Customer relationship management (CRM) is much more than just contact management. Using Salesforce’s definition, Corey Cox, vice president of information systems at Tandent NationaLease, told a recent NationaLease meeting that CRM “is a technology for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers.”
The purpose of CRM is to “help you focus on your organization’s relationships with individual people — including customers, service users, colleagues, or suppliers — throughout your lifecycle with them, including finding new customers, winning their business and providing support and additional services throughout the relationship.”
While a lot of companies invest in CRM, according to CIO magazine, one third of all CRM projects failed in 2017. Reasons for the failures included lack of clarity on the problem being solved, over reaching objectives, inadequate planning, insufficient training and lack of participation.
If you are deciding whether to implement a CRM system, ask yourself what problem would it help you solve or what opportunity would it create. And ask yourself if you are willing to make the necessary investment in a CRM system.
If you decide to make the commitment, remember that there are all kinds of sales functions within your organization — from the outside sales staff who are viewed as road warriors, to inside salespeople who are responsible for order management, to customer service representatives who are tasked with resolving problems, to your operations people whose job it is to deliver what your sales staff promises.
When it comes to a CRM system, is it best to start simply. Create a real process, not just a series of check marks on a list. Have a clear vision of what you hope to get out of the system and plan for utilization of the system (don’t just expect people to automatically use it). Above all else, commit to the program financially and with management support.
If you can define a problem that a CRM can help you solve, or see how having a CRM system will create a new opportunity, then by all means invest in one. Just remember what your end goal is and be prepared to have to enforce usage of the system.
