How to drive the right Customer Management software

By, Syed Ali, CyberQuest Solutions Inc.

Feb 21, 2006

As companies battle to win new customers and keep current ones,
more companies wanting to leverage their sales and marketing
strategies, strengthen their workforce, and utilize the best
tools available, are making Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) software choices. The problem is: Which choice is right?

80% of a successful CRM implementation depends upon the company
evaluating and actually using the chosen system, while 20%
depends upon the software itself.

Before searching for CRM solutions, you need to determine you
CRM requirements so you can select the best solution. Some basic
questions include:

What interaction takes place between customers and
salespeople? What is your lead tracking strategy? How do you
attract new customers and retain existing ones? How do you
manage long sales cycles or projects?

Translating Requirements into Features - Needs

A CRM package is worthless unless it meets most of your needs.
Some companies require a central database for sharing customer
notes, history and email, while others need to centralize their
customer data as well as ramp up their sales and marketing
process, lead generation, sales pipeline management and,
automate their sales work flow. Selecting the right CRM product
requires evaluation.

Start by looking inside your organization for people who have
been through the CRM selection process already. Next, talk to a
seasoned CRM consulting firm with no ties to CRM solution
providers and who has a track record of working with companies
in situations like yours.

Taking a Skills Inventory

The CRM solution will fail if the organization does not have
skilled staff to operate it. Vendor training addresses the
specific skills of operating the software, but your salespeople
and CSR staff still need the basic computer skills to understand
the concepts being presented.

Involve all stakeholders in the CRM solution vetting process
before you sign a contract and accept delivery. This ensures
that all staff members are comfortable with moving to a formal
CRM system as well as getting them emotionally on-board by
creating a sense of ownership in the project.

Determining Your CRM Budget

How much should you spend on a CRM solution? Spend as much as it
takes to procure and implement the optimum solution for your
company and not one penny more. No CRM solution provider can
tell you if their CRM package is worth the price to you. You
could buy the most expensive system there is and receive no
value in return. I recall selling a system to a small company (5
users) for close to $3000 with software, training and
installation etc. The first thing the client did was to execute
an email marketing campaign to existing customers who placed
over $7,500 worth of orders in the first week. That’s a pretty
good ROI from a system that cost less than 3k!

Not too long after that, with proper training and understanding
of the system’s capabilities, the CEO of that company was
generating reports and tracking information on new leads, follow
ups and managing the sales pipeline of his company. Within a
month he was able to stop leads from falling through the cracks
and customer follow-up increased dramatically. In short the
system paid for itself over and over again within the first
month.

However, I know of companies that keep investing thousands of
dollars on CRM initiatives without any clear objectives and no
methodology to test the ROI. In the end, all they have is a
giant ‘electronic Rolodex’, which leaves them wondering why they
ever got involved in CRM technology in the first place.

If you’re planning on implementing a CRM solution for your
organization, follow the tips and suggestions in this article
for the best chance of realizing the ROI that you hope to
achieve.

Copyright reserved - Syed Ali - CyberQuest Solutions Inc.