engleski

Market challenger strategic applications of CRM: A case of roofing tiles market re-invention in Croatia

In its broad definition, customer relationship management or CRM allows companies to manage and improve relationships and interactions with their customers. From a system perspective, CRM operates as a dedicated database, containing sales related data, such as prospect and customer contact information, records of customer interactions, sales data, sales representative’s performance data, leads and sales opportunities. Although it could be considered as an affordable and available concept, CRM can enhance company’s competitive advantage, especially in the context of B2B markets. This paper focuses on the specific application of CRM within the context of Croatian roofing tiles industry. The paper describes how a newcomer company, with international background, entered well-defined market with structured competition. However, instead of directly fighting against main players in the market, the company decided to re-invent marketing strategy and develop strong focus on customers. The company introduced new marketing techniques and tools that have not been used by the competition. The cornerstone of such innovative marketing strategy was the application of CRM. The CRM system was tailored to fit the specific needs of the company and to address market specifics. Besides giving the management a strategic tool for customer management and sales optimization, CRM also provided sales representatives with almost real-time relevant customer and sales data before and during customer visits. Consequently, sales representatives became more efficient while interacting with customers, which also resulted with higher satisfaction rate among customers. Although the competition tried to copy the strategy and CRM applications, the sales growth rate was tremendous and unprecedented within the industry, and the company became a market leader.

CRM ; sales management ; marketing strategy ; roofing tiles market ; Croatia

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