There’s a simple rule when planning a CRM installation.
The work you put in ahead of time, pays dividends when the system is up and running.
Without question, if your staff believe in the system, you’ve taken the opportunity to build a sales process that works, and you build a CRM system is customized to offer the best tools available for your business, you really see the incredible power of CRM in action.
So let’s take a glimpse at the importance of just these three simple factors of pre-planning for a CRM installation.
People – The CRM development needs support from the entire staff who utilize it, potentially from IT service providers, accounting staff, customer service, sales staff, marketing and upper management. You need to provide the right information to get these folks motivated about using a CRM system. And that right information always comes back to success for their individual missions. You need to develop a CRM culture in the workplace.
Process – The installation of a CRM system is that great opportunity to streamline your sales process. Process mapping can identify bottlenecks of time and money and duplication of process. This is where you really see the savings of a CRM culture in the workplace. When a business takes the time in their pre-planning to ensure they get the most out of their system – for every system user – it sets a tone for expediency, efficiency and sales based on realistic expectations of leads, prospects and customers.
Technology – Everyone has a CRM system now. Sometimes sales forces track their information on napkins, little booklets, more often an excel spreadsheet. But nowhere will you find the cross departmental efficiency of the information contained within a CRM database. There’s an incredible ability for information reporting within a CRM system, meshing customer service, accounting, sales, trends – customized reporting helps pinpoint the measurements important to any individual business and can show information in new light as the key indicators change with the business model.
This is just the start of how a CRM system can power a business forward to incredible results. The more that can be considered when planning an installation, the more powerful the tool will be once in use.
Rick McCutcheon is a Dynamics CRM MVP with expertise in sales process design, social selling and CRM strategies. Rick has been involved in the CRM industry since 1990 as a company founder, senior executive, reseller, industry association board member, educator consultant and professional speaker. He is the creator of the Full Contact Selling (FCS) methodology for Dynamics CRM. He can be reached at rickm@fullcontactselling.com .