmed in the CRM trends in 2021? What most companies plan to do or what there are “new” trending topics? We’ll stick to it.
Final remark:
With the help of the graphic you can still understand something well:
If you introduce the applications described in the graphic in the company, i.e. consistently think CRM, this results in a coherent picture of an xRM system. For companies that rely on xRM, this results in a high degree of digitization and networking, effective data access and data-based business management. These are all essential competitive advantages of tomorrow.
