Due to today’s extremely difficult economic climate, corporate management needs to find ways to be more efficient and effective in their sales and marketing departments. You need to be able to do more with less. A well-deployed CRM Solution can provide the results and return on investment that you need to maximize the capabilities of smaller staffs and budgets.

The selection process for your CRM solution is more critical than ever. As a small or mid-market company, you may not have the luxury of making a mistake in your selection and implementation process. Again, the economic climate and its’ affect on the CRM Software Vendor and Implementation Partner has to weigh in your decision.

I have been involved in the small to mid-market Contact Management, Sales Force Automation, and Customer Relationship Management Industry since 1988. The changes in the product and vendor landscape continue to change at a rapid rate, increasing the exposure and risk to the corporations and consulting firms using and supporting these products.

Many very good products have come and gone over the past 13 years. SNAP, Tracker, and SalesPro are a distant memory. PeopleSoft and Baan, two large ERP software vendors who have integrated these products into their enterprise solution, acquired Vantive and Aurum. FrontRange Solutions acquired GoldMine and have integrated with HEAT, their help desk solution. Each of these acquisitions has had their share of difficulties.

ACT! was started by Pat Sullivan, sold to Symantec, and acquired by Interact Commerce Corporation, the makers of SalesLogix. Would you care to guess who is the Founder and CEO of Interact Commerce Corporation? If you guessed Pat Sullivan, you are right. SAGE, a UK software company, recently acquired Interact Commerce Corporation. SAGE had previously acquired TeleMagic in the early 1990’s, one of the founding fathers of the Contact Management Industry. Is your head spinning? The real question is what does all of these changes mean to your existing CRM system or how will it affect any new CRM initiatives?

Before I give you my opinion of the current Mid-Market CRM landscape, I must give you my own personal history in the CRM industry as an end-user and consultant. In 1987, I started my own computer business. In a short period of time, leads were coming in, proposal were flying out the door, the phone was ringing with technical support questions, and I had no idea what our prospects, customers, and sales pipeline looked like. Although we were a small business with 5 people and $1M in revenue, we needed a tool to automate our own sales process.

I asked my staff to do some research on what could help us. After some initial discussion about developing a customized database, we came across a product called TeleMagic for DOS. It was simple, fast, and easy to use. The set-up could be done by a consultant with limited technical experience and included some customization capabilities. It incorporated all the tools we needed to do our jobs on a day-to-day basis: contacts, calendar, schedule, and recalls. Simple, yet so powerful.

After a short period of time, we realized the potential of the entire industry, changed our business model, and became a Sales Force Automation and CRM consulting firm. I feel fortunate that I got involved during the infancy of the industry. Over a 12 year period, we installed hundreds of CRM solutions and trained thousands of people in a variety of CRM products.

As the industry has evolved and matured, it has also become more uncertain as noted in my opening paragraph. I guess it is no different than the ERP and accounting software industry, although Great Plains has evolved as the clear mid-market leader. I can’t really say that any one vendor in the CRM space is a leader in the mid-market. Siebel has made some progress in this space and the recently acquisition of SalesLogix by SAGE has made them someone to be reckoned with.

Overall, the CRM industry today incorporates so many other areas than the original roots of the industry. On one hand, the functionality and productivity you can obtain from these products can be extraordinary. On the other hand, the implementation costs and complexity have grown significantly.

Today, the mid-market products give you tremendous flexibility in the design and customization of the software. With this flexibility comes scope creep and if not managed properly, a bloated overgrown CRM system. These mid-market solutions include web interface, synchronization, wireless, telephony, and accounting and ERP integration, just to name a few. The world has also become a smaller place. Products today make available support for international users, currency and exchange rates, and language localization. With each advancement comes more complexity and technical issues

Is the CRM software available today bigger and better than 13 years ago? Without a doubt! Can a company spend a tremendous amount of financial and human resources and get an over-engineered, unfriendly, and underutilized system? Yes!

Both the CRM Consulting Community and the Corporate End-User Community are at the crossroad of a maturing yet ever-changing and challenging industry. What can we do to ensure working with a stable and innovative CRM Software Vendor and end up with a system that makes the end-users productive and results in a good return on our investment?

I have a couple of common sense suggestions that you may find helpful.

1. You need to weigh your financial investment in a CRM solution versus the financial viability of your CRM Software Vendor. If you can obtain a rapid return on your investment, you may want to consider the best product for your needs while weighing the risk that maybe associated with that vendor.

2. Insist on a phased approach to your implementation. Although there is a tremendous temptation to design, develop, and program a solution that will cover ever aspect of your sales, marketing, and customer service process, the time, cost, and bloating of these products can be counter-productive.

3. Make sure that the end-users are interviewed and involved in the needs assessment process. You have to assess the needs and requirements of both management and the people using the system everyday.

4. You need to identify the two or three major shortfalls in your sales process where automation will bring you the best return on investment. (I have to tell you that determining the two or three major shortfalls is not easy. It takes experience and leadership from your internal staff and your consulting firm). This allows the company to provide the end-users with a solution sooner and a system that should be easier to use. Use this first step as a building block for further enhancements to your system.

5. Make sure that you provide the appropriate level of training to every person using the system. A well-trained employee will use the system to it’s potential.

If you follow these steps, you will increase your chances of having a CRM Solution that will be used for a long time and provide your company with an outstanding Return on Investment.

About the Author
Sidney C. Lejfer is President of Harvest Solutions, a Customer Relationship Management Consulting and Training Organization. He is a featured writer and speaker on the benefits of Customer Relationship Management Technology. Please contact us for additional information.