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The Thursday CRM Blog

Archiv für März 2010

The CRM Business Case

Mrz 30

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM Projects, CRM Software, ROI | Keine Kommentare

When replying to an RFP, I used to ask for a statement of the business case in order to supply more accurate, customized data. Why did I stop? Because I never got an answer. It seems that many companies interested in CRM tend to look for the CRM product which has the most functions for the money the company intends to spend. That this completely disregards the costs of customization is a basis for a later post, here the question is, “what should a business case statement contain?”.

Two groups can benefit from the introduction or replacement of a CRM solution, customers and users. Users can gain by increased personal and team efficiency, while customers should benefit by improved and smarter service, leading to reduced costs in the first case and higher sales in the second.

It is never easy to quantify the benefits, but not impossible. In the case of users, the possible benefits differ according to the user role.

Sales person

A good sales person will have organized his/her work with his own methods or tools. Do not look for monetary benefits in this area.

Sales Teams and Sales Channels

Whereas sales persons can organize their own work, they often are not good at sharing information with other team members. By improving the information flow within a team, selling time can be increased. The saving will depend on the specific situation, but could well be around 10%. Time saved does not always result in more sales activity, so this needs to be analyzed.

Marketing

Major savings can be made by reducing the effort required for serial letter or e-mail campaigns. This can lead to time savings of up to 25% leaving capacity for other tasks or for more intensive campaign work

Management

A well set-up CRM system will allow managers to analyze and guide sales activities and will provide data for strategic planning. Managers must estimate the worth of information for their individual situation.

Customers

Customers should experience higher service levels after introduction of a CRM System leading to higher satisfaction. Sales income is dependent on a number of factors so the effect of CRM activities on turnover cannot be directly measured. Customer satisfaction levels should be measured before and after the introduction of a CRM System. A more satisfied customer may or may not purchase more, but an estimate should be made on the basis of historical information.

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How to find the right CRM software

Mrz 29

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM, CRM Projects, CRM Software | Keine Kommentare

 The process of selecting CRM software has been discussed and described many times and in great detail. My recent experience has been however, that there are some basic and simple guidelines which are often ignored. Projects do not necessarily fail as a result of this, but many projects are much more costly than they need be and user satisfaction is often not as good as it might be. My next posts will handle these topics.

  • The business case: Can my company benefit from a first or replacement CRM system?
  • The project brief: What must the project achieve?
  • Project organization: Who should be involved in the project?
  • Researching the market
  • Preparing a RFP, defining the requirements
  • Working with consultants
  • Creating a short list
  • The final choice
  • Design and Programming Specification

Keep watching!

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CRM and ROI

Mrz 26

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM Projects, ROI | Keine Kommentare

Hans Thomann, owner and Director of the largest dealer in Europe for musical instruments and just about everything a performer needs says

For me, investment must always have a purpose. We must serve our customers faster or offer more service and help to our customers

This is my free translation of the original German text in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 20th March 2010 and just about sums up what CRM is all about. Unfortunately, many projects are started with only a rough concept of the business aims. Too often, the concentration is on internal communication, which is an means to an end, but not an end in itself.

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Viral Marketing and CRM

Mrz 25

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM Software, Marketing, Social CRM | Keine Kommentare

Even the best viral marketing ideas will not create the desired effect if they are not seeded successfully. For those with a limited budget, try the following:

  • Digg, Reddit, Delicious & Co: People using these sites are numerous and are often “communicators” and active in several networks.
  • Twitter: Twitter is a must, but is not enough on its own unless you manage to get mentioned by a well read participant. Not all twitterers with a large number of followers have real visibility.
  • Blogs: Influential bloggers can spread your message, but will only do this if your campaign is relevant to the blog topic.
  • Social Networks (LinkedIn etc.): if you have connections with social media power users, leverage them to help seed campaigns.

These are just a few of the possibilities. Ensure that any responses are captured by your CRM system and followed up!

