The horror stories are out there - companies dropping huge sums of money and time into CRM projects that have a terrible ROI.  Personally, I have seen my share of train wrecks and I prefer to stay away from them.

My favorite CRM projects have always had a few key ingredients that have led to overwhelming success for the client.  So this has given me a pretty good overview of CRM and I may be able to save you a lot of agony by pointing out my theories on CRM success.

SUCCESS vs. TRAIN WRECK

Shocker Statement: Small firms that are going to have less than 10 users can get the best ROI from CRM.  I have seen this to be true because a firm of that size can adapt more easily to CRM, and they can inflate the persona of the company with CRM and a creative attitude.

IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS

You need new clients, but you also need to improve the relationships with your current clients.  Current clients can be so much more valuable – so you really need to do your homework, compile some data, and then ‘wow’ them with the little things. 

For example, let’s say that you have an advertising specialties company.  I would get a couple of employees ( or a couple really sharp temps) to start investigating your customers.  Go beyond the usual – find out contacts birthdays, anniversaries, kids birthdays, college they attended, etc.  The more you know – the better.

Now plug the data into Goldmine and make up your marketing plan.  How about embroidering a special ball cap with their company logo on the front, and YOUR COMPANY logo (small) on the back for their birthday.  Bottle of wine with a custom label for an anniversary. How about a really nice coffee mug for President’s Day?  Even a greeting card for some odd holidays.

OK – here is something novel, send them a gift and thank you for business they did with you in the past – NO MATTER HOW LONG AGO IT WAS.

IMPROVING INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION

How fast can you get information, forms, brochures, etc, out to prospects and clients?  Imagine a system that allows prospects to download pdf files from the Internet without your intervention, yet gets their contact info so that you can follow-up.  This can be done with web interaction back to your CRM system.  The prospect goes to your website, requests the info in a web form, and the CRM system answers back with an email containing a link to the downloads.  This gives them the info they need nearly instantly, and puts them into your database as a ‘new prospect’.  Now you can follow up in the best way to find out if you can be of service to them.

DATA REPORTING IS NOT THE BEST USE OF CRM

So many firms try to use CRM as a tool to develop statistics on sales people.  Although it can be done, this should never be the main emphasis in launching CRM.  Salespeople will never appreciate the powerful tool that a solid CRM system can be unless it helps them to get what they really want – more qualified leads and good business to write.  Salespeople need to have the most benefit from CRM, not a ‘ball and chain’ to slow them down.

JR Fent is the Lead Consultant at Anthem Consulting; a firm that specializes in utilizing CRM technologies specifically for small to medium sized sales firms.  JR has over 25 years of experience in selling and sales management and over 10 years experience in implementing technology systems specifically for customer relationship management and improving sales.