I have always believed the key to success with CRM lies in the training and follow-up support you give your reps. Yes, it is important to deliver a tool that is easy to use, has features that help increase productivity and integrated business processes that reps and support people need to do their jobs. However, without providing the right training and a place they can go to get questions answered you will fight a losing battle. The first 30 days will determine the success or failure of your CRM solution. It is during this time opinions are formed, and stances taken. The mob will be forming for better or worse. Whether you have the perfect system or not with training and support, you can overcome most of the problems. You want to overcome the usage of the system very quickly. It is easy to fix features and functions in the solution. A bad perception of use is not.

The best training you can provide is scenario based. How do you see a rep using the system from the time he starts his/her day. How does he use the system when he gets a new lead? This really helps put context around the new solution. People like routines they can follow.

You only retain about 25% of classroom training. Therefore, it is important to schedule 4 weekly 1 hour sessions where users can log in and ask questions that they have from the week. You should schedule these sessions for the first month. I would also add in advanced topics and shortcuts in weeks 3 and 4.

Doing remote follow-up training is very inexpensive and easy to accomplish. It could literally be the difference between success or failure.

Tags: Add new tag, CRM Basics, Training

Purchasing consulting services is key to a successful implementation. I am not talking multimillion dollar Accenture engagements (amazingly there are still those still going on) but a reasonable amount to help jump start the project. You should expect to budget about $0.5-$2 of services for every dollar of product. This will vary whether you have chosen an on-premise or hosted solution.

For end-users the key services you should not skip on are configuration and training. You will get your biggest return here. You do not want to spend time drilling through manuals trying to figure out what all the different parameters are and how they interact. Having someone with you to ask the right questions about your business and take you through the configuration process will save you a lot of time and money. And do I need to say anything about the importance of training other than don’t make it the first thing to cut when your budget is low. Getting users up and running and feeling confident with the solution is cornerstone for success, Cut somewhere else.

If you are using an on-premise solution then IT would need to know how to maintain and support the system. While a class is great, IT folks are very good at drilling into manuals to find what they need. Also software support is kind of universal. The backing up, archiving, security, etc… are consistent items they deal with on all the software they support? The technical manuals are usually all they need. For hosted solutions very little will be needed from your IT staff.

A programmer will probably need to get involved if you are integrating other backend system data to CRM. Depending on what the goal is it might be cheaper and certainly much faster to contract that service out. If you see this as an ongoing requirement then sending a programmer to class will be worth it.

When budgets are tight, carefully evaluate what will give you the most for your dollars but also what the true cost will be if you did it yourself. The extra hours people spend trying to figure it themselves might offset any savings you think you are getting.

Tags: Add new tag, Consulting, CRM Basics

I wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year.

I wanted to make my first posting of the New Year reflective of what I believe 2009 should be about. For me it is about knowledge. The financial crisis has forced me to learn all I can about the markets and to be able to manage my own stock portfolio. I have been in a constant state of learning about stocks, bonds, credit markets, etc… Until 4 months ago I mostly relied on “expert” advice and recommendations. I have now decided that I will not work with any of these “experts” because most never saw this crisis coming or if they did, it was not in their best interest to better position their client’s assets.

I am learning all I can through books, articles, discussions, and collaboration with a group of trusted professionals, friends and family. This has produced a lot of documents that I need to store, share and easily recall.

The same is true for CRM users. We need a place we can easily have access to marketing materials, customer and industry articles, best practices, legal documents, pricing, sample proposals and many other items. The better CRM solutions will have a Knowledge Management component that handles these items. It should be an integral part of your implementation. Besides having the ability to organize and share the information it is a huge win for the reps in getting their acceptance of CRM. The reason is that it usually requires no sales rep input. It is for the marketing group and management to enter information that sales reps can just access. Sales reps initially have their hands full having to enter all their sales information and this is one place they just get to pull information. For that reason, I always try to make Knowledge Management part of phase one for new CRM implementations.

CRM solutions will have their own databases to manage this information and/or interface with third party ones like Lotus Domino Document Manager, Documentum and Sharepoint. But keep it simple initially. Try to stay within the CRM system component and a Sales Library is a good easy start. You can usually publish and categorize the documents pretty easy. As people feel comfortable you can start to use more of the advanced features or third party integrations that will give you things like check in/out and version control.

Whether you are just starting out with CRM, a seasoned veteran or struggling , giving reps and managers easy access to all the peripheral information they need will guarantee you getting 2009 off to a strong CRM start.

