By Walter Rogers Walter Rogers is the Chairman of Baker CommunicationsÂ
Chairman
Baker Communication
February 2010
In previous articles in this series on CRM adoption, we have focused on ways to boost support and participation from sales makers because, arguably, they are the single most important constituency to bring on board in order to convert CRM from a sales accounting tool into a high-performing revenue engine. However, as important as it is to accomplish that mission, you must also connect a few more dots in order to fully realize the benefits that an outstanding CRM system can provide for your entire organization.
Be sure to include non sales facing functions. Finance, HR, Support, Operations and other functions all impact customer experience. Not connecting other functions into a CRM decreases the opportunity to eliminate redundant work processes and ultimately the customer’s experience. If an organization is leveraging a CRM for a subset of its customer interactions but asking non-sales groups to use different tools that contain redundant or potentially conflicting information, then a disconnect on where, when and how to leverage a CRM to drive improved customer experiences will persist.
It is absolutely essential to integrate sales and marketing work streams. Sales and Marketing are often at odds with each other. Even though both Sales and Marketing are ultimately responsible for driving revenue, they often report to different executives with conflicting measurement objectives. As a result, 75% of leads generated by Marketing for Sales never receive a phone call, wasting time and energy of both groups. A properly configured CRM supporting a highly coordinated and unified strategy can eliminate cross-departmental competition and significantly enhance planning and execution of sales activities. Both Sales and Marketing processes should come to “life” inside integrated work streams enabled by the CRM, and finally deliver the result that the entire organization is looking for: closing more business at higher margins.
Deliver effective training that focuses on strategy as well as function. CRMs can be highly complex and intricate. The training and tutorials provided by most organizations during the deployment of the system focus on what the buttons do, but practically no training on best practices for leveraging the functions of the CRM to support the sales process and drive revenue. Therefore, reps often end up using CRMs as nothing more than hugely expensive address books to manage their customer contacts and record their sales. All CRM training, especially for sales makers, should provide a strong emphasis on the strategy and process for using the CRM as a powerful sales enablement tool. With the right training, sales makers will be able to smoothly and confidently navigate through all the functions of the system and use those functions to support sales activities in all of their accounts. Once reps are empowered to use the CRM to effectively and consistently drive revenue, CRM adoption ceases to present a problem.
Every step of the way, continue to remind sales makers of exactly how the CRM will drive revenue and benefit them. This final “dot” can’t be overemphasized. If the CRM doesn’t drive more revenue for the rep, the team and the company, it is truly a colossal waste of time and money. Because communication from upper management is often incomplete and training is generally insufficient or irrelevant, sales team members never get the vision or the skills to leverage the CRM for its ultimate purpose: driving more sales and improving productivity! Truly, with the right strategic alignment that includes process, skill and tools for the entire sales team (including sales managers and senior executives), CRMs really do drive revenue. Once sales reps discover the power at their fingertips and learn how to use it, sales numbers will begin to climb, enthusiasm for the process builds, adoption increases, and the CRM finally becomes the valuable tool it was always intended to be.
Be sure to include non sales facing functions. Finance, HR, Support, Operations and other functions all impact customer experience. Not connecting other functions into a CRM decreases the opportunity to eliminate redundant work processes and ultimately the customer’s experience. If an organization is leveraging a CRM for a subset of its customer interactions but asking non-sales groups to use different tools that contain redundant or potentially conflicting information, then a disconnect on where, when and how to leverage a CRM to drive improved customer experiences will persist.
It is absolutely essential to integrate sales and marketing work streams. Sales and Marketing are often at odds with each other. Even though both Sales and Marketing are ultimately responsible for driving revenue, they often report to different executives with conflicting measurement objectives. As a result, 75% of leads generated by Marketing for Sales never receive a phone call, wasting time and energy of both groups. A properly configured CRM supporting a highly coordinated and unified strategy can eliminate cross-departmental competition and significantly enhance planning and execution of sales activities. Both Sales and Marketing processes should come to “life” inside integrated work streams enabled by the CRM, and finally deliver the result that the entire organization is looking for: closing more business at higher margins.
Deliver effective training that focuses on strategy as well as function. CRMs can be highly complex and intricate. The training and tutorials provided by most organizations during the deployment of the system focus on what the buttons do, but practically no training on best practices for leveraging the functions of the CRM to support the sales process and drive revenue. Therefore, reps often end up using CRMs as nothing more than hugely expensive address books to manage their customer contacts and record their sales. All CRM training, especially for sales makers, should provide a strong emphasis on the strategy and process for using the CRM as a powerful sales enablement tool. With the right training, sales makers will be able to smoothly and confidently navigate through all the functions of the system and use those functions to support sales activities in all of their accounts. Once reps are empowered to use the CRM to effectively and consistently drive revenue, CRM adoption ceases to present a problem.
Every step of the way, continue to remind sales makers of exactly how the CRM will drive revenue and benefit them. This final “dot” can’t be overemphasized. If the CRM doesn’t drive more revenue for the rep, the team and the company, it is truly a colossal waste of time and money. Because communication from upper management is often incomplete and training is generally insufficient or irrelevant, sales team members never get the vision or the skills to leverage the CRM for its ultimate purpose: driving more sales and improving productivity! Truly, with the right strategic alignment that includes process, skill and tools for the entire sales team (including sales managers and senior executives), CRMs really do drive revenue. Once sales reps discover the power at their fingertips and learn how to use it, sales numbers will begin to climb, enthusiasm for the process builds, adoption increases, and the CRM finally becomes the valuable tool it was always intended to be.
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