CRM or Die: Evaluate and Select

Walk into a car dealership without a clear understanding of what you need, what you want, and why, and you run the risk of being sold a fully-loaded car with all the bells and whistles — the salesperson could talk you into every unnecessary accessory under the sun, right down to a steering wheel heater. Then you get home, only to remember you live in Texas and do not need a heated steering wheel!?

Make sure you are driving?the evaluation and selection process, not being driven by salespeople. When you are implementing or revamping an integrated CRM solution, the implementation team should take the time to answer a detailed list of questions before searching. This will put you in the driver’s seat. Then you can proceed with the confidence that you have all the data possible for selecting the best integrated CRM solution to fit your firm’s needs. You want to take this seriously because the wrong decision can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in both time and money.

Three Simple Questions

1. What do you want?
2. Why do you want it??
3. How do you get it??

In November 2018, Stacey Abrams gave a?TEDWomen talk sharing three questions to ask yourself about everything you do.?We feel her three simple questions can help start the evaluation process for an integrated CRM solution.?

The answer to the first question seems easy in this case: You want a CRM solution. But the real question is, “What problems do you want the CRM system to solve?” Simple, but not easy.

Getting to the root of that question takes hard work and requires reviewing internal processes.

Question two is a little easier. Figure out why you want those issues resolved now and why you feel an integrated CRM solution is the answer. Once you have that insight, the final question to ask is, “How do you get what you want?” For us, we need to answer, “How does the CRM solution successfully integrate into your firm?” The details of “how” might not fall on you, the leader, but it is important that all the employees know that you support the effort to make this new system a success.?

The questions that impact leadership include, “How do you plan to use the data coming out of the CRM? What analytics and metrics are you wanting to see? How do you want the data displayed on dashboards? Do you want things categorized by market, office, divisions, profit centers, etc.?” Figure out what you want, why you want it, and how you get it.

Right Team, Right Questions

We have addressed the initial three questions, but there are many others that need to be answered by your implementation team. This list does not cover them all, but it's a start.

1. Interface. You want a solution that will meet your users where they already work for the highest rate of user adoption. The goal is for the CRM to smoothly slide into their existing workflow.
2. Features. Are there any deal-breakers that the CRM must have, like dynamic dashboards or an out-of-the-box integration with your financial system, or the ability to export every field of data??
3. User Interface (UI). How important is the user interface? How user-friendly and intuitive is it? How customizable does it need to be?
4. Specialization. Does the CRM solution need to perform any specialized functions, like exporting documents to a specific platform such as Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word?
5. Integrations. Does the CRM need to integrate with any other systems, such as financial, ERP (enterprise resource planning), Outlook, Intranet, Power BI, Constant Contact, Procore, or a lead service source like IMS, etc.?
6. Categorization. Can the system reflect how your firm is structured (offices, divisions, service lines, etc.)?
7. Fee Structure. Will you pay for just the licenses, or is there a mandatory implementation cost? Are there any additional upfront costs, annual fees, or hidden fees? Is there a storage size limitation??
8. Community. Do they have established user groups? Is there a good base of happy customers that connect and share ideas with one another?
9. Support. How is customer support? Is there regular online training, and if so, is it included or extra? Are there regular user conferences?
10. Automations. Most systems should have workflow capabilities to create notifications, set actions, make calculations, etc., but how detailed or well developed are they, and how much control and customization do you need?

Like what you're reading so far? This is just an overview of chapter six of CRM or Die. There are a ton more free resources available on the book website, including articles, book reviews, and a 10-minute self-assessment quiz to help you track your CRM progress! Click here to go there now.