What is CRM, Why use CRM?

This article is for anyone interested in CRM, especially for those wondering whether they should implement a CRM system.

If you or your Organization has a need to improve customer relationships or to enhance customer satisfaction or to drive sales growth - then a CRM may be for you.

This article may be a little bit biased in favour of Onedb CRM, but only a little bit! it should still be useful for those exploring this topic in the general case.

CRM is a TLA?(Three Letter Acronym)?for Customer Relationship Management.?

The global market for CRM has grown rapidly in recent years to $80 Billion?(2023)?it is now the 2nd?largest category of business software after ERP at $188 Billion?(2023) (Enterprise Resource Planning)?a separate article on ERP is coming shortly!

I think of CRM as covering 3 main business functions:?Sales, Service?and?Marketing.

Sales is arguably the most important function for most Businesses - anything that can improve the Sales function must be valuable.

Sales CRM has roots in the humble Rolodex invented in 1956 - this pre-software mechanical device was used to store and organize Contact information. For most Salespeople - Contact information is their most importation information - so?Contact Management?is still a critical component of CRM.?

Contact Management may be basic in nature but getting the basics correct is fundamental to success in Sales - a mistake with spelling a name or getting a role wrong can easily ruin any chance of success with a potentially valuable lead.?

The first widely used Contact Management Software was a product called ACT?(Automated Contact Tracking)?released in 1987. This was followed by Maximiser and Goldmine.

Very Large Organizations such as British Telecom who could afford expensive Mainframes with bespoke software for?Database Marketing?to support activities such as mass mailing.

In the late 1990s I sold software from?Siebel Systems?- this was one of the first packaged products to support Sales and Marketing - at the time it was called?Sales Force Automation?(SFA) software, it is claimed that Tom Siebel first coined the term?CRM?which has now mostly superseded SFA.

Siebel Software was very expensive and had a lengthy difficult deployment process, so was mainly used by large Enterprises - like SAP ERP is today.

In 1999 Mark Benioff left Oracle and started a company called?Salesforce, he had a vision to deliver CRM from the?Cloud, so instead of installing the software on servers at customer locations (On-Premise) it ran on servers in datacentres operated by Salesforce. This overcame some of the deployment problems of Siebel and enabled Salespeople to more easily access their CRM from any location via the internet.

Salesforce grew rapidly and are the company most responsible for popularizing the term CRM - somewhat ironically their product has now become a bit of an expensive beast, better suited to large Enterprises than SMEs.

In 2000 I founded a Microsoft Dynamics ERP Reseller company, I maintained an interest in CRM so when Microsoft released their CRM v1 in 2003 we started?to sell it and remarkably we managed to sell it - despite the fact that it was a terrible product! But in typical Microsoft fashion they improved it a lot and by v3 it was reasonably good.?

Anyway that's enough history to set the scene - What is CRM about now in 2023??Sales?CRM?is for managing Sales related Data and Sales Processes.?Marketing?CRM?is for managing Marketing Campaigns to find Leads to feed?Sales.?Service?CRM?is for managing Customer interactions after the initial Sale has been made, such as for automating workflows for Customer Service Cases or Issues.

Sales CRM

The most popular functionality in CRM is for Sales, this is especially true for smaller companies who may lack the resources to have dedicated Marketing and Service teams.?

So how does Sales CRM help an organization to increase its Sales?

Well as I hinted at earlier it's about getting the basics right.?

CRM is fundamentally a?Database?plus a?Workflow?Engine?- a Database obviously requires Data input - with Onedb CRM we make it as easy as possible to get accurate data in - you can easily import data from sources such as spreadsheets or other systems, there are checks and constraints to help with accuracy plus intelligent automatic defaults to minimise input effort. Onedb is a Relational Database, this means that you only ever need to enter a piece of information once, it is then shared cross the whole system even to non-CRM modules, this ensures consistency and accuracy.

An accurate Database with relevant useful information that maintains a complete history of every interaction that has ever occurred between the Organization and its Customers or Potential Customers (Leads and Prospects) is incredibly valuable.

Why is this CRM Database so valuable??

Human memory is not very reliable, Database memory is perfectly reliable (assuming that the data was entered correctly). Knowledge inside a Salespersons head is not easily shared, sometimes deliberately not shared. Knowledge in a Database is easily shared, it is also easily analysed, since Databases like Onedb have superb Analysis tools. Analysis can find repeatable patterns, patterns of behaviour that result in better outcomes such as higher win rates or more satisfied customers.?

CRM Data can also be used to?trigger?important?Workflows, even a simple workflow such as sending a reminder to complete a Proposal by a promised date can be valuable, deals can easily be lost by late Proposals or Quotes. Onedb CRM workflows can even assist in tasks such as preparing Proposals, using intelligent logic to fill in templates based upon previously entered information such as desired Products and Customer/Prospect Type.

Workflows are valuable because humans are fallible but computers are not, a workflow will always follow its defined rules.

Onedb Workflow rules and steps can easily be defined using an intuitive point & click graphical designer - no coding skills required.

For any Company larger than one, sharing data is obviously important - even basic information such as a Prospect’s organization chart with Contacts, Roles, Reports to etc is important, if a Salesperson leaves the Prospect will not be too impressed if they have to repeat such information.?

Salespeople may sometimes be somewhat paranoid and reluctant to share information, a well implemented CRM system overcomes this, because it makes the Salesperson themselves more effective, not just the Organization. CRM systems can also help ensure that everyone follows company policies and that everyone is fairly treated e.g. commission is correctly allocated.

