the Digital Transformation of Sales: Applications (CRM), Tools and Data

Select (or reselect) a CRM system

A well-organized CRM selection should not resemble ‘a beauty contest’ with a long list of questions that are answered with ‘yes’ by every vendor. Instead, a well-run selection focuses on identifying the best match in light of the Business Objectives and Needs of the various stakeholders in your Organization:

Business Needs: what are the business objectives your CRM system needs to support? Grow with new Business? Improve your Margin? Improve Customer Satisfaction? Generate more leads? Which CRM system has USPs in relation to your business needs? How do you ensure that the selection and implementation will empower your Team to achieve the required objectives? How do you ensure your CRM will enable you to generate more Business Value?
End-User needs: ensure the Usability offered by the vendor matches the End-User needs and desires. Validate the Vendor claims are also validated from an End-USer perspective, i.e. it is one thing to claim you can offer the requested functionality, the number of steps and clicks it takes might significantly differ in the various CRM systems. Needless to say that involving End-Users in the selection of a new CRM system can have a significant impact on adoption.
IT: ensure the CRM system fits well within the current IT application landscape, and particularly in the IT application landscape that you envision for the Digital Transformation of your Sales & Marketing organization
Master Data: which master data will be kept in the future CRM system; how does this fit within your overall master data setup
Finance & Purchasing: what are the boundary conditions that a new CRM system will need to meet? and which Vendor matches best with these conditions

CRM Implementation

When a proper Solution Design has been conducted the actual CRM configuration is a straightforward task that should be focussed on minimizing your IT cost. A best practice CRM development organization will:

use an agile development process to be able to quickly respond to new and changing business requirements
minimize admin overhead through an automated setup where possible
ensure high-quality standards for new releases through a well-run and documented DTAP setup
have a governance model with first-line support close to regional users (Key Users and Business Champions)

CRM Adoption: identify root causes of a failed rollout

Diagnostics will help you identify what happened, and drill down to identify the root cause. Different stakeholders will point to different reasons, thorough inspection and analysis are required to identify what the underlying cause is. CRM adoption starts during the selection of the CRM, and takes critical shape during the implementation; the CRM system should be designed and implemented for adoption:

Safeguard a clear ‘What’s in it for Me‘ for the Sales Rep: which value does CRM have for me personally?
Minimize administration overhead – minimal fields, auto-populate where possible
Clear Business Objectives, KPIs, and Targets embedded in CRM, with transparency on progress through Reports and Dashboards

Critical Success Factors

During the rollout of the CRM, the critical success factors are

Top-Management should lead with a clear Vision on the Why (need) and How of the change
Communication: clearly communicate value and need to all stakeholders – each individual should be intrinsically convinced and motivated to move along in the new way of working
Training & Coaching: each individual should feel confident to adopt the new way of working and CRM system; on the job coaching takes a critical role as an extension to one-off training
Spot-Light Early Adopters: nothing accelerates motivation and conviction as a Peer that is reaping the benefits of the New Way of Working
Middle-Management: they are truly the ‘feet on the street’ for driving and leading this change in the organization
Re-inforcing Mechanisms: Carrot & Stick – Your Sales Heartbeat will drive the rhythm and rigor that is required to adopt a new way of working across the organization

Dashboards & Reports

Dashboards and Reports Serve 5 distinctive purpose:

What’s in it for Me: drive the value for the individual – If I need to put things in, then what do I get out, how easy is this, and is it of value to me personally?
Minimize Communication Overhead: all required insights should be available from CRM, eliminating all emails and manually generated reports
Pro-Active Coaching: triggers for coaching should be based on insights from CRM, which will enable middle management to proactively coach and support Team members
Monitor Sales plan realization – Critical input for the Sales Heartbeat, to track the year to date actuals versus targets and take corrective action where required
Identifying Root Causes – analytical environments should be a logical extension to your reports and dashboards, allowing users to do a root cause analysis for a specific situation