Here are some practical suggestions for implementation of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Includes definition.Implementing CRM
by Stephen Redmond
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. The genesis of CRM lies in the observation that one element in competitive advantage is the ability of companies to retain customers. Companies have moved to implement a strategy of satisfying the customer so as to optimise potential future earnings. This seems to be an especially valid approach considering the current Internet focus of “your competitor is only a click away”. Many companies have spent millions of dollars on SFA/ERP/CRM/eCRM solutions only to see them fail miserably. Why is this?
Gartner Group, the leading industry research group (www.gartner.com), defines CRM as “a customer focused business strategy designed to optimise profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction.” The key word here is “strategy”. CRM is not a piece of software, nor is it any other type of technical solution. Any company that sees the way to CRM as implementing a software package will see their CRM project fail.
CRM is a philosophy for managing relationships with your customers; the software package is a tool that you can use to reach your goals. You must define your CRM strategy before you go shopping for a technical solution. Then you must see how the solution fits with your strategy, and not how your strategy can be made to fit with the technical solution.
Benefits of Implementing a CRM Solution
There are some important benefits to implementing one of the many CRM solutions available today, but you must be sure that these benefits match your strategy. None of these will benefit your company if the CRM project fails. These benefits include:
Systemization
CRM solutions can enable you to implement particular methodologies across your teams. Note that the CRM solution does not implement the methodology it merely enables it. You cannot implement a CRM system that supports something such as Miller Heiman’s Strategic Selling, without also providing the Miller Heiman training. (Miller Heiman’s Strategic Selling is one of many sales methodologies that are currently available worldwide).
Information Share
Because everyone who is using the CRM solution has the ability to share information, it enables people in your organisation to “pick up the ball” in an emergency. A well-implemented CRM system will see Marketing feeding leads to Sales and Sales feeding intelligence back to Marketing, with Support feeding intelligence to everyone, which can help improve the customer relationship. Focus. If the system is used well, to perform the simple or repetitive tasks, then your sales team can focus on selling – which leads to higher revenue.
There are many others benefits or perceived benefits, but it is worth remembering that many of these could be accomplished with a simple contact manager such as ACT! Be careful that any proposed solution will give you enough of a differential over a contact manager to be worth the investment.
Planning
Any CRM project needs to be planned out in advance, just like any other project that you might run. There needs to be a team appointed to plan out exactly what CRM strategy the company is going to adopt and then to decide on whether any proposed solution fits the strategy. Members of this team should include:
Project Sponsor
This is someone of senior rank (preferably board level) who has authority to make decisions and to allocate resources. It is important to have a high level person on the team because of the “buy-in” factor. If the sponsor is at a senior level in the company then it shows to the other employees that the project is important to the company. If there is no senior person on the team then there is no perceived investment by the company in the project. It is just “another” project.
Project Manager
The project manager will generally be either a sales manager or a customer services manager. I would recommend the sales manager drive the project as sales is where the revenue is made. Customer Service reps are generally more accepting of new systems than Sales reps. The sales manager driving the project will give a better impression to the sales team and help with the “buy-in”. IT specialist. There should be an IT specialist on the team to assist in the decision making about potential systems. This person should be able to assist the team in understanding the technical differences between systems.
Note: It is important that your CRM implementation is not driven by the IT department otherwise it is doomed to fail.
Top Seller
Your top sales person needs to be on the team. If they are on the team then they have bought into the system already (or are perceived to have) and this will help with buy-in from the rest of the sales team. Technically best sales person. This is your sales person who is most adept with computer systems. He will be one of the most enthusiastic about the project and being a member of the project team. Use him to sell the project to the rest of the sales team.
Once the team has defined the company’s CRM strategy (and if necessary it is signed off by the board), they must prepare a request for proposal document (RFP), which lays out the strategy and requests vendors to propose a solution that matches the strategy.
Selecting the Right Solution
The team should research and select a number of vendors based on both budget and reputation. Do not automatically reject a vendor because of budget constraints, because their solution may fit your strategy more closely that any other. It is better to pay extra to put the square peg in the square hole than to have to cut corners off the round peg. This is where the project sponsor’s rank comes in handy, to be able to get extra budget approval.
