CRM Insights Blog

Momentum Killers: What you need to be aware of in implementing and maintaining a CRM System

A dropped fly ball in baseball, a fumble or interception in football, or a turnover in basketball, all can be momentum killers.  It is difficult to regain your momentum when a negative change happens in a positive pattern.

The same is true with implementing and maintaining a CRM System.  You can take all of text book steps for selecting, implementing, and maintaining a CRM system, but something unexpected happens.  Let me give you a few examples and suggested remedies in regaining your CRM momentum:

1.  Change in the executive management team.  One of the important steps in getting approval of a CRM system within an organization is executive sponsorship.  As an organization, you want to make sure you have broad based support for a CRM system so if any one executive leaves, your have organizational commitment to move forward with your CRM system. 

2.  The CRM advocate who initiated and drove the project leaves the company.   As noted above, the key is to get broad based support for your CRM initiative throughout your organization.  If one person leaves, other people within the organization will step up and drive the process.  

3.  Major shift in the way your business goes to market.   With the pace of technology and changes in the economy, business needs  change all of the time.  You can protect yourself by selecting a CRM system that is flexible and can be modified very easily. 

4.  You are acquired or merge with another organization.  Again, if you have selected a CRM system that is flexible and modified easily, you will be able to make rapid changes to adjust to requirements of your consolidated entity.  

5.  You company has financial issues.  This is a difficult one to address.  Depending on your contract arrangement with your SaaS solution, you will be able to decrease the licenses you have on a yearly basis.  This will allow you to control the cost.  In addition, the maintenance cost of a SaaS solution is less expensive than an on-premise solution and upgrades are included.  SaaS solutions definitely give you more flexibility if your company goes through a financial issue.

6.  Technical issues with your system.  Solutions like Salesforce CRM provide a company with a solid technical solution with great up-time.  The key is to take a phased approach to your implementation, have a pilot program and address any technical issues that come up, and properly train your staff.  This approach will avoid any momentum killers. 

7.  Poor data quality.  You can have the very best CRM system in the world, train all your people properly, and have an initiative that fails because of poor data quality.  People get frustrated when they are working on a system that does not provide them with accurate information.  To avoid this momentum killer, you need to address data quality issues before the data is imported into the new system.  There are a variety of data cleansing solutions and approaches to addressing this issue.

8.  Poor end user adoption.   One of the biggest momentum killers is the final step - poor end user adoption.  This can occur for many reasons.  You need to make sure that end users are involved in this process from the beginning, the system addresses their day to day needs, and easy to use.  If you address these three steps, you will have good end user adoption.

By being aware and limiting your momentum killers, you will have a useful and productive CRM System.

The Sales Training Component of CRM

I have been playing golf for along time and to be blunt, I am not very good at it.  A couple of years ago, I made a conscious effort to try to get better at the game.  I had an old set of clubs.  I thought the best place to start would be to purchased a custom set of clubs.  I went to see a golf pro, got measured, and a few weeks later, a beautiful set of new clubs showed up at my house.  I took my new clubs, ran off to a local golf course and played a round of golf.  Guess what - I still am a terrible golfer!  What I forgot in my effort to improve my game is to get the appropriate training.  I would have been better of keeping my old clubs and taking golf lessons instead.

How does a set of new golf clubs relate to CRM?   You can have an excellent CRM solution deployed in your organization.  You went through the appropriate selection process, had a well thought out and executed implementation plan, and trained your end-users on how to use the system.  Essentially, you have a great set of golf clubs. 

But unless your sales team is properly trained in a sales methodology and adhere to that methodology, you are not going to take full advantage of your CRM system.  Similar to my golf analogy, training is just as important, maybe even more important than the CRM system itself. 

There are soft skills that are neccessary for your salespeople to be successful.  Your sales team needs to know how to qualify or disqualify an opportunity, manage the sales process, present the appropriate solution to address the needs of their prospect,  manage expectations, provide a well written and professional proposal, and have the ability to close the opportunity.  They also need to manage their own internal team including sales engineers and sales management. 

Over the years, we have worked with a variety of local, regional, and national sales training organizations.  We can provide you organization with an introduction to a firm that will address your specific needs and requirements.

Unexpected Perks of Remote Salesforce CRM Implementations

In this new era of SaaS, implementations are increasingly done remotely where we never actually meet our customers face-to-face. This obviously has some financial advantages as it eliminates the expenses involved in going on site such as airfare, auto mileage, hotel, and other incidentals. There are some drawbacks, however, in that you do not have the same interactions with your customers. But overall I think it has worked out very well for both parties.

One unexpected benefit is in the area of training. We are users of Citrix Go-to-Meeting. This technology not only allows us to deliver training to 20 or more users at the same time but also allows us to record the sessions for those who need a refresher or for new hires that are coming on board. This has been very well received by our customers and is done on almost every engagement that we do.