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CRM Integration

Mrz 22

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM, CRM Software, Social CRM | Keine Kommentare

The importance of a modern, functional internet presence cannot be exaggerated. Which functions are essential for the furthering of customer relations? Try these:

  • Personalized information on products and services for customers and prospects
  • Customer forum for product features  – present and future
  • Technical support and advice
  • eCommerce (where applicable)

Most company internet sites talk at readers rather than with readers and allow little or no dialog opportunities apart from a simple contact form or telephone number. This puts the barrier much too high for customers who may have something valuable to say but do not want to reach for the phone or wait for an answer. A customer forum in some form presents an ideal opportunity for gathering ideas, comments and positive criticisms. When a forum with groups, themes etc. is not suitable there are alternatives, for example a competition of some kind. An excellent example is the Smart Design Contest. This success of this well designed interaction shows that customers and prospects will happily contribute constructive ideas and comments. Apart from gathering new ideas for product development, marketing specialists have an excellent basis for trend analysis.

Every forum needs administration and editing – not all comments are friendly or suited for publication – but the costs and effort involved are balanced by the advantages of closer customer relations and also by the value of information gained.

Integration with a CRM application should filter information gathered and channel this information to the relevant employees or user groups. In the case of support oriented applications the business processes for handling incidents (ITIL) are generally well defined and implemented. In the case of sales, this is very often not the case although  CRM software with workflow and customizing tools is available.

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Integrating B2B CRM with Social Networks

Mrz 19

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM Software, Customer Relations, Social CRM | 2 Kommentare

What prospects and customers look for:

  • Information on potential suppliers and their products
  • Relevant comments and reports from other users
  • Supplier independent discussion platforms

What B2B prospects and customers do not want is a sales pitch, for that they can go to the suppliers web site. Many groups in XING have mutated to sales platforms, which is not what social networking is about.

What B2B suppliers want:

  • Background information on persons involved with purchase decisions
  • Visibility resulting from discussions and comments
  • Market background information
  • Real-life contacts resulting from social network activities

These requirements are not incompatible, but there is a numbers problem. While individuals looking for information can research on a specific topic when interested, suppliers need permanently to monitor these activities. Also the number of people gathering information will always be considerably higher than the number of employees available for monitoring social sites. The effort involved in monitoring is immense.

Evidently, there is a need for automating these processes, which is where CRM software comes in. As may be expected. Salesforce as a cloud oriented supplier has announced several functions, most of which are still in development. Other companies, Pivotal for example, have announced plans for integration with twitter, linkedIn and facebook. The solutions offered are oriented towards gathering information, which is fine but is only a time saving function for sales and marketing personnel who would otherwise research the information directly.

After saying that automation is required, there are some major challenges to master. Firstly, the amount of information available is considerable and only a small part of the information available will be relevant. Secondly the behavior of people active in the social web world is changing rapidly and there is no reason to suppose that this will change during the next years. Finally, marketing gurus will say that there must be a dialogue between suppliers and the outside world. All this makes automation more a dream than a realistic aim

Common to B2B and B2C is the aim of steering people to the company web site, assuming of course that the web site offers support,  forums, customer information platforms and order processing. At this level, processes can and should be automated.  The message I am getting to is this. CRM B2B applications may be loosely linked to social sites, the really import interaction is that between the CRM solution and a modern, functional internet presence. 

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B2B CRM, linkedIn and XING

Mrz 17

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM | Keine Kommentare

This is a difficult topic. Both platforms, linkedIn and XING have recognized the need for B2B connections by introducing company profiles and enterprise groups. These facilities are used by many companies and provide a basis for the exchange or information between employees and other group members, mostly with very professional design and guidance. This is also the case for those companies offering products which are clearly not for consumers, for example Scania and IBM.