Knowledge Management - Sales Library Example (click to enlarge)

Tags: Add new tag, crm, crm productivity, knowledge management

I have to admit to using online dating sites in the past.  You write up a profile about yourself specifying your likes and dislikes, what your best features are, what turns you on and off and exactly what traits you want in a future mate.

I got to thinking that this is pretty close to how sales people prospect for new business.  You contact complete strangers and try to convince them that you have what they need.  You talk on the phone trying to say all the right things in order to get them to agree to a face-to-face meeting.  Just like internet dating.

Online daters and customers are disappointed most of the time, the proof being the small number of deals actually closed versus the high number of leads called on.  The answer lies in the details.  Online daters tell partial truths.  They specify their age based on what they believe will attract the most people.  They write too much or too little about themselves.  They go into excruciating detail of what they want, setting expectations that are impossible to meet.  They choose to post pictures that have no real resemblance to how they look today.  And they create a “false sense of intimacy”.  People think that spending a lot of time on the phone getting to know someone is the best way to make the first meeting more successful.  In reality, it does just the opposite.  It creates a false sense of intimacy leading to greater expectations that no one could ever live up to.

Selling successfully is about building relationships, but you need to be careful not to cross that intimacy line.  It will cloud your ability to remain vigilant and competitive.  You want to make sure not to exaggerate your product’s abilities.  And the best way to do that is to only present your solution in the context of their business requirements.   But, unlike online dating, where you are just courting one person (unless you are polyamorous), your deal usually involves a few people to court.   And finally you should be very clear on your proposal:  No old or fuzzy pictures.  What they are buying should be clearly laid out along with all the costs.  Breaking down the costs for each of the products and services allows your customer to pick and choose what works best for them given their budget constraints.

Most CRM solutions allow you to track personal information on your contacts, such as birthdays, sports, hobbies, and spouse and children’s names.  You should also be able to easily add your own fields to track additional information you find helpful.  It is very useful to keep this information up to date so you can build customer relationships that don’t seem superficial.  Most CRM solutions allow you to setup activities like reminders, emails, to do’s that will execute on a future date.  As an example, when you first enter a contact into the system you can setup any future activity like a birthday email or reminder that will automatically trigger on the date you specified.  It shows the prospects and customers that you are listening to them because you can remember the small details of their lives.  It is going the extra mile.  It is also important to use this information sparingly and not come across like you are best or old time friends.  But sending a quick happy birthday or an email about a sports team they like are good things to do.  Of course, this will also allow you to easily identify contacts who would be most interested in attending a golf or special event you may be planning. Wanting to be genuinely closer with your prospects and customers is not only good for business but makes it more enjoyable.

Tags: Add new tag, crm, Sales Techniques, sfa

Remember, 80% of what a sales person needs to do everyday in a CRM/SFA solution is done with 20% of the features.  

What is Yak Shaving and what does it have to do with a CRM solution?  Yak Shaving is a term coined by the MIT media lab about eight years ago.  I was first introduced to this interesting concept through Seth Godin’s, Don’t Shave that Yak, and Joi Ito, Yak Shaving.  Simply stated it is finding yourself many levels deep in a stack of jobs in order to accomplish your initial task.  An example they give is:

You start out deciding to clean your room and you realize that in order to do that you’ll need some more trash bags, so you need to go to the store, which will involve you getting out the car, but the car needs gas, so you’ll need to go to the gas station first, which means you should probably find your gas discount card, which involves finding your keys, which are in the room somewhere…

Yak Shaving is one of the major causes of failed CRM initiatives.  The ultimate prize in CRM is making the users happy.  Some people would disagree with me and say it is about better customer management, or improving close ratios or better controlling leads and opportunities.  But in the end the system will only be as good as the people who use it. 

So what happens in a typical CRM implementation?  You have meetings to determine what the system should do; this leads to meetings and more meetings to finalize a list of changes; which leads to IT and business related configurations and customizations; which leads to many iterations of testing and approval; which leads to a more complicated system; which leads to more complicated training materials; which leads to a longer learning curve; which leads to a frustrated unhappy end user — the person you wanted to help the most.  Before you know it you are knee deep in hair, with plenty more to come.
 
Companies need to avoid Yak shaving events when it comes to CRM.  Doing something now that is just good, is far better than trying to get it perfect later.  Allow people to use the easy, basic stuff first.  Once they are comfortable with that you can add-on features later.  Making the sales people part of the process will ensure you are creating a solution that works for them.

Tags: Add new tag, crm, customer relationship management, sfa