Once you have all the proposals, select two or three and arrange product demonstrations. The whole team should attend these demonstrations. I would recommend seeing the system at the vendor’s premises. This is because the vendor will be able to run the product off their servers and not off a laptop – you will get a better feel for how the real system will work.
If the vendor shows you an out of box solution, you can be sure that it will not fit your strategy. Ask them how they can modify their system to suit your needs. How much this will cost will be an important consideration.
If the vendor has already spent some time modifying the system to show you how it will fit your business, then this is the vendor you should lean towards.
Once a system has been selected, you should arrange to have the demonstration shown to a larger group of potential users and obtain feedback. If the feedback is generally positive then it’s time to sign the contracts. If not, then step back and look again.
If none of the vendors produces a system that fits your needs, then you need to do a few things:
- Can your strategy be redesigned so as to fit a vendor solution?
In general this should not be done.
- If it is then you should redesign the system, but retain the essence of it.
Consider giving the IT department a go at designing a new system from scratch or outsourcing the project to a development company. This will cost a huge amount of money – so think carefully.
Implementation
First, you must announce the new system. Let everyone know that the system is on the way and exactly when you plan to roll it out to them. If necessary, arrange with the vendor to have a demo system installed in a reasonably accessible place, so that potential users may have a “play” if they wish.
The vendor needs to assign a person to deal directly with your project manager. Between them they will come to the best solution for rolling out the system.
After this, there are two strategies that you can use to roll out the system:
- Sit down with the vendor and completely design the system modifications.
The vendor will go away and develop your modifications and come back to you with a beta system for testing. After it has been tested and seems to be working, it can be rolled out to the pilot group. You should have your pilot system up and running in about six months. After the pilot group reports back, make the necessary changes. Roll out company wide.
- Elicit feedback and make any necessary changes.
After about a year you should have the system that you wanted.
- Roll out the system, with very little modification, to your pilot group. Your pilot group should be up and running within 6 weeks. After the pilot group reports back, make the necessary system changes and release functionality in phases. Roll out company wide. Elicit feedback and make the necessary changes. After about six months you should have your system.
Pilot Group Selection is Very Important
A mix of technically able users and those with less experience is preferable. That way you get feedback on how easy the system is to use from all perspectives. You should have your pilot team report back regularly.
Once the pilot group has reported back and any changes have been made to the system, you can start to roll out to the rest of the company.
Buy-In
Buy-In is huge. It is about the most important factor in the success of a CRM project. The biggest implications lie in the sales team. Sales persons are generally averse to change and sharing information. These people often have egos that require gentle handling. On the other hand, customer service reps are more used to using a system to record calls and to having their activities monitored on a regular basis. They are often more technically aware also.
To aid in the “Buy-In” process, you need to look at the following:
Training
And more training. Group sessions are great motivators for sales people. Remember that they are generally away from the office for long periods and rarely see colleagues. This is why group training usually has a good atmosphere. On the other hand, the value of a good step-by-step manual and perhaps computer based training cannot be understated. Training should be stepped – bring in different concepts on different days. Do not swamp the users with too much data. It is vitally important that during training the users see what they can get out of the system. If they get nothing, then they won’t use it.
Incentives
Give your sales people awards and bonuses for using the system. Make these public. There is nothing a sales person loves more than awards! Of course the data on which the award is based comes from the CRM system, so if they’re not using it then they can’t win. Force-feed. This is the least helpful way of getting buy-in, but may be necessary with some users. There is usually one or two users who will point blankly refuse to use the system. No incentive will work. The only way with them is “my way or the highway”. Unfortunately, they may choose the highway and leave for a competitor (is that so unusual nowadays?), but they cannot be allowed to destroy the project for everyone else.
Post Implementation
Every month for six months after the project has gone “live”, the project team needs to sit down and evaluate how the strategy is working. If necessary, they must make changes.
After about six months you could assume that the implementation of the project is complete and that the CRM system is now part of the organisation. But that is not the end! CRM is an evolving process and your system must evolve with it. Now its time to set up a new project team (with perhaps the same members), to review your CRM strategy, and move forward.
Copyright © 2001, Stephen Redmond is the IT Director of CapricornLogix Ltd., the only certified Business Partner for InterAct Commerce Corporation (formerly SalesLogix Corp.) in Ireland. Contact Stephen Redmond at mailto:stephen.redmond@oceanfree.net. Author Profile Reprinted by permission.
|
Customer Service 
