CRM SUCCESS

Posted by Jim Love on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

Two essential questions for CRM success.

Posted by Jim Love on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

There are two questions — and if you answer them successfully you are on the way to CRM success.   Ready for them?

The first one is this –  “so you can do what?”  Get this one right an you are on the path to success. Because that question leads to the most important questions and some of the best and more concrete strategic planning you can do.

We do a lot of CRM “remediation”.   People come to us with underachieving or downright failing efforts.  90% of the time, we we get called in to fix a CRM project in that unhappy state, there is one factor that stands out in the early assessment.  There was no clear strategy.

Strategy has become an ugly word in business.  It’s seen by some as “navel gazing”,  “over-thinking”,  “admiring the problem” or described as “academic”.   It’s the antithesis of what we value in the modern business — action!  I’ve even heard one CEO brag about his “ready, fire, aim” approach.

But really, strategy is very simple.  It involves answering two key questions.  It’s really that simple.

So ask yourself.  “I got a CRM so I can do what?”   Get more leads?  Get more sales?  Increase customer satisfaction?  Maybe it’s more than one of these.  Maybe it’s all.  Maybe there’s another reason.  That’s okay.   How do you know which one is right?  It’s easy.

Let’s take “get more leads” as an example.   If we want to find out if that’s right, we only have to ask the question again — “so I can do what?”.   And the answer is?  Inevitably it’s a little more concrete, like “so I can sell more?”

So that’s great.  We are on our way to success.  We need only introduce one more question.  This is it.  “How?”

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