CRM Implementation Notes and Musings

I was going through some notes the other day and found this one, it was the into to a speech I gave to a group of Sales and Marketing VP's in relation to best way to approach a CRM Implementation.

I believe I joined Linkedin in2007; I don't post much on here, I have a vast network (30,000 1st Level Connections) and I enjoy reading what others post.  Some are truly experts at what they do and it is cool to learn from them.  Others are 'fanboys' and love to talk about their latest gadgets or shiny things.

Take this as a lens or filter against which you run your plans for implementing, or making major changes to, your CRM system.  I am always available for a quick conversation.

A little about me:

Since I started in 2002, I have implemented over 1,300 companies with various CRM applications.   These implementations have ranged in size from 2 to 5,500 licenses and in just about every industry listed in the NAICS.  Along the way I have come up with some 'truisms' that I think anyone could use in their practice or for their own implementation

CRM and Add-on Apps:

I think that there is a very good group of applications out there, but there are also a lot of misconceptions about what they do out of the box and what needs to be customized in order for the system to be considered useful.  Notice I said Useful here.   Just because an app is rolled out and is available for use does not mean that it is usable and useful to the company constituents.   How many of us know companies that have spent tons of cash to implement the latest and greatest "X" application only to see it die on the vine within 6 months of 'go-live.'

My Dennis Miller Rant:

The sales organizations of major CRM applications are coached on what to say to sell licenses, and, for the most part, they do not have the empirical knowledge or skill required to implement one.  It is the classic example of "My mouth is writing checks that someone else's body needs to cash"  So who does the work?   More often than not, it is the Junior CRM consultant (6 months experience, no complete lifecycles, fresh out of college or trade school OR the guy or gal that just got a promotion from Sales or Marketing Admin because they were the department POC for a CRM implementation at their last company) who is working for the 'Senior' CRM consultant (1 or 2 complete lifecyles, 1 year experience, and attendance at 2 consecutive Dreamforce conferences). 

Ideally an application is matched directly to the business process it will augment, not the other way around.  I have seen many applications that put a company in 'a box' and force them to decide the best way to 'work around' the limitations of the chosen app.

I hate to be the generalist here, but I think I have personally performed more integrations than anyone I know and I have found that the more the vendors advertise ubiquitousness, the more they are proprietary.

Cost:

Cost is relative.  At the end of the day, a monthly subscription, no matter the price is easy to cover with sales generated from a streamlined system.  System here does NOT mean just the CRM.  System is just that, a collective of smart people, documented and well-known processes, CRM applications that make life easier and not harder, and lastly; data that is arranged to be useful and actionable for the end customer.

My personal benchmark is the 1 Year Rule.

Take what you will reasonably expect to spend on a CRM system for initial year and then subtract a percentage of revenue over what you pulled in last year with the manual or semi-manual process.  Assume a 6 - 9 month adoption cycle for the new CRM, so you can only truly expect to increase revenue using the new system in the last 6 months of the initial year.

Success with a CRM Project

I think that if you perform reasonable due diligence, and you assemble a truly multi-disciplinary team headed by a True Sponsor or champion at the C-Level, you will succeed.

I have seen many CRM implementations fail not because the company chose the wrong software but because:

1.  There was no vision for the outcome of the project

2.  The project was run by I.T. and not the business users (Not saying that IT cannot run CRM projects, but that IT thinks like IT, not like sales, marketing, ops, customer support, etc).   Implementing CRM is about changing paradigms in how processes work and how efficiencies are gained.   That mandates a multi-disciplinary team made up of the best and brightest at a company.   It also means that you probably need to bring in consultants for the "fresh eyes" and to spearhead the process.

3.  The project sponsor was lackadaisical in his approach to the project

4.  There was inadequate communication between the end customers and the people performing the integration

5.  The data extract, normalization and import went poorly and the data was 'pranged' when it went into the new system, thereby casting a negative light on the whole process.

6.  The integration team chosen was not firmly rooted in the business process and did not take the time to become intimate with the company and it's specific processes

7.  Training was inadequate and not consistent for new hires.  The original team will one day move on and will take their institutional knowledge with them.  Training documentation is key here.   We have found lots of success with video.  I have shot over 1,000 hours of video, some for all clients and some for specific clients (in their own Vimeo.com channels).  Point in Time video or recorded Gotomeetings will act as milestones and will always refresh you on why certain things were done and the discussions that went into them.

These are just some thoughts that I have gathered over the years, and should not be taken as the ultimate guide to anything.  I will leave the honor of creating that guide to the Junior and Senior CRM consultants out there.  I will be off actually transforming businesses with CRM; planning the next one of these that I will post, maybe in the next 5 years.