{"id":11656,"date":"2023-02-03T15:15:41","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T15:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/savvy-retailers-use-crm-software-to-gain-a-competitive-edge\/"},"modified":"2023-02-03T15:15:41","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T15:15:41","slug":"savvy-retailers-use-crm-software-to-gain-a-competitive-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/savvy-retailers-use-crm-software-to-gain-a-competitive-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Savvy Retailers Use CRM Software to Gain a Competitive Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Legal cannabis has always had an outsized and unjust share of obstacles \u2014 but it now faces a perfect storm of calamity. From inflation and oversupply to punitive tax systems and illicit market competition, small cannabis retailers and brands are struggling to survive.<\/p>\n
With so many factors beyond their control, the best way for cannabis businesses to compete in this brutal environment is by leveraging customer relationship management (CRM). By adopting CRM strategies and tools, cannabis brands and retailers can tap into their existing customer bases, increase revenues, and lay the infrastructure to compete once cannabis is federally legal. Retailers and brands often bemoan the notoriously fickle cannabis clientele, but loyalty is earned, not given. CRM is what allows successful brands to earn devoted followings, and cannabis businesses need to get in the ring. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Inflation has driven most businesses to raise their prices \u2014 but not cannabis. Our balkanized, dysfunctional legalization framework has caused an intrastate product glut, and the per-pound price of cannabis has declined steeply. There\u2019s so much flower that, even as their costs spike, cannabis retailers can\u2019t raise prices for fear of losing customers to the competition.<\/p>\n
As for cutting costs by increasing efficiency? By and large, cannabis operators have figured out efficient production so well that, from seed to sale, it\u2019s highly improbable that we\u2019ll be able to reduce those costs anytime soon. Cannabis has already endured several rounds of layoffs. There is simply a limit to how much further you can trim the costs of staffing, testing, facilities, or other overhead costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Between oversupply, maxed out-efficiencies, and a thriving illegal market, cannabis retailers are stuck in a race to the bottom, undercutting one another and losing money to compete for customer share. But the days of undercutting the competition to win market share are over. Many of the old options for belt-tightening are gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In my experience with cannabis retailers and brands in Arizona and California, the next best place for these businesses to invest their time and energy is customer relationship management. It\u2019s the arena in which you can compete and win. You can\u2019t package or test or deliver five times better than the competition. You can\u2019t cut costs or raise prices, and you can\u2019t undercut illegal operators \u2014 but you can give your customers an experience that\u2019s 100 times better.<\/p>\n
All small businesses should be leveraging CRMs, including cannabis small businesses. This shift doesn\u2019t require inventing a new methodology or learning fancy tricks. Instead, we need to tap into what we already know from others that are slaying the CRM game.\u00a0<\/p>\n