Whale, Oil, Beef, Hooked.  4 innocent looking words but not if you're Irish...

Ok so this is a little tongue in cheek but these words when strung together can take on a completely different - and sometimes unintended - meaning.  This simple example of what is said by one person to another can often be misinterpreted. In business situations, it is the single biggest reason for project failure and fall outs.

Over the 20+ years I have been consulting around the use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems the gap between what the buyer asks for and what the seller delivers is the single biggest reason for project failure.  Having been in this situation myself (but I've learnt some good lessons!) I thought I'd share some tips with anyone who is about to embark on a new CRM project (or any type of project for that matter).

Tip 1: Like a good Carpenter - measure twice, cut once

I cannot emphasise enough about the need for good planning and design BEFORE you start implementation.  Have all your processes mapped out beforehand and ensure that you know the reason for doing the process and its benefit to the business and individual who will be using the process.

When I go into companies that are looking to replace their existing CRM, very often they are unhappy with their existing CRM because it was never configured properly in the first instance.  Sometimes their existing CRM can be made to work but all too often disenchantment has set in and a fresh start is sought.

If you're not sure what your processes are yet or what the likely impact will be from implementing a new process then be prepared to spend additional time, effort and money implementing, fine tuning and re-implementing a process.  I often see situations where the budget has been spent on the initial purchase and new processes are poorly implemented by the customer [supplier now in reactive support mode] leading, again, to disenchantment with the software.

Tip 2: Budget well

Who decides how much to spend on your new CRM system?  How was the budget amount derived?  All too often an unrealistic budget figure is set before engaging with the CRM suppliers.  This is a recipe for project failure.  Suppliers vie for the business and estimate down the likely overall cost in order to sweeten their offering in the eyes of the client and to remain price competitive.

One area which commonly causes the budget to increase is in data migration.  Skimp in this area, or get this wrong, and your new CRM system will never function as intended.  Poor quality in, poor quality out.  Decide, what data to bring in, what each field of information is going to be used for and when.  How many different data silos do you operate? are all silos being replaced with the new system? Do any need to co-exist and keep in sync with each other?  How much data is there?  What indexes need to be applied to the database to speed up keyword/field searching?  Very often a customer will budget one to two days to import their data into the new system.  Be realistic and budget accordingly.

Tip 3: What is the value to the business

In this example, I'll paint a picture of a small business owner.  For simplicity the business owner is a he :)  So the business owner has set a budget of 20K on a new CRM system.  The CRM system will effectively help keep control of the entire sales, marketing and customer service parts of the operation.  Time will be saved and his end customers will see a marked improvement in customer care.....  how much is that worth to the business? What if the actual investment cost was more like 40k? You need to identify the value of the system to the business otherwise the budget and system is just seen as a cost to the business and not an investment.  In the example above, the business owner might not think twice about spending 40K on a new BMW car and baulk at the thought of spending the same on a system that will help run his entire operation more efficiently.  I've lost count of the number of small businesses with around 10-20 staff who only budget 5K on a CRM system.

Be clear about the value of the system to the business from the outset.

Tip 4: Be prepared for a culture change

The best planning and configuration will just fall flat if the end users are ill-informed or not prepared for change.  If I was given the keys to a thoroughbred racing car and told to drive around a race track, I'm pretty sure that if I gave Michael Schumacher the keys to my Volkswagen, he'd still beat me.  I wouldn't be at ease with the car and I'd probably crash in any case :( With a little tuition, tips and incentives, I'm sure my lap times would come right down.

But seriously, you're going to find all sorts of personalities involved in the project.  Some people hate change, others have hidden agendas, some embrace new systems and apply their own styles etc..  The bottom line is education, training and benefits realisation.

Understand the benefits each user is going to get from the new system.  Identify areas which may result in a slowdown in some tasks for one user but which are necessary to the overall speed up of the process across the business.

Conclusion:

Get CRM right and your business will grow, will be more efficient and will empower your workforce.  Get it wrong and you may whale beef hooked.

So these days it seems that SugarCRM is stepping on the toes of Salesforce.com. The small to medium sized market (SMEs) is becoming Sugar’s territory.

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You just have to see a SugarCRM demo to realise that the feature set is more or less the same but with one big difference…License Price.

With Sugar the money you save on licensing costs can be put to better use getting your sales, marketing and customer service software bedded into your business infrastructure.

A well implemented CRM solution will serve the user base quickly and effortlessly creating an empowered workforce that actually likes to use the software.  They see it as a business-critical tool.  Go figure.  Implement CRM poorly and it becomes a conflict between Man and software and there are no winners.

The fundamental flaw when buying CRM is the age old battle between the competitors to fit a solution into your budget.  Let’s suppose your budget is £2.40 and the software costs £2.00.  That leaves you £0.40 to spend on making the software work.  Alternatively spend £0.40 on the software and £2.00 making it work for you.  Myth – just because a product costs less doesn’t mean it does less.  Usually it costs more because of the brand or global name it has earnt.  Salesforce.com is a great product but so too is Sugar.  Any of the thousand or so SugarCRM partners around the world will concur.