If you are interested in Salesforce training, let us know what type of training that you require. We typically provide training for entry-level, management, and system administrator levels.

Why Do I Need to use a CRM Consulting Firm?

I participated in a very interesting sales call earlier in the week.  The management of a 100 person organization needs to address a variety of business issues related to their sales, marketing, and customer service departments.  They have decided to implement a CRM system.

 The chair of the selection committee asked a very good and simple question: "Why do we need to use a CRM consulting firm?   We have very smart internal resources."

A good and experienced CRM consulting firm can add significant value to an implementation as follows:

 1.  The first step is to perform a needs analysis and develop a statement of work.  You need specific experience on how to facilitate this process, asking the right questions, and knowing how your CRM system should be designed to addressed the requirements.  You need experience to help determine pain points and priorities.  Also, an outside party can help avoid internal politics, personality conflicts within an organization, and provide an unbiased viewpoint.

2.  I am sure an organization can assign a resource to learn how to configure a CRM system.  But to get the a proficient stage, you need to take training and gain some experience before you can configure a system to address the requirements gathered during the needs assessment.  This takes time and money.  A good CRM consulting firm should have trained and certified resources on their staff and will be significantly more efficient than an internal resource.

3.  In most CRM implementations, there is a data migration and integration component to the engagement.  This requires another set of skills.  You need to have resources with database and integration experience.  This can be fairly complicated and tedious. 

4.  A CRM initiative requires strong project management.  All aspect of the engagement including needs assessment, configuration, data migration, integration, prototype review, pilot program, roll-out, training and support all need to be planned and managed.  Again, this requires a different skillset than someone who facilitates a needs assessment, configures the software, migrates the data, or integrates into other backoffice systems.

5.  One of the most important steps in a CRM project is providing training to the end-users.  A trainer needs to understand the CRM software, how an organization is going to be using the software, and the skills to provide training either in-person or over the web.

6.  Even if an organization has the right resources, do they have the time to devote to a CRM implementation project? If a firm has made an investment in CRM software or subscription service, you are losing money for every day that you fall behind in rolling out a system.  With so many organizations stretched for resources, adding the significant responsibility of implementing a CRM system does not make sense.  

As you can see, even a fairly simple CRM implementation requires a diverse skillset.  A good, reputable, and exprienced CRM consulting firm can provide significant value to a firm implementing a CRM system.

 

CRM Training: One Size Does Not Fit All

Training employees in using customer relationship management software may seem more like an additional expense than a necessity in running a business, but when you realize that customers are the "bread and butter," whether corporate or consumer, CRM is critical to any businesses' growth and success. When companies are looking for ways to cut costs, training is one of the first things to go. Now more often, companies realize the importance of education and include training costs in their budgets.

A critical pitfall for companies implementing CRM is focusing too much on technology and process and not enough on people. This can often mean not putting enough money aside to pay for training

Whether you pay a lot or a little, buying the latest and greatest CRM technology doesn't guarantee instant success. And, while CRM solutions greatly enhance an employee's ability to provide better customer service, make a more informed sales pitch or market more effectively, it's using CRM tools effectively that will make all the difference and why CRM training is a guaranteed return on investment.

However, a one-size-fits-all approach to CRM isn't the way to go for most companies. Most CRM solutions are customizable and scalable to the needs of any size company and the first step is assessing a company's specific needs and then designing a training program to fit.

• Self-paced programs allow employees to do it at their convenience. It can be designed to include testing and can provide progress reports to both participants and management. It provides a consistent approach for all users and is an effective way to provide continuous product enhancement training or as a supplement to other training methods. The biggest downfall can be the somewhat rigid content and the inability of the program to interact with the user.

• Web-based training with an instructor has all the advantages or e-learning and the additional benefit of a trainer with which trainees can interact. Participants can be geographically dispersed and still be part of a "classroom" setting. While this approach costs far less than physically bringing people together, the one drawback is unlike self-paced programs, this method requires scheduling, which can be a challenge across geography and differing time zones.

• CD-based training programs are self-paced and don't require Internet access. So, they can be used on any computer allowing employees to train at work or at home. However, they can also have rigid content and offer little or no interactivity. The biggest disadvantage is the initial development costs for CD-based training programs and the additional expense necessary to update these training programs to reflect improvements and updates in the CRM systems.

• Classroom training can be used in conjunction with any of the above. Its greatest advantage is that it allows human interaction so people can participate openly in questions and discussions that come up in a classroom environment. However, cost can be considerable if it involves bringing personnel to a centralized training location. And, this method is subject to scheduling considerations.

You need to do a cost analysis and determine the results of each method of training, but I am still a proponent of classroom training. It is impossible to duplicate the interaction between the attendees of a classroom and the instructor. It allows each person within your firm to participate in questions and discussion and work through process and technical issues that come up in a classroom environment. One question can generate another question, resulting in discussions and the development and fine-tuning of processes and procedures on how a system will be used.