CRM manages obsolescence better than anything else.

Ever ask yourself how we got here from index cards and a ballpoint pen? What made CRM the darling child and a must have? Let’s take a step back to 1959. Harley Earl, who for over 30 years as the Chief of Design and Styling for GM, may best be remembered for designing the classic Corvette. For sales and marketing professionals, more important was his design for the tail fins on the 1959 Cadillac.

First Key: Planned Obsolescence

This Caddy marked the epitome of planned obsolescence. By any measure, no one would confuse this masterpiece with any sort of a vehicle that would last a lifetime. Just the opposite was true:  this car was purely about style, a river of chrome, cool colors, and even cooler fins and what it said about the Customer. This is the First Key in what would forever mark the change in how we sell all goods: planned obsolescence changed our sales strategies to customer buying cycles.

Key Two: Ralph Nader added to the CRM chain

The Second Key would involve Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who gained notoriety by killing the Corvair with his 1965 authorship of “Unsafe at Any Speed”. Few know that he actually got his first stab in this field with the ’59 Caddy. My guess is Nader felt it was unsafe at any speed because people might impale themselves on the tail fins. Nader ensured that consumer rights gained momentum and laws demanded auto manufacturers keep track of buyers (customers) for recall notices.

Key Three: Cheap and easy to use, PC’s was the breakthrough for CRM

Well, not all this Customer data was put to waste as simple mailing lists or be the privy of major corporations. Much has been said about the personal computer but what’s not evident is its role as the Third Key to the modern selling puzzle. The result of this data journey is every nuance, of everything you buy or want to buy, is available to anyone who cares to know. For miniscule cost, with equally miniscule computer or marketing skills, anyone can use this data.  

Key Four: The Internet changed buyer’s relationship habits

The Fourth Key is the Internet: Information is cheap and available to everyone. Customers are addicted to finding out what they want to buy on the net. This doesn’t eliminate the need for a sales relationship. For many organizations, just the opposite is true. Once the object of desire is found, consumers want to connect instantly in a ‘relationship’, no matter how short term they need it to be.

What this all means today is for a great many sales people, economic survival relies on the consumption of the constant turnover that obsolescence requires and how the customers prefers their client relationship.

Modern selling recognizes customers changed to a buying cycle process

Why they buy and what they expect to gain is often measured in terms of their short-term buying-cycles. Hence, we need CRM technology to stay tuned to our customer’s wavelength and gear our sales pitch to exactly what the consumer wants to buy at that very moment. Unfortunately, most CRM program designs are still back in the 1950’s mode: lots of data lists, extraneous info and doodads that do little to recognize or respond to buying cycle strategies. 

Here’s the rub: Buying and setting up a CRM is ridiculously simple….

• But this bears no relation to what you need CRM to do: support a structured process that defines the buying cycle and the enterprise-wide activities essential relationship events that surround it. 
• CRM to be of any sustainable value to an organization is a strategic process that should eliminate the clutter of extraneous data, activities and tools, the polar opposite of the soup to nuts offerings that are sold to CRM users.   

I am not here to debunk anything or upset the latest CRM guru’s solution. Rather, to illustrate that a lot of what we have learned or assumed about CRM role in sales automation starts on the wrong assumptions, neglect the relationship needs and the vast majority die quickly e.g. obsolete before they get started. That’s not entirely your fault: it’s just that many of the CRM programs and gurus fail to navigate a sustainable buying cycle relationship management strategy. Instead they see obsolescence (a river of technical chrome, doodads and bells and whistles) as a better reason to engage CRM.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

The basic roots that make up CRM ‘work’ fall into this simple summary:

• 1: Deploying a process that acknowledges the ‘Customer’s’ buying cycle as critical to whatever comes before or follows next in the sales relationship cycle.
• 2: ‘Managing’ the customer’s short-term needs and bridging the attention gap is the ‘Relationship’ job of the sales person and must be in sync with the CRM process set up.
• 3: CRM must manage the degree of automation required in the sales role e.g. the shortest route possible to the customer.

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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Mirroring our Masters

In America over 77 million dogs have owners. Then it’s not so unreasonable to imagine that in the scheme of modern urban life that they have an affinity to look like their owners. During a recent lunch my guests discussed this phenomenon and for an added wrinkle we even went so far as to match a few business associates with the dog they owned. One commented how uncanny it was that their General Manager looked remarkably like his mutt. Upon further reflection the business too was beginning to look unremarkable, like her GM. This was not an appealing spectacle.

How does the leader look?

With dogs or business, one reason we might mirror our master is that we tend to seek out those things that are most familiar to us and readily adopt those traits. Some may argue that it starts out when owners pick their dogs, or staff, they unconsciously choose them because they truly reflect the owner, or boss as the case may be. The lesson learned is be careful of what you want your business to look like as it will invariably reflect just how the leader looks.

The Customer’s perception is everything.

I believe the same logic applies for customers: a reflection of them. They find what appeals to them and what doesn’t. This is beyond nettlesome because the ‘look’ or perception for most customers is everything. Worry too about the fact that most people don’t necessarily act in accordance with your reality quite as much as they do on their own individual perception of ‘reality’. To that end, our customer’s reality, good, bad or indifferent, is formed to a large extent by what companies do and not what they say.

Follow the bouncing ball.

As business management and customers accelerate even further away from each other, success is often influenced to an immense degree by decision makers who have little experience or a ‘look’ for sales. In fact, your surroundings can begin to look astonishingly unfriendly, even somewhat dog-eared; particularly when the company’s current nirvana is simply the latest Guerrilla tactic that entirely ignores ‘reality’. Or the brains behind the new budget has patently little appreciation for brand or value; like the premier airline I flew last week whose management believes a fraction of an ounce of pretzels, a half of a can of soda, with questionable housekeeping and seats so close I could perform dental work will, of course, endear me to fly with them again.

Solution: Perception Truths.

If you find yourself or a client in this position what are you to do? Well there are a few Perception Truths I devised you can always use as a fall back.

• Brand Personality: Product Excellence and Superiority a.k.a. Value

Be ever vigilant for someone mucking it up. Your fundamental task is to correctly identify the customer’s preference for brand over price.  Look for customer clues where they value the significance of a great reputation, or beneficial cost of ownership matters like durability, warranties, multi task applications and even pretentiousness and esteem are striking buying qualities. If you’re not attracting enough of these types, then either you, the company’s marketing or its business style needs correction.

• Service

Practically nothing beats a high level of customer satisfaction, it’s not hard to understand why: customers want a pleasant buying experience together with attentive and responsive customer service, from both the sales and support staff. Lose this and you have lost the profitability associated with ‘value’ …and likely the customer. Now tell me again how much airline ‘A’ saved on those pretzels?

• Costs

Everyone knows that better products cost more and cheap products are made up of cheap bits and pieces. When it comes to cost, it’s the thing your customer perceives as price, your task is to hone in on what’s superior about your product or service. That’s because surprisingly few customers will bother to take the effort to figure it out on their own. Worse yet I am given to wonder why some salespeople can’t let go of customers that have little conscience of cost.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

There is no better tool than a well configured CRM program to monitor and manage perception truths. At MosaicCRM, we add simