What is CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. In past years others have referred to it as SFA (Sales Force Automation), however SFA is only one element of the total picture. CRM includes the areas of Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service within your company. It provides a 360 degree view of your customers relationship with your company.

Why does CRM concern me?

Great question and I get asked this many times. First, let’s compare this to an accounting system. Every business by now understands the full benefits of an accounting system and important role it plays in telling you the present and past tense of your business in order to make decisions and spot trends. However, what about the future tense of your business? CRM provides you with the outlook of the future, so you can change the outcome of the present.

CRM also provides you with a tool to help you retain key customers. Ask yourself these questions; when was the last time your sales team or yourself spoke with your top 10 customers? Do you have documented, from each employee, the history of phone calls, emails, letters and meetings every with each client? Do you have an instant view of your sales pipeline from all your sales rep? Do you know how many new leads/prospects you received this quarter and how many are now sales? Do you know how many deals you lost by each competitor and why? These are just a few questions that CRM can answer.

About the Author of this article.

Before I continue let me introduce myself. My name is Levar Berry, President/CEO of eDriven Solutions. eDriven solutions is a CRM consulting firm located in Cincinnati, OH. I have been in the consulting world for 11 years and have helped 2-man shops up to large blue-chip companies create successful CRM systems.

The advice I am giving you in this article is a small portion of what CRM is all about. I would challenge you to begin learning more on your own or contacting a consultant to help you along the way.

How to prepare for a system?

Establishing a working CRM system first starts with a level of discipline and behavior changes within your company. Unlike other software packages, it requires more than just installing and configuring a software package.

First and foremost you need to document how your business does business. This is usually accomplished by creating a workflow chart in Microsoft Visio. Once this is created a consultant/VAR can help you identify pitfalls that are fixed with a CRM system. The end result is new and improved workflow document used to select a software package.

How to choose a VAR.

A VAR is a reseller of CRM of products and services. Usually VARs carry more than one line of products, since it is not one package fits all. When choosing a VAR you want to look for a VAR that has experience in creating cost reducing profit producing systems. Often times companies choose based on technical ability, although it is great asset to have, it leaves the customer to figure out how the system to look. In the past I have this as the #1 reason systems fails. You want a partner not just a worker-bee.You want someone who knows how to get the full value out of system and speaks about revenue and profit versus operating systems and programming jargon.

How to choose a software package.

Choosing a software package can be tricky. All of the packages have their own pros and cons. My advice would be first choose a VAR and let them assist you in choosing the right package. They will bring their experience to table and help you understand the differences.

More expensive does not always mean better. Cheaper packages are geared towards a different group of people and can often times get the job done for small businesses. It all depends on what you are selling and how you sell it.

How to rollout a system.

Installing the software is the easy part. The more important part of the rollout is to have an effective training program. To be most effective, your training program should be spread over time so the user does not have to swallow the entire system at once. Having predefined homework assignments have proven to delivery great results.

Classroom training is 10 times more effective than over the internet training, and class sizes under 15 people helps ensure everyone gets their questions answered. The max time on training should not exceed 5 hours. I have also found that it is best to not exceed more than 90 minutes without taking a break.

How to monitor a system.

The key to any successful system begins here. Monitoring the system ensures that you are getting the result you attended to get in the start of your mission. The #1 and most effective way to monitor the system is to have automated reports generated on a regular schedule. This is usually accomplished by third-party software. In my past 11 years, I have found companies that choose not to automate their reports, usually have a dead system or end up with just a big expensive rolodex.

In the reporting you must hold your end users accountable for the information that put into the system. For salespeople this could mean having them update their sales activity in the system by Monday at noon for the previous week and have reports print on automatically and emailed to their manager at 1pm. In addition, I have seen how reporting can increase sales due to salesperson competition. Each week a salesperson can compare themselves to the other salespeople and most are encouraged to reach the #1 spot.

Summary

Again is this a very brief tutorial of how to get started with CRM. I would encourage you to seek more information or contact a CRM consulting firm. The most important thing to remember is that CRM done correctly will help increase the profitability of your business. It will give valuable information to help you make key decisions. If the future of your company is important to you, then you need to explore the use of a CRM system in your company.