Linda Dentler began her career in global market research in the pharmaceutical industry, but after a while felt things went too slow: 

– I didn't see the results of my work very quickly as the pharma industry is quite slow-moving. I wanted to work with something more agile, and thought that the retail industry and CRM were very well-suited for that.

After working with CRM in-house at various companies, she decided to level up at Beyond Retail where she could develop even further. Now Linda works as Senior CRM consultant at Beyond Retail, helping companies with everything from setting their CRM strategy and developing it, to working hands-on in various systems with customer journeys, automations and campaigns. All to drive growth, sales, and loyalty for her clients.

– For me, it's all about understanding and getting to know your customer by using the data you have. Companies today have an extreme amount of data, but often they haven't structured it in the right way to be able to use it properly. Everything starts and ends with the customer, so working with an outside-in and customer-centric perspective is essential, Linda explains.

A constant craving for development and a curious mindset
As Linda has been in the CRM business for a long time, working with both operational and strategic questions, she's been in the front seat of the industry's development. This monitoring of the world's constant development and a curious mindset are also things she sees as an important part to consider when working with CRM:

– There's so much to learn all the time as technology and customer demands change swiftly. When coming to a client, I want to quickly get an overview of their current status to identify low-hanging fruits and, after that, set a strategy, prioritize and get to work. It's important to also identify the most relevant KPIs, set a framework to follow up over time and be ready to take action when needed.

For Linda, it all comes down to bringing clients' CRM to the next level:
– What I really want to achieve is to help clients utilize the full potential of their CRM data and systems, and to bring CRM to the next level in order to create growth for the client. A data-driven approach to personalization, segmentation and marketing automation is required in today’s digital landscape to deliver an optimal customer experience.

The power of a team
After starting to work at Beyond Retail, Linda really appreciates the advantages of having a full team of CRM colleagues as well as experts in digital marketing and e-commerce to turn to.

– Beyond Retail is a very kind and without prestige company; everyone collaborates and works together to find the best solution for our clients. Even though you might be the only consultant for a client, you always have the whole team behind you. And not just the CRM team but also the digital marketing-, e-com- and the recruitment team. So there's always a lot of support available to benefit from and people to bounce ideas with, she says. 

And the competencies Linda talks about aren't only beneficial to the clients, but also to the people working at Beyond Retail in terms of knowledge-sharing. She concludes:

– We have many stars here at Beyond Retail with different competencies, experiences, and backgrounds. So I constantly learn new things and way faster than I did when I was working alone as a CRM manager in-house at a company. And that's what is so fun about being a consultant - this constant knowledge development.