How to use WeChat CRM to grow B2B sales in China

Almost everyone uses WeChat in China

WeChat is the most popular mobile app in China. Unlike any other IM app, WeChat is an app which can do a lot of things. If you want to communicate with your clients in China, the best communication tool is WeChat.

Go beyond publishing contents on your company WeChat account

For B2B companies, WeChat is also a very powerful marketing platform. Companies can set up a WeChat Public account to promote their business. More importantly, you can engage with your followers.

For most B2B companies, they don’t need to use fancy WeChat marketing tools, like lucky draw or red envelope. They mostly publish good contents for their followers. Yes, content is still the king for B2B WeChat public account. But, beyond good contents, B2B companies can gain more customer insights from their followers through WeChat public accounts.

The current WeChat-backend is too simple

A WeChat CRM is the right tool to help B2B companies to gain customer insights. The current WeChat default back-end is too simple to be a CRM.

Luckily, WeChat provides different APIs to use. We need to integrate WeChat APIs to have a WeChat CRM.

The current problems with B2B company WeChat account

1. No next steps after publishing contents. Most B2B companies do nothing after they publish contents. For B2B companies, WeChat account should not just be a media center. It should be a CRM system.
2. No connection between offline and online traffic. Most B2B companies need to have offline events, like a trade show or seminars, to promote their business. There is no tool to convert offline traffic to online followers.
3. No follow up with your followers. After gaining followers and publishing contents on WeChat, most B2B companies don’t follow up with their followers. The most common reason is they don’t know who they should follow up.
4. No system to manage your followers. Most B2B companies just use WeChat default back-end to manage their followers. The default back-end is too simple to manage their followers.
5. No system to identify followers as sales prospects. Most B2B companies have no system to segment and identify followers as sales prospects. They consider their followers as readers. Readers won’t help the company grow its business, but sales prospects will.
6. No system to deliver right contents to right followers. Content is king. But you need to know what the right contents are and who you should deliver to. Most B2B companies just deliver the same contents to all their followers.

Perfect CRM for B2B business

A WeChat CRM can solve the problems above. WeChat is a perfect CRM for B2B business because:

1. Know every client. In B2B world, you know every client. You can put them together in your WeChat public account. It is easy for you to know most of your followers. When you really know your followers, it will turn your WeChat account into a CRM system.
2. Easy to engage with them. Most people use WeChat in China. It makes it easy for you to put them together and engage with them.

How WeChat CRM can help you to grow your business

1. Convert online traffic to offline. A WeChat CRM can convert offline visitors to online ones. Through WeChat CRM, you integrate online and offline clients into one place.
2. Segment your followers. A WeChat CRM can help you segment your followers into different groups. Through segmentation, you can have different activities for different groups.
3. Identify sales prospect. You can identify possible sales prospect from your followers through WeChat CRM. You can launch sales activities to those prospects. It will really help grow your business.

The CRM process

There is a process for WeChat CRM to generate insights from your followers.

1. Content marketing performance tracking. Track the performance of your contents. Through analytics, you will know what type of contents your followers are interested in.
2. Follower behavior tracking. You can track how followers act in your WeChat public account. The data will help you segment your followers.
3. Follower persona. When CRM integrate content marketing performance and followers behavior. We can have followers persona to help sales team.
4. Follower grading. Through CRM, we can give each follower score to rank followers. It will help sales identify prospects.
5. Content marketing. You can edit and publish contents through CRM. You can deliver specific contents to specific groups, according to follower’s persona and grading score.
6. WeChat promotion. After identifying right followers and right contents, you can promote your WeChat account to the right group with right contents in the right channels.

The best offline occasion to use WeChat CRM

In addition to regular WeChat management and promotion, there are several places where you can use WeChat CRM:

1. Trade show. You can have trade visitors followed your WeChat account. This way, you can turn offline traffic to online traffic. Your visitors still can receive updates from your WeChat account. You can also engage with them through WeChat.
2. Client visit. Every time you visit clients, you should convert them into WeChat followers. Once they become your followers, you can identify what type of products they are interested through CRM.
3. Offline training and seminar. Given B2B products’ complexity, most B2B companies need to do training and seminars. You will have a chance to convert participants into followers.

Grow your business through WeChat

B2B companies should not only use WeChat account for publishing contents and gaining followers. It is only the first step. WeChat should not only be an IM or a social network but a CRM system.

Once you have the right WeChat CRM, you can find the right sales prospects and understand more about your clients. The next step would be to make sales to grow your business.

Grow your business through WeChat. That should be the main goal of every WeChat B2B company account.