What to consider when deciding on a CRM platform?
That’s a great question but one we don’t hear as much as we would like! All too often, we’ve seen companies jump in and find that the project fails.
Below are just a few of the fundamental reasons why:
- Technology is selected based on the hype or recommendation of others. Looking at someone else’s ‘all singing and dancing’ system is great to get a sense of what can be achieved but all too often, customers aren’t always made aware of just what it takes in terms of effort and cost to get there. This leads to a ‘we don’t have budget to get it there’ after it has been purchased. We call this the ‘Hype and Dive’…
- ‘Cheap’ or ‘Free for Life’ offerings seem attractive. This inevitably leads to either technical limitation (it just cannot do the more complex automation or business process flows), or hidden ‘paid for version upgrades’ where companies get stung with unforeseen upgrade costs just to add standard CRM features such as reporting and analytics. We call this ‘Cheap Vs Value’…
- Consideration isn’t given to all business units within the company which leads to a disconnected and inefficient platform. We call this ‘Silos = Hi’s and Lo’s’…
- Hiring the right people. Often we hear of companies that do not engage with a CRM expert to assist with the project and opt to let an internal ‘they know a bit’ resource handle the project. Does he/she/they have the necessary knowledge and experience to implement an end-to-end solution? We call this ‘Hire or High Wire’…
- Integrations aren’t taken in to consideration. Ensuring your CRM can connect with other 3rdparty platforms such as Marketing Automation and Finance systems is essential in tracking the entire ‘Interest-to-Cash’ process. ‘Integrate to Profit Take’…
- Data migration challenges. Can you export the data from your existing systems in a format that can be imported into the new platform? Due diligence should be done on data quality and field mappings. ‘Left Hand meet Right Hand’…
- Do you need to interact with prospects, clients, partners and suppliers? If so, you may need to consider a platform that can support that with a ‘Partner Portal’ or ‘Community’ area. Simply put ‘Collaborative Economy Support’…
- Automation of manual tasks can be critical when implementing a new platform. All too often, users are asked time and time again to ‘do more’, ‘enter more details’ into the system. If you want to promote high user adoption, it is worth considering automating tasks where possible. Most importantly, it is favourable to establish this before selecting a platform, as not all CRM’s offer this capability.
- The Marketing department own the CRM project. This does not work. It doesn’t work if any one department works in isolation. Marketing are great at generating interest and brand awareness, but aren’t always the best people to be dictating Sales Methodology, Finance processes, Support ticketing systems, etc. and how these functions work together. The project and decisions should be made by collaborating with every department centrally to achieve the greatest ROI and benefit. ‘Let’s Get Together’…
- How will you know what success looks like? It is crucial to establish what the end goal is i.e. to support revenue growth, to improve productivity and then map out how you will analyse where you are against your objectives. ‘Strategic Vision Vs Restricted Vision’…
So before committing both your time and budgets to a CRM project, we encourage you to put in the groundwork first! It will definitely ensure a higher chance of success and will provide a Central Intelligence System connecting all areas of your business, helping you to generate more revenue!