Building a Business Operating System

Most Businesses operate in a very competitive environment, to be successful they require - some kind of edge some, some kind of advantage - over their competitors.?

If a system can support this advantage, if it can encode processes and behaviours underpinning this edge, it can make the organization even more efficient and also resilient to risks, such as key employees leaving.??

CRM is a critical part of such as system, unique functionality in the Customer facing Front-Office is more important than uniqueness in the Back-Office.?

Onedb CRM has its own unique advantage - it includes an incredible?No-Code?App builder that can be used to easily?adapt?and?extend?the CRM to perfectly fit the Organization's unique requirements.

Longer term Onedb offers another unique advantage - the option of seamlessly?integrated ERP?modules - these can be added in later phases to create a comprehensive Business Operating System that supports every part of the Organization. Seamless integration provides huge benefits such as: better adoption, ease of use, consistency, accuracy, efficiency, collaboration etc.?

Most CRMs such as Pipedrive, Hubspot, Monday, Dynamics etc have very limited customization functionality and they lack seamless ERP integration

e.g. Microsoft Dynamics may have ERP and CRM modules, labelled with the same name but they are completely separate products - difficult to integrate with inevitable duplication which leads to errors and extra effort e.g. customer records must be maintained in 2 databases.

Marketing CRM

Some Salespeople do their own marketing they find their own leads by?Prospecting techniques such as cold calling.

Many companies sperate the Marketing function from the Sales Function - especially if highly skilled and technical Salespeople are required to close deals - a good CRM system will support both methods.

Onedb CRM can handle virtually unlimited number of records such as Leads, Prospects, Opportunities etc, it provides powerful filtering, segregation, analysis and workflows to efficiently manage Sales Funnels to help discover genuine opportunities.

It is important that?Opportunities?are correctly?qualified?as early as possible since it is easy to waste valuable resources on hope rather than genuine Opportunities that are a good fit for the Organization's offering - where the Prospect has a strong need, matching requirements, available budget and the Contact has authority to buy.

Onedb CRM is optionally integrated to Onedb ERP so Marketing Campaigns can be managed like Projects with Approvals, Costing and Accounting.

Integrations are available such as with Google Analytics to enable the matching of Costs with Sales to track the effectiveness of campaigns.

Onedb CRM includes eMail and Telephony integrations, when doing mass mailing it is critical to avoid getting blacklisted for spam, Onedb can help avoid this by promoting good practice such as limiting the number of mails sent per domain per day and by warming up new sender domains.

Service CRM

Maintaining an excellent long term relationship with Customers is usually a good business strategy since it is much easier to sell to an existing Customer than to a Prospect.

To achieve this, it is of course important - to not forget about the Customer after the initial Sale, to be responsive to any questions or issue they may have with your product or service. Remarkably many companies fail to do this by providing minimal Customer Service.

Onedb CRM includes a?Customer Portal?where customers can easily enter questions / issues / cases / tickets etc. Intelligent Workflows then route these to appropriate resources for resolution - within defined time-frames which must accord with the SLA?(Service Level Agreement). Cases can even be automatically created from eMails, all interactions are recorded, management can easily be alerted for exceptions such as cases taking too long to resolve.

Onedb CRM integrates with Onedb ERP - Entities such as Customers are shared within the same database - authorised CRM users can quickly get a complete picture including: Invoices, Contracts, Products, Services, Orders, Warranty periods etc - this of course supports an optimum customer service experience.

Self Service

Using the Customer Portal - Customers can also help themselves to useful information such as: invoices, warranties, contract terms, renewal dates, products, services etc. This convenience improves customer satisfaction and is much more efficient and scalable than using other channels such the telephone.

Onedb Self Service can also be leveraged to increase Sales by offering additional products and services that may be complementary or enhance their previous purchases. If ERP SOP?(Sales Order Processing)?is enabled Customers can even place Orders via this portal to improve convenience, efficiency and profits.

Collaboration

The fundamental reason that Companies or Organizations exist is that the combined value added by the members is greater than the sum of the individuals.

This is possible because Trust and Communication is much higher within an Organization than between external Parties.?

A CRM Database is a powerful tool for sharing information, for improving?knowledge - a good CRM system will encourage a culture where all users contribute to the database and where all users derive benefit from the Database.

A CRM Database is also an important store of knowledge that can help new employees become productive more quickly. Powerful Analysis and Reporting tools can be used by all Users, to enable better insight and decision making, to make more Profit.

Implementation and Costs

Just 10 years ago implementing a business system such as ERP or CRM was very expensive and painful, even small companies would have to spend well over ￡50,000 to get a system up and running. Most systems where installed on-premise requiring server computers and server software such as Databases and Operating systems. Servers and CRM Software had large up front capital costs, then there was implementation consultancy. Running software on-premise also required on going costs with at least 1 full time employee (usually more) to manage servers and databases.

With the SAAS model now widely available for CRM - it is usually much cheaper to implement because most of the Capital costs are eliminated. Many SAAS CRMs such as Onedb CRM also require much less implementation consultancy because they are more intuitive and have good on-line education resources. With Onedb CRM on-going costs are transparent and reasonable- the rental fee includes all server operating costs, it even includes support.

A medium sized company of 30 employees can now benefit from a complete powerful CRM + No-Code from Onedb for less than €1,000 per month - this is I think incredible value when one consider the the huge benefits it can provide - just 1 extra deal won per year could easily pay for this.

Next Steps

I hope this article has helped you to decide whether CRM is worth investigating further.

If you would like to speak to a CRM expert to discuss your requirements in more detail please request a meeting below:

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