CRM is only Half the Solutionif you Lack a PEP(Professional Engagement Platform)

Your company likely has a CRM system in place, and good! Because it's critical to have a robust tool that enables your employees to get information about customers and prospects at their fingertips.
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But what about when customers want to get rich information about your employees such as what expertise they have and how to most easily reach them. You have a web site no doubt that provides overall information about your company. You might have bios of top leaders, but if you are like most companies, those bios aren’t really written to persuade customers, and furthermore those leaders aren’t the people that are most relevant to your average customer.

But in relationship-driven businesses, customers often want to know who they are engaging in a relationship with. For example when hiring a real estate agent, understanding that agent’s background, track record, and areas of expertise can be key in determining whether to list your house with them or engage them to help you find a new one. After all, an agent that is expert at 1 and 2 bedroom apartments in Brooklyn is probably a poor choice to list your six bedroom penthouse in Manhattan, no matter how much they might like the opportunity.

The same goes for many other “professionals” that businesses and customers hire: attorneys, accountants, financial advisors, architects, contractors, consultants, designers, investment bankers, doctors, trainers, insurance agents, and the list goes on. All of these industries are about talent, in part or whole. Professional Engagement Platforms are the places that customers and prospects can go to learn about and engage (such as request a meeting with) professionals such as these.

The substitute for having a PEP that most companies rely on is the social media platform + LinkedIn. LinkedIn is certainly a powerful tool that your employees should be using, however it's a huge mistake to rely on it as a substitute for having your own PEP. Why? Oh so many reasons we wrote a whole separate article on it Click Here, but here are a few. First, a LinkedIn profile is co-owned by the employee and LinkedIn, not by the brand they work for. That means that it's difficult to control the branding and enforce content guidelines, the brand doesn't get meaningful analytics, can’t cookie visitors, or integrate it effectively with their web site.

LinkedIn profiles also go with your employees when they leave your company. Prospects also have to first connect to employees before they can access contact information (which can take a while) and even then contact information is hard to find and not downloadable to the customers contacts app. Lastly, LinkedIn is first and foremost a tool for finding a job, not really engineered as much as a tool for engaging customers in a current one. It can be molded to be useful to that goal, for sure, but in the end, the majority of a LinkedIn profile is in resume format, which may very well not be the most persuasive way to engage customers.

Think of a great PEP as a “find an advisor” tool on steroids. Some companies in some industries do have ways to search bios of customer facing professionals, such as one finds if going to Merrill Lynch’s web site and clicking “find an advisor.” This tool probably deserves a B- or C+. It contains solid, basic information about each advisor, as well as tools to narrow down a search. The bios contain some good info, but they are dry. It has a photo of the advisor but otherwise the presentation is all text. It allows you to request an appointment and provides an email and phone number, but it doesn’t allow downloading of contact information or include content created by the advisor, such as articles or videos. But even at that, its probably better than eight out of ten companies we look at.

And of course the same need applies to a wide range of other professionals as listed earlier. One way to look at it, in these talent-driven businesses, your people are your product. So each “product” needs a great “product page” just as you might find on Amazon. We don’t mean to be dehumanizing, in fact quite the opposite. Marketers need to consider that each individual professional has their own unique value proposition, and to maximize the persuasiveness to the customer, it's important to not only connect the customer to the optimal talent, but to market that individual talent uniquely to the customer. That’s what a Professional Engagement Platform does.

QCard Enterprise is a professional engagement platform with digital business capabilities that complements well with CRM systems. With its user-friendly interface, customizable templates, and integration capabilities, QCard empowers your team to make a lasting impression and provides a comprehensive solution for managing both customer and employee relationships

Qcard also generates NFC cards and QR codes in various formats such as zoom backgrounds, email footers and powerpoint slides so professionals have many ways to encourage prospects who they meet to go to their profile, learn more about them as an individual and download their contact information.

A holistic approach that combines a robust CRM with a powerful professional engagement platform creates a synergistic effect. By connecting the people with the process, businesses can elevate their customer interactions, improve brand perception, and ultimately drive growth.

By choosing QCard, you're investing in a platform that will enhance your brand, strengthen customer connections, and drive business growth. Learn more about QCard on our website or book a demo call with our team.

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