Company profiles do not offer more information than the company web sites, but groups do allow a new kind of interaction by making it easy for members of the community

  • to exchange information amongst themselves,
  • to learn from employees who may not be available through normal support channels
  • and to involve other community members who have something to contribute but would not normally register on the web site of the company.

Many of the groups are technically oriented, providing interesting opportunities for open innovation.

Profiles and groups need to be permanently monitored and guided to be successful. This costs time and effort. It remains to be seen if returns offset the costs involved. Since returns are hardly quantifiable, the ROI cannot be measured. This is similar to value of presentations at exhibitions – the costs are known, but the effect in terms of sales remain questionable.

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B2B CRM with twitter, facebook & Co.

Mrz 17

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM Software, Marketing, Social CRM | Keine Kommentare

Social networks as a platform for B2C sales and communication are well established, the drift from print to online marketing demonstrates this clearly. A recent study by Outsell shows that online marketing now accounts for over 30% of the total marketing budget. In facebook and youtube, companies selling to consumers (Coca Cola, BMW or apple for example) are well represented while suppliers of ingredients or parts are hard to find.

B2B customer relations differ from B2C in a number of ways.

  • Relations are built to individuals, but these individuals act as members of an organization, not as consumers.
  • Decisions to purchase involve a number of individuals, each with their own aims and motivation.
  • Requirements may be influenced by personal egos and emotions, but will largely depend on business demands.

This makes the use of social platforms for B2B CRM more of a challenge but is certainly a challenge which cannot be ignored. In the business as in the consumer world, people use the internet as a primary source of information and communication. For CRM applications, new installations tend to build social functionality into the company CRM application.  However, existing public platforms do have a place for some activities at least on the basis that individuals involved in a B2B purchase may base their opinion on consumer information. The following table may help.

  Marketing Sales Support
youtube Viral marketing. Product related spots. Image (example: Salesforce) Not suitable. Technical information (example: “torque converter”)
wikipedia Technical details where relevant (example: pharmaceuticals) Not suitable. Not suitable.
twitter Product information (example: Bosch) Indirectly by links Not suitable.
facebook Little used, potential customers will tend to search the web. Not suitable. Technical information and help (example: Intel)

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B2B CRM and Web 2.0

Mrz 15

Gepostet von David Duncan in Marketing, Social CRM | Keine Kommentare

This week’s theme is the use of Web 2.0 features for CRM  for B2B sales and marketing. The following topics will be covered.

  1. The relevance of twitter, facebook, youtube and other platforms for communication between individuals
  2. The relevance of networking platforms such as linkedin and xing
  3. The advantages of a forums and discussion groups
  4. Guerilla Marketing

Watch this space!

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Activities and Workflow

Mrz 12

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM Projects, CRM Software | Keine Kommentare

Sales activities may not require complex workflows, but much time can be saved by standardizing routine tasks such as

  • sending or mailing product information and follow-up
  • creating a proposal, authorization (if required) and follow-up
  • planning a demonstration or presentation and follow-up

These and similar processes have many things in common. They require interaction with others, colleagues and customers, they require some kind of resource and time management and always  require follow-up. The latter is as every sales person knows essential, but also the most difficult to plan.

While all CRM solutions offer activity and appointment planning tools, usually integrated with Microsoft Outlook or other Groupware, not all provide workflow tools. Solutions available are of differing quality.

A good solution will allow tasks to be defined and linked, assigned to users of groups and given start and end times and will preferably have a graphical design tool. Once an instance of a workflow is started, it must be possible to change the planned sequence at any time or to jump from one workflow to another.  A prospect who has received a proposal may for example request a new presentation which may again lead to a new proposal.

Further the workflow solution must allow for multiple alternatives for the display of open tasks, for example by user and date, by customer, by workflow etc.

The processes may appear simple, but practice shows that even these simple processes are always unique to each company and often to groups within the company. This often neglected area can help reduce costs while increasing the efficiency of sales persons and sales organizations.

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