How wholesale distributors can stay competitive with Microsoft Dynamics CRM marketing tools and techniques

To be competitive, wholesale distributors have to align with customer needs, sales priorities and management objectives. And one way to do that is by leveraging Microsoft Dynamics CRM to drive more business through effective, targeted marketing, according to David Buggy, vice president and partner at Beringer Associates, a Microsoft partner. Buggy was speaking at an online meeting of CRMUG.

Buggy focused on the challenge of targeting the right people with the right messaging to drive conversions using Dynamics CRM's marketing list management feature.

Marketing list management in Dynamics CRM allows users to organize customers, prospects, and even vendors into target lists so when a marketing activity is planned, Dynamics CRM has prebuilt the right lists.

There are two primary types of list - static (or manual) and dynamic. Buggy explained that for a manual or static based list, the CRM user selects a number of contacts or even leads and then adds them to a marketing list. "Once you add them, you would have to refresh it manually going forward to get any new contacts," he said.

The other capability is a dynamic marketing list, which allows users to add contacts or leads automatically to marketing lists based on a workflow that can use factors like profile information, items that have been quoted/ordered/invoiced, vendor/supplier lines, or product group.

Here's one example of the capability of a dynamic marketing list: If you want to run a campaign to members of a specific city, use a dynamic list. A dynamic marketing list retrieves the updated list of members each time you open the list. Create a quick campaign from this marketing list, or distribute a campaign activity for a campaign associated ...