By now, you’ve started conversations with people through social media and identified the contacts who could potentially become customers. The next step is to manage those relationships properly.

Manage might sound like a broad term, but it is a vital part of PRM. It’s about keeping track of the people you’re talking to, understanding where they are in the buying process and making sure the information you’ve gathered doesn’t get lost.

This is also where you can see how PRM fits into the wider world of CRM.

Why Use PRM?

Managing your prospects using the PRM approach means keeping an eye on the individuals you’re nurturing. You need to be able to see the bigger picture while still having the detail you need to understand each individual relationship.

If all your prospects are in one place, you can see who you’re talking to, what you’ve discussed, what they’re interested in and what needs to happen next. This gives you a much better opportunity to make your communication relevant rather than sending the same message to everyone.

It’s the difference between knowing that someone is a prospect and actually knowing why they’re a prospect.

Shouting Into the Crowd

As we looked at in the previous React stage, social media is a useful place to find people who are interested in what you do. By consistently creating content and responding to interactions, you can start to identify the people who engage with your business more regularly.

But not every interaction means that someone is ready to become a customer.

Going back to the party analogy, there are lots of people in the room and lots of conversations happening at the same time. Some people might only be passing through. Others might be interested in what you’re talking about but have no reason to buy anything. A smaller number might have a genuine need for what you offer.

Your job is to work out which is which.

This is why the information you collect during the React stage is so important. The more you understand about a contact, the easier it becomes to decide how much time and attention they need.

Centralisation

Once you’ve identified the people who are worth pursuing, you need somewhere to manage those relationships.

This is where a CRM becomes useful.

Without a central system, important information can end up spread across social media messages, emails, spreadsheets, notes and people’s memories. As your number of contacts grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember who needs a follow-up, what you discussed with them or where they are in your sales process.

A CRM brings that information together in one place.

You can see your contacts, record conversations, make notes, set reminders and keep track of opportunities. More importantly, you can start to see patterns across your prospects while still being able to look closely at each individual relationship.

This is where the PRM approach really matters.

You’re not simply storing a database of contacts. You’re using the information you have collected to understand the people behind those contacts.

Know Who They Are, Not Just What They Are

PRM is about relationships, so the information you keep about your prospects needs to be useful.

Knowing that someone is a “lead” doesn’t tell you very much. Knowing that they run a small business, have previously asked about a particular service and are interested in improving their social media gives you much more to work with.

That’s why keeping notes and organising your contacts properly is so important.

You can use tags and categories to group contacts based on their interests, industry, location, where they came from or any other information that is useful to your business.

For example, if you’ve built up a group of contacts who have shown an interest in social media, you could tag them accordingly. When you have something genuinely useful to share about social media, you can find those contacts and communicate with them rather than sending the same message to your entire database.

The result is more relevant marketing and a better experience for the person receiving it.

Make Your CRM Work for You

Having a CRM doesn’t automatically improve your sales process. You have to make the system work for the way your business actually operates.

A system that is too complicated can become another job for you and your team. If it’s too basic, you may find yourself relying on spreadsheets and other tools to fill the gaps.

The right CRM should give you the tools you actually need without making your sales process more complicated than it needs to be.

Think about what your business needs now. Do you need marketing tools? Do you need email campaigns? Do you need sales pipelines and reminders? Do you need a way to segment your contacts?

There will always be more tools you could use, but more isn’t necessarily better. The best CRM is one that you understand, use consistently and can adapt to the way you work.

Sales Pipelines

One of the most useful tools for managing prospects is a sales pipeline.

A pipeline gives you a visual way of seeing where your prospects are in the sales process. Instead of having a long list of names and trying to remember what needs to happen next, you can see the different stages of your sales process and move prospects through them as the relationship develops.

Someone who has just shown an initial interest might sit at the beginning of your pipeline. After a conversation, they might move further along. Once they’ve been qualified and are actively considering your product or service, they can move closer to becoming a customer.

The exact stages will depend on your business. What matters is that the pipeline reflects the way you actually sell.

You can also use reminders to make sure opportunities don’t get forgotten. If someone tells you they’re interested but isn’t ready to buy yet, you don’t want to rely on remembering to contact them again three months later.

Make a note, set a reminder and let your CRM help you stay organised.

Don’t Lose the Personal Side

It’s easy to become focused on moving people from one stage of a pipeline to another, but remember what PRM is actually about.

These aren’t just deals in a pipeline. They’re people.

The information you’ve collected through your conversations should help you communicate with them in a more personal and relevant way.

If someone has told you about a particular problem, remember it. If they’ve said they’re not ready to buy yet, don’t bombard them with sales messages. If they’ve shown interest in a particular service, make sure the information you send them is relevant.

The better you manage those details, the easier it becomes to build a relationship based on understanding rather than simply trying to make a sale.

From Manage to Nurture

By now, you should have a clearer picture of who your prospects are, where they came from, what they’re interested in and where they are in your sales process.

You’ve moved from simply collecting social media interactions to actively managing the relationships behind them.

But managing a prospect isn’t the same as turning them into a customer.

Some people will be ready to buy immediately. Others might need more time, more information or a few more conversations before they’re ready to make a decision.

That’s where the next stage comes in.

You’ve found the right people, started the conversations and organised the relationships. Now it’s time to Nurture them.

Discover all the steps to PRM NOW