CRM 1080

Economy Sucks?!??!?!? -- CRM1080

The news is horrible, the weather is frightful, and you want business to be delightful. 

What do you do? 

During an economic downturn most business go through the usual motions of cost cutting and layoffs, and while that may help solve the immediate problem of too much expenditures. Additionally, slowing or cancelling projects, expansion, or campaigns will also solve the immediate problem of too many expenditures, but what do you do once you have done all of this and your sales revenue is still shrinking? 

The good news, despite all of the doom and gloom, is that you can do something that will help you keep the customers you have and attract new customers; even in today’s economy.   

The key is communication. Customers love it when you pay attention to them. How many times have we called a company only to end up in some automated version of semi-robotic purgatory without that ability to talk to a real human being? Did you think that experience was a satisfying solution to your dilemma? Neither do your    customers. Ok, so if your customers prefer to talk to you (a real human being) and you don’t have the resources or the time to talk to your customers, what do you do?   

Customers want companies to relate with them through meaningful and relevant interactions. To do so, companies need to adapt the organization to support current and future customer needs and then apply the right customer-centric people, processes and technologies that support those efforts. What is even more challenging today is that customers are operating at a lower level of income, debt tolerance and trust.   

Fortunately, there is a solution that gives you the best of both – personalization and automation at a fraction of the time, allowing you to focus on the most important aspect of your business, increasing sales by leveraging your current customers while in quest of new customers!   

The answer is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool.  CRM provides the foundation for sustainable growth and enables your company to survive and thrive in these uncertain times. But perhaps most importantly, it’s the recognition that CRM is not about what your company wants; it’s about what your customer wants.   

Dr. Thomas M. Fryer

A Business Solution for every Sales Team -- CRM 1080

The success of your business is largely dependent on your Sales Team‚ the lifeblood of any organization. In an increasingly competitive environment, sales teams need to skillfully manage a range of competencies and toolsets.

To successfully execute the sales process, a sales team has to secure a methodology that makes sense to the organization for the products and services they provide. It also must be flexible for dynamic changes in business environments. A CRM Solution that provides a robust Sales Module can not only help streamline Sales Processes but also provide insights into inefficiencies that can cripple an organization’s growth.

Presentations, literature fulfillment, revenue forecasting, sales follow-up, lead generation, cross-selling / up-selling and scheduling appointments and activities are all part of a day’s work. To achieve peak performance, Sales Teams need easy-to-master tools which provide consistent, accurate and effective results that translate into increased revenues and profitability.

Here is a comprehensive list of the top ten reasons why every sales team needs a business solution:

1.         Provide a consistent and coordinated sales process across the entire team.

2.         Identify and track the real decision makers, focusing energy on those authorized to make the decision.

3.         Target resources toward highly qualified opportunities.

4.         The team gets a 360-degree view of each customer.

5.         Create and track proposals that provide cost justification and customer-oriented value propositions.

6.         Know your competition before proposing your solutions and structure your presentation to emphasize your strengths.

7.         Empower sales teams with powerful research and reporting tools.

8.         Increase efficiency by integrating with effective third-party applications.

9.         Learn from your mistakes.

10.       Enable “Bottom to Top” reporting with ease.

Best Practices are necessary for a Successful CRM Initiative

Hello & Welcome to the Second Part of our two part series,   

For those who missed Part I, here is the Link:
Ensure CRM Success Part I   

This post is going to focus on the remaining best practices related to CRM Success that upper management may want to consider:   

1. Employee Buy In.  Design and implement employee buy-in programs that help your team understand the value of CRM.  Most employees do not care of change of any sort let alone when the change is about to track their every move.   But when employees realize that CRM systems are here to help them be more productive, increase customers, retain the best and improve overall efficiencies, they soon realize that this will only further help the company grow — which is in their best interest.
      
2. When did someone look at all your processes?  Before implementing your CRM solution, it is important to review and update all your business processes.    One of the strengths of CRM is automation.   So, it is important to understand the exact capability of CRM automation and how you can fully leverage these features to improve operations. 
    
3. Create a Flexible System.    Implement a system that is highly open, robust and scalable as the amount of information you gather and manage will grow with the organization and increase over time. Make sure your corporate IT is responsible for any integration strategy, maintenance and adherence to technology standards.  If you don’t have an internal IT staff, it is important to get sound advice from a reputable IT consultant.    
    
4. The 80-20 Rule.    We all know this golden rule but yet not much emphasis is given to it.  Does that sound like your organization?   Perhaps it is time to focus on the top 20% of your customers that bring in 80% of the revenue.  The first thing you need to do is to identify them.  Next, to automate the identification process and implement strategies that will continue to keep them satisfied.  CRM strategy and tools will help you retain the best of your customers while you attract new ones.
    
5. Metrics metrics metrics.  You will never know how well your new CRM initiative is working out if you don’t have a base to compare it with.   So, identify tangible and measurable links to business performance before implementing your CRM project.  Next track these measurable on an on-going basis to see exactly where the improvements are.   You will be surprised at the amazing ROI!     

Like any set of best practice, the above points are not the complete set of instructions for a CRM initiative but rather some of the key points.   Depending on your business, there may be other valid points of higher importance.   The best you can do is to make sure you hire or designate a person with project management experience to be your lead CRM Project Manager that has the time and resource focus on the project at hand.   Remember, your CRM initiative if not implemented correctly may be devastating to your operations.  So, you want to get it right the first time!   

Regards,
The CEO

Hello There CEO, 

CEO to CEO -- CRM 1080

As we all know, a new initiative is not only financially costly but also sucks tremendous energy out of our team — especially if success is a must.   So, if we can minimize any failure points… or better still completely avoid them, we would be in great shape.  

There is a reason why “best practices” are so commonly used in organizations… they work because they have been tested by organizations and teams over and over again.   So… here are some best practices that upper management may want to consider: 

1. Own the Project.  Don’t just direct the initiative…  your 100% buy-in and leadership is completely critical.  One CEO made it very clear to her employees, If it is not in the CRM system, it does not exist and your performance review will be based on it.
      
2. Governance not Command-Control.  Get input from all major areas of your organization to help recognize the dynamics and interdepartmental nature of your organization that makes it tick.
    
3. Customer Focused Culture.   Leadership is action, not position… I read somewhere…  So, if you do not embrace a customer focused culture… your team and your employees will most certainly not.  Put your customers in the center of your organization — where it is clear to your employees that they exist because of your customers.
    
4. Ensure Seamless Integration.  How many times have we heard the word “seamless” and there is absolutely nothing seamless about it? Let’s just say more than our share.   However, if your CRM implementation does not have a seamless integration to other front and back office applications, that quick 360-degree view will not be available to your employees when providing any service — and you may miss the ultimate goal of providing any system to your employees… efficiency!
    
5. The Expert Advice.  Nothing like going to a Guru when you need to be enlighten.  Get the expert advice from SMEs who have mastered the art of successful CRM implementation.  You may just learn a thing or two that could propel your implementation by a notch or two.

I will let you ponder on the above 5 points before we take a look at the next five best practices that make up our list later this week.  In the meantime, have a great week — because without us, the economic engine of the world would come to a grinding halt! 

Regards,
The CEO