CRM is software that will magically transform your business.
This common misconception is why CRM initiatives have such a poor return on investment. Seriously, can you name a piece of software that solves everyone's problems? Software companies did a great job hi-jacking the term CRM after their SFA initiative failed and have made the term synonymous with software. They've been tied together so many times that they might as well be "Scotch" and "Tape".
I've been just as guilty in the past of failing to expand CRM into Customer Relationship Management. It becomes more apparent that the words "Software" or "Automation" are not there. That word "Relationship" jumps out at me, but I don't think it's jumped out at many others given the state of the market. You really "know" your friends, right? In fact, it would be hard to have a long lasting and close relationship without reallying knowing them. You probably know what they think of you.
CRM is also a strategy which is based on an acute understanding of your customers. Knowing which customers are profitable and which customers are not. Knowing what they need, and what they don't need. A solid CRM strategy will help you manage the four bottomline corners of your business: Revenue, Costs, Profitability and Lost Opportunity Costs.
If you or your company is thinking about CRM, stop thinking about software and starting thinking about this:
Do you really believe that the front office can be run on best practices? Who's best practices? A software developer? If you really want to be more competitive maybe the only differentiator left is customer loyalty, not a software package. Do address this will require a lot of work. Sorry, installing software and having two days of training isn't going to cut it. You need a comprehensive strategy that will clearly lead your customer facing employees, and also dictate the few processes and workflows that can be supported with software.
And once you've done all of this, you will know what you need and don't need in a CRM software package. Don't develop a CRM strategy based on the features of some CRM software. Your requirements should be derived from your strategy, not from your software.
This common misconception is why CRM initiatives have such a poor return on investment. Seriously, can you name a piece of software that solves everyone's problems? Software companies did a great job hi-jacking the term CRM after their SFA initiative failed and have made the term synonymous with software. They've been tied together so many times that they might as well be "Scotch" and "Tape".
I've been just as guilty in the past of failing to expand CRM into Customer Relationship Management. It becomes more apparent that the words "Software" or "Automation" are not there. That word "Relationship" jumps out at me, but I don't think it's jumped out at many others given the state of the market. You really "know" your friends, right? In fact, it would be hard to have a long lasting and close relationship without reallying knowing them. You probably know what they think of you.
CRM is also a strategy which is based on an acute understanding of your customers. Knowing which customers are profitable and which customers are not. Knowing what they need, and what they don't need. A solid CRM strategy will help you manage the four bottomline corners of your business: Revenue, Costs, Profitability and Lost Opportunity Costs.
If you or your company is thinking about CRM, stop thinking about software and starting thinking about this:
Do you really believe that the front office can be run on best practices? Who's best practices? A software developer? If you really want to be more competitive maybe the only differentiator left is customer loyalty, not a software package. Do address this will require a lot of work. Sorry, installing software and having two days of training isn't going to cut it. You need a comprehensive strategy that will clearly lead your customer facing employees, and also dictate the few processes and workflows that can be supported with software.
And once you've done all of this, you will know what you need and don't need in a CRM software package. Don't develop a CRM strategy based on the features of some CRM software. Your requirements should be derived from your strategy, not from your software.
About the Author:
Mike Boysen is a seasoned CRM professional and an experience CRM consultant and the creator of www.effective-crm-consulting.com where you can learn much more than the definition of crm in this article. Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.
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