CRM: IT'S NOT A TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION

 
CRM: It’s Not a Technology Solution!

By Neil Saviano

The many benefits companies can gain from a CRM project begin with the ability to gather, store, process and use customer and prospect information most effectively. Historically, this information-driven model is almost always put in place to address the following three key strategic areas and perpetual company pain points:

• New customer/Client acquisition
• Current customer/Client penetration
• Current customer/Client retention

However, from the beginning it’s important for companies to recognize one fundamental point about CRM to help assure a successful implementation: CRM is not a technology solution—it’s a process solution.

In essence, implementation of a CRM project is far closer to the implementation of a strategic marketing plan than it is to any technology upgrade or introduction. And as with any strategic marketing plan, the project needs to begin with a clear set of objectives and a realistic appreciation of the sales and marketing and customer service processes needed to reach them.

Overall project objectives are built around the three key strategic areas listed above, but there also needs to be lower level objectives that identify the plan’s various activities and the sales and marketing programs and tactics needed for success.

The CRM software program chosen by a company must have the capacity to manage the plethora of information collected, as well as the capacity to store and monitor sales and marketing activities.

Additionally, the software program chosen should transcend typical CRM functionality and include full sales force automation. This additional level gives companies the capacity to take action on information and drive sales and marketing programs with functionality that includes:

• Automated sales and marketing processes and campaigns
• Market segmentation from filtering of information that results in unlimited levels of target marketing
• E-mail marketing
• Dashboard reporting

The planning portion of a successful CRM implementation is a crucial element. Though discovery will identify the strategic objectives listed above, planning must begin with answers to the following key questions:

• Who will be using the CRM software?
• Does the software include effective reporting?
• How seamless will adoption be?
• How will training be conducted?
• What will be the level of post-training support?

The following key considerations are important in addressing the planning questions listed above, and will help to assure maximum CRM project ROI:

All customer-facing personnel should be CRM software users. This not only includes inside and outside sales, but also customer service. Since maximum use of information has been identified as a key CRM benefit, sales and customer service have the most customer and prospect contact and are best positioned to get needed information easily and on an ongoing basis. It may also make sense to include other departments in the user pool as well. Accounting personnel, for example, often use CRM to manage information and contacts for receivables collection.

Detailed reporting is a key element of CRM software functionality. It’s crucial that sales and marketing activities tied to overall process, campaigns and overall objectives be monitored. Reports have historically been paper-driven. Newer, state of the art CRM software offers dashboards so that management is able to access graphical and analytical presentations of sales and marketing activities. They are able to drill this information down and extrapolate information that helps them keep sales and marketing people on course.

Seamless adoption of CRM software by potential users is very important. It is a responsibility of management to prepare users for the transition. Preparation is especially important for adoption by sales people mired in cumbersome paper-driven processes. It’s essential that management prepare these traditionalists by stressing the benefits of smoother organization and enhanced efficiencies to be gained that will result in increased income. Customer service personnel should be an easy sell. Historically, they do not have easy access to information to help service customers faster or exploit additional sales opportunities within the existing customer base.

Onsite training is essential for the first phase of implementation. Subsequent follow up training can be effectively conducted online and/or by phone, but it’s important in the initial implementation phase that trainers experience onsite the cultural aspects of a company and its personnel. This assists in adapting the training to the company and its people and helps trainers leverage any observed nuances that can correlate to successful training and faster project ROI. It’s also important for companies to choose a CRM vendor whose training is not based solely on technology, but approached from a process perspective. Every mouse click and key stroke taught must relate to effective use in the sales and marketing and customer service processes. CRM vendors who approach this phase from primarily a technology perspective often have sub-par implementations and lower ROI for the company.

Post-training support is vital, both for software training as well as technical support. Historically, six-months of post-training support helps to solidify and reinforce key areas of training. Technical support is relevant with on-premise, server-based implementations versus web-based cloud implementations. In fact, companies will need to decide on which environment they prefer—on-premise or “in the cloud.” Each has their place. Historically, on-premise solutions are less expensive long term and offer the security of the information being at the company location. Cloud solutions require no technical infrastructure at the company site and no need for technical support.

In summary, companies looking to implement a CRM project must remember to take a non-technology approach and approach CRM from a process perspective that incorporates the program into their overall strategic marketing plan. This approach will help assure maximum ROI, both short and long term.