A lot of rhetoric is given to software stability when it comes to using Open Source software and Sugar is one such project that falls into this camp.  The reality though is this:

•    The user community keeps coming back for more, with over 5 million downloads of the Sugar appliance
•    99 times out of 100 an issue is caused through an incorrect configuration or hardware fault.  Not the software.
•    Since SugarCRM is Open Source, a lot of end-user organisations download and install it themselves - badly
•    SugarCRM is a multi-national software company dedicated to enriching and future-proofing its product suite
•    There is a vibrant community of developers building added value components which enhance SugarCRM (some good some bad)

In tough economic times, buying SugarCRM is the pragmatic choice.  When implemented correctly (and carefully) it gives your business a big competitive advantage.

 

CRM Success: 7 Pitfalls To Avoid

Avoiding User Acceptance Issues

One of the biggest issues facing companies that deploy a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is user acceptance.  This document outlines what we see as the top seven reasons why user acceptance is still a big problem for so many companies.  The decision to purchase and deploy a CRM system is usually based on solid business logic. But once the decision has been made to deploy, many projects go off track. Here are the top reasons why.

Lack of Executive Buy-In

Sure it was a Senior Director or the CEO of the organisation who came up with the idea to deploy CRM in the first place, but these people are seldom actively involved in the delivery. The best solution is for executives to actively participate in the system implementation. By rolling up their sleeves and spending time on the project, they can avoid nearly all of the pitfalls.  

The System Is Not Designed With Users In Mind

Managers, the consumers of information from a CRM system, are typically the decision makers when it comes to system selection and customisation. But the real users of the system are the sales, marketing and customer support staff who must enter and manage information. Often little or no thought is given to the needs of these users and the system deployed often does not meet their needs. Ultimately, a CRM system should make users more productive. But all too often the new system is perceived (correctly or incorrectly) as additional work for already busy employees.

Lack Of Training And Orientation

We have learned over the years that there is no such thing as too much training. Training increases comfort with the system, allows users to become more efficient, and overcomes reluctance to change. But few companies invest adequately in training.

Managers Are Not “Living In The System”

When managers do not rely on the information in a CRM system as the “gold standard” for decision making in the organisation, how can they expect end-users to take the system seriously? By conducting the daily operations of the organisation through the CRM system, user acceptance is reinforced, data quality improves, and decision making becomes more efficient and accurate.

Poor Data Quality

At the end of the day, any CRM system is only as good as the data in it. During deployment, many companies migrate legacy databases from multiple sources, create large amounts of duplicate data, and don’t take the time to “scrub” data so that it is valuable and meaningful to users.

Not Keeping It Simple, No Eye On The Bigger Picture

Most CRM projects start off with good intentions but end up becoming bloated with lots of features, functions and ideas that, together, miss the orginal intentions.  It is important to keep it simple at the beginning and grow slowly as users get used to, and adopt, the new technology.  Conversely, keeping things too simple, or focused, can mean that the wrong CRM system is purchased and the organisation ends up with several fragmented systems.  In our experience it is vital that a good project delivery plan is laid out from the start which is delivered in easy steps in a very controlled environment where user expectations can be well managed.

Lack of Project Ownership

A key driver is to assign an internal project ‘owner’ that has global respect and clout with users and managers.  Someone who can proactively drive the day-to-day delivery of the organisations operational requirements, someone who has a deep insight into the processes, culture and end user needs and who is able to relate technically with I.T staff and the CRM Vendor.  Unfortunately, all too often this role is not considered or users are just too busy to take it on.  Ultimately, this creates a stagnating project or leaves the CRM vendor to make its own assumptions.

Whether you are looking to improve your customer service or simply find new customers, South West ICT offers IT-based sales and marketing support to all Cornish businesses.  We are a CRM company in Cornwall delivering software solutions that make light work of email management, email marketing campaigns and customer relationship marketing activity.

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In tough economic times, every channel to market has to be exploited and every business relationship nurtured.

When there are many employees in a business, it is easier for a large business to realise the full benefits of IT systems but this is not so easy for the smaller businesses who struggle to embrace the right technology and therefore lose out of significant sales and marketing opportunities.

 

Some of the many benefits of CRM

• Customers keep coming back to YOU
• Easier to find (and attract) new business
• Greater sales reach
• Consistent branding and messages adds professionalism

This is where South West ICT can help a small business.

 

Many of our smaller clients are ‘IT technophobes’ or they focus on their core capabilities prefering to leave the IT to someone else.  South West ICT’s Professional Services team executes their marketing campaigns leaving them to run their business and use the CRM technology to follow up on the ‘warm’ leads the campaigns generate.

A Customer Success Story: Duchy Hose & Hydraulics - Falmouth

 

When Duchy Hose & Hydraulics came to us, the owner/manager was keen to send out monthly newsletters to each of his customers.  Rather than employ someone to look after this area he contracted our Professional Services team to send out his email marketing messages on his behalf.  As a result he was able to carry on as normal while his brand and key messages landed in front of his customer base every month.  Moreover his business became a 24hour sales operation since his messages were being delivered even when he was not working!
Duchy now has a CRM system that is building up customer knowledge which they plan to use to focus on finding and winning new customers.

Free to You with Convergence Funding!

 

With Convergence funding available to many businesses in Cornwall, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become the de facto standard for any progressive Cornish business.  If you are not proactively marketing yourself then contact us and we’ll transform your email management and customer marketing activities overnight.

South West ICT covers the South West from its base in Falmouth and is Cornwall’s #1 business for CRM.