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      Part 1

      Laying the CRM Foundation

      IN THIS PART …

      Understand the key strategies and components that make up your Complete CRM.

      Get your team on board and create a data-driven culture.

      Pick the best sales and marketing software for your business

      Chapter 1

      Embarking on Your Journey to Complete CRM

      IN THIS CHAPTER

      The first part of getting Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to work for your business is to understand what CRM really is. If you ask ten people, you’re likely to get ten different answers, each rooted in their personal experiences.

      CRM has only started being taught in colleges and universities, so it’s no wonder there is fear, uncertainty, and doubt (also known as FUD) around it. Making CRM work in any business is a challenge, but it’s one you can overcome with a grasp of the strategies and tactics.

      This chapter introduces the concept of Complete CRM and all the terms and technologies that make it possible. You can then apply all that knowledge to your organization with confidence.

      Every organization is built on relationships. It doesn’t matter how big or small the company is, which industry it serves, or who you are in that organization – relationships drive the success or failure of that group of people and the technology behind them.

      The “R” in CRM stands for “relationship,” something that everyone – whether in sales, marketing, or operations – in your company contributes to. The more you understand how these relationships work, and how everyone in your organization influences them, the more efficiently your organization runs and the easier you generate revenue.

      One key to understanding relationships in the context of CRM is knowing the difference between Complete CRM and Traditional CRM.

      Traditional CRM is rooted in cataloging notes that salespeople made when they called their leads. Leads became contacts only after they bought something. These methods quickly became cumbersome and outdated when compared with the modern online, customizable, and mobile solutions available today.

      Complete CRM is built for today’s business world and requires:

Complete CRM helps you understand what happens in the sales process, record how people engage with your marketing efforts, and track other interactions with your operations staff (for example, customer service, events, projects, and invoicing). Figure 1-1 illustrates how everything works together in a single system.

       FIGURE 1-1: What Complete CRM does for you.

      It takes an understanding of every piece of your organization to make Complete CRM work. Some concepts may be totally new to you. How some areas work may be totally new to you, and you may have to learn how different departments you’ve never ventured into work. You need to convince everyone from the top down of your vision of Complete CRM to be successful.

      

Transitioning to a Complete CRM mindset can give you a greater perception and empathy for those people who make your organization the best it can be.

HIRING A CRM CONSULTANT

      Many businesses work with consultants to set up Complete CRM. Not all consultants are created equal – in fact, a lot of consultants call themselves experts without the experience to back up the claim – and when it comes to CRM, most have specific biases based on their experiences installing or using a particular platform.

      If you’re hiring a consultant, be sure your consultant has experience relative to the size of your business and industry. If a consultant specializes in enterprise business process, don’t expect that person to have an understanding of what it takes to run a startup business.

      Don’t rely on a single story or a gut feeling. CRM is too far-reaching, and the organization you work for is too important, to gamble with. With the right tools, reference material, and data, you’ll make an informed decision that you can feel confident about.

      Be cognizant of these gotchas that surface often when working with CRM:

      • Some consultants will tell you that you must do something in an effort to bring them more work. If someone says “you have to hire this software development company” or “you have to use this system integrator to make your software work,” you may be investing in something overly complicated that guarantees more work (and money) for overpriced labor.

      • Some vendors will tell you their product (hardware or software) isn’t working because you and your staff are misusing it. The vendor may blame the original salesperson. Remember that you’re never stuck with a vendor you don’t like; sometimes it’s better to change strategies and vendors. Even if you’ve already invested a significant amount of money with a vendor, you’re not trapped; you can make a switch to a new and better vendor.

      • Many consultants are incentivized to sell businesses on large, complex systems because they’re paid to get those systems up and running. Overbuilt CRM platforms can cause huge inefficiencies that may require you to spend thousands of hours and dollars to try to fix them. Be skeptical of falling for the big company line. Remember that bigger is not always better.

Extending CRM to Your Entire Business

      CRM is more than just software. It’s a mindset. Every business reaches a point, usually early on, when everything that’s happening can’t be held in someone’s brain. People in the organization need to take notes, or they’ll forget important things like customer issues, birthdays, or deadlines. With the aid of good tools to organize the information you need, you create a more efficient and effective business.

A good CRM system builds a framework for the information managed in your organization. Sales, marketing, and operations information needs to live in the same system because relationships reach across all those departments, as shown in Figure 1-2. Relationships represent the lifeblood of any organization, even those that don’t outright sell products or services. The better you can understand and learn from those relationships, the more valuable and efficient you and your organization are.

       FIGURE 1-2: Sales, marketing, and operations working together.

      Disorganization in any business leads to missed deadlines, sloppy work, and uninformed managers. CRM is the cure for these negative effects by creating organization and defining processes, but it doesn’t just happen. It takes leadership, focus, and dedication to achieve the vision that you set.

Knowing the Buzzwords

      CRM is awash in terms and buzzwords that people like to throw around. This section gives you the background you need to translate the CRM-speak.

      You may be already familiar with some of these terms – for example, buyer personas are a tried-and-true marketing technique. But they may have a slightly

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