More than half of sales and marketing professionals say the length of time they hold onto customers has declined compared with 10 years ago, according to research.
The survey, published by CRM platform provider Copper, also reveals respondents say their customer relationships are now three to 10 years shorter. Moreover, only 14% of marketing professionals have seen relationships become longer.
The study also revealed that for two-thirds of UK businesses, there are now 10 or more people involved in selling to a prospect or customer, creating a greater challenge to manage business relationships and more opportunities for mistakes.
The research uncovered that CRM-related errors have resulted in 25% of respondents annoying or upsetting a prospect or customer, while one in 10 have lost a prospect or customer due to a CRM-related error.
To mitigate this, the report revealed 47% of sales and marketing professionals say it’s easier to build relationships through email, and almost two-fifths (39%) say they now spend more time face-to-face with customers or prospects.
Morgan Norman, CMO at Copper, said: “Sales are no longer about the hard sell, but to clinch those deals, businesses need to work on those customer relationships. If businesses want to usher in this new ‘relationship era’, these figures show that there clearly needs to be a change in how companies manage their customer relations.”
