My Top 5 CRM mistakes

What does Digital Transformation mean in this era of AI?

Is it linked to Customer Experience (CX), Productivity, Employee Satisfaction and Empowerment or just concentrating on risks and limitations?

For me after all these years surviving Business Processes, Business Applications, CRM and ERP needs and wants, I truly believe there's no digital transformation without Power Platform and Dynamics 365 capabilities.

So my point of view and lessons learnt with Customer Relationship Management & Finance related projects and processes; here you are! It all started more than 20 years ago Swedish CRM system called Abalon, then fast forward to Vineyard, Dynamics 3.0, not to forget LimeCRM, iScala CRM, SalesForce, Hubspot, and now <thank God!> "back" to Dynamics 365 CE world.

Please – it doesn’t (yet) read your thoughts but we are very close to it so pay attention!

1. Requirements is everything. "We want CRM. " - is not just enough. Measure, analyze, improve. It's always good to go back to requirements every now and then and ask for yourself "are they still the same?". If yes, don't create any extra asks or wants. But if not, make informed decision to change requirements and remember to communicate it both internally and externally. Remember to prioritize requirements both with business impact but also with resources needed to complete the requirement. Ask yourself “is it worth it?”
2. Use industry standards and best practices instead of customizing. If you want the dancing bears and jingle bells to your system, maybe tailor-made system is better for you. With Dynamics you get all the Microsoft investments and working integrations to your every-day-modern-work-tools like Outlook and Teams. But if you sales process is in you black book using your Ballograf, then you have bigger problems to solve first...
3. Adoption. "We can do it by ourselves, take it off from your proposal." If you have chapter about communication, change management and adoption in your Project Charter, don't underestimate the value of it. It's crucial. It should be number 1 priority. Put 90% of your efforts and resources here and only 10% into technology. I mean it. I beg you. I've learnt this hard way (many times) - technology is easy - it's just 0's and 1's to simplify a bit. But people.... How to make sure people will change their behavior and stick with the new process ;-)
4. "We don't need end-user training because all this is so intuitive". Other version of this is that "we'll deliver full one day training on Go-Live" (and then let users survive themselves from there). It's not a modern way of learning. You need to slice and dice the needs, handle resistance and then make sure adoption really happens and make it again and again. Small portions, embedded into everyday life. Someone is learning by watching videos or step-by-step manuals, others might just want hands-on support every XX. Consider arranging regular "Lunch&Learn" Open-House sessions. Make sure the good stories will be broadcasted all over your organization.
5. Change management and road to improve. Everything is going to change. Your requirements, your organization, your business and your software vendor is bringing new features to the SAAS service you use. So be prepared! Once upon a time I was taught: CRM might be a project with your (first) implementation partner, but for you it should be a process. It evolves and it should be doing it.

Have I made these mistakes? All of them. I truly hope you don't fall into same! Have I learnt something - yes indeed and that's why I'm sooooo passionate about helping others to succeed!

If you read this far - drop me a message or comment below - let's continue the conversation!

Challenge me – Thank you!

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Yours, Redhead from Finland