How INES CRM grew its sales thanks to Marketing Automation?

With the advent of SaaS, software publishers now have two imperatives: the original one of scaling their business, and the new one of reducing churn. Scaling means systematizing and automating the follow-up of new leads in order to convert them better. As for churn, tracking customers will make it possible to make them self-sufficient and extend the duration of their subscription to the service.
















Marketing automation software synchronized with a CRM enables you to automate part of the sales cycle, onboarding, and training on the software. Thanks to the precision of segmentation and the relevance of scoring, it becomes easy to handle weak signals from a customer in their usage and to deliver the right service at the right time.













INES CRM is the French leader in customer relationship management (CRM) software in SaaS/Cloud mode for B2B companies. Its Managing Director – Frédéric Naudin – explains to us what Marketing Automation brings to the growth of his company. And also why integrating Webmecanik Automation and Ines CRM solutions is a key success factor that accelerates the growth of its clients. 









Stéphane Couleaud: For a software publisher like INES, what is the main benefit of using marketing automation in your commercial development?






Frédéric Naudin: When you know that 67% of the buying journey is completed by prospects before they contact the sales team, the challenge for every company is to be the first to detect the need and start the conversation. In the context of a CRM project, the buying journey is increasingly long and complex. The challenge for our sales and marketing team is to identify prospects that have reached a sufficient level of maturity to embark on a project. That’s where the Marketing automation tool makes all the difference! More than just a growth lever, the Marketing automation tool allows us to establish continuous prospecting and to implement personalized, automated sales follow-up. We are thus able to engage in a conversational prospecting cycle with the lead and track the evolution of their journey thanks to activity scoring. The conversation is picked up by the sales team at the right time, increasing responsiveness so they can focus their efforts on the conversion phase.









Stéphane: You offer a CRM solution for B2B SMEs/ETIs, what proportion of new customers request CRM + Automation integration from the outset?






Frédéric: Today we see that 30% of our new customers include automation in their initial CRM project, and this trend is clearly increasing.






Stéphane: What main benefit do you see for your clients from such an integration?






Frédéric: For us, it’s clear that the combination of marketing automation and CRM is essential to optimize your commercial strategy and build an effective conversion funnel. The power of a Marketing Automation tool enables our clients to automate and industrialize lead detection, while the CRM will allow them to centralize and manage the commercial relationship established. The CRM is thus fed by warm leads that enter into personalized sales follow-up thanks to a platform that provides them with all the tools essential to their business (exchange history, quote management, reminders…)










Stéphane: What point of attention do you want to share with them to ensure the project is successful?






Frédéric: If a Marketing Automation solution offers many possibilities, the success of such a project requires, upstream, a clear definition of the client’s strategy. Indeed, it is essential to feed the tool with relevant content and to clearly define the different stages of its “lead cycle” in order to align its marketing strategy with its market. We recommend starting with simple campaigns with a defined objective before rolling out the use of marketing automation across the entire customer journey.















































































Entretien between Frédéric Naudin (INES CRM) and Stéphane Couleaud conducted in July 2019.