CRM and The MLB
Baseball is back! You may be stuck cracking peanuts and sipping Budweisers from home this year, but hey, at least the Padres are doing well (for all the San Diego fans out there).
It takes next level talent to fill the dugout of an MLB franchise. Each player’s performance is critical to their team’s overall success. In the field, a team’s defense is built on the combined efforts of nine players operating in specialized roles. At bat, the preferences, abilities, and builds of each player determine their skill offensively.
It doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to see that many of the same basic dynamics of America’s favorite pastime are also present in CRM. Below we’ve mapped out all the ways that GreenRope’s most celebrated features reflect pro ball positions.
Shortstop (Ticketing)
No defense is complete without a quality shortstop, the same way no customer support strategy is complete without ticketing. Ticketing is a versatile customer service tool. It enables support teams to field any customer inquiry, without letting anything slip through the cracks.
More hit balls go toward the shortstop than any other position, which is why it’s critical that they’re able to consistently perform at a high level. Similarly, ticketing needs to be able to pick up the slack when other other avenues for support are overwhelmed. Ticketing is easily scalable and can be set up to automate certain aspects of the ticket handling process, making it ideal for resource strapped support teams.
Ticketing is also adaptable. It’s most commonly used for customer support, but not always. A lot of organizations use ticketing to manage development work and other internal operations.
Catcher (Workflows)
Most types of marketing automation are highly specialized. Autoresponders, drip campaigns, and journeys are all great for fulfilling specific functions, but sometimes you need a generalist to take the lead.
Catchers are the best at being able to direct and lead a team’s defense. Positioned behind home plate, they can see just about everything. They command the field and make key decisions, like what types of pitches should be thrown to particular batters.
Similar to how catchers guide a team’s defense, workflows are the driving force behind several operational processes and can be used to activate other forms of marketing automation. Workflows can assign activities to account users, like follow ups and phone calls. They can also activate journeys and drip campaigns, send autoresponders and SMS messages, and even modify a contact’s record.
Pinch hitter (Journeys)
When the stakes are high and the team needs an all star batter to take home the win, they might call in a pinch hitter. When sales teams are struggling to convert leads, they might pull out a Customer Journey specially made for that occasion. Reliable, high performance hitters are the cornerstone of every successful baseball franchise, the same way Customer Journeys are the foundation of successful digital marketing strategies.
Customer Journeys will take your sales and marketing to the next level! They can be used to map out every brand interaction from awareness to conversion and beyond. Journeys use true/ false logic to customize the lead nurturing process based on specific customer actions. For example, depending on whether a contact reads or opens an email, you can send a follow up email prompting them to make a purchase or, if they’re unresponsive, you can send a follow up email designed to build awareness about your unique brand promise.
Closing Pitcher (SMS)
Trevor Hoffman was a legendary closing pitcher, who the Padres would usher to the mound with the blaring sounds of AC/DC’s Hell’s Bells in close games when they needed to keep the scales tipped in their favor. SMS is the Trevor Hoffman of MarTech. When indecisive leads need one last push to help them along, digital marketers like to pull out the big guns.
Email marketing is a slow burn. Drip campaigns are used to gradually build awareness with long form content. This works great for certain buyers. For leads that have limited time or short attention spans, they need something expedited and bite sized. SMS campaigns cut to the chase. Delivering content faster than Aroldis Chapman can throw, SMS is perfect for prompting ready to buy leads to finally convert.
Outfielder (Dashboard)
Fans nervously chomp up popcorn as an outfielder dives to catch a line drive hurtling at mach speed. The ball is caught in a spectacular display of athleticism. Nervous anticipation is soon followed by ecstatic delight.
The exact same feelings greet business executives when they log into GreenRope to see the tremendous impact their digital marketing efforts have had on their KPIs. Showcasing a bright, colorful display of graphs and widgets of every kind, the dashboard is capable of enthralling spectators as much as any defensive power play.
Outfielders cover a lot of ground. While in-fielders remain focused on the minutiae of defensive play, their distant counterparts guard against long range hits.
GreenRope’s dashboard is the informational hub of every account. While other areas might dive deeper into the nitty gritty of reporting and analytics, the dashboard is ideal for monitoring the overall performance of your organization and looking at sweeping trends.
Base Coach (Opportunities)
Efficiency means getting from point A to point B as simply as possible. Whether point B is home base or conversions, strategy is key to success.
Base coaches direct offensive strategy in real time, making critical decisions that significantly impact the outcome of a game. They’re responsible for driving offensive momentum by successfully getting runners from first base to home. In games between closely matched teams, quality coaching makes all the difference.
GreenRope’s Opportunities feature uses strategy to drive conversions the same way base coaches use strategy to guide runners. Depending on your sales funnel, you may have two bases or twenty. Either way, Opportunities have got you covered. This feature is easily customizable and can be used to map out even the most complex sales cycles. Opportunities help you keep track of valuable leads as they move through your pipeline. Qualitative input from sales reps helps determine the quality and value of each prospective lead. Using easy to comprehend charts and notifications, Opportunities make sure everyone is doing what they’re supposed to as your team manages high value sales.
Conclusion
Like every great team, GreenRope’s features are built to work together. An opportunity phase change or the opening of a ticket can be set to trigger a workflow. Workflows can in turn trigger other forms of marketing automation, like drip campaigns or journeys. Journeys can be used to share your amazing content through easily accessible mediums, like emails or text messages.
About GreenRope
Our team’s goal is to support you with great tools and service, no matter where your own journey takes you. For more information on how GreenRopes serves businesses of all sizes, check out our ‘about page’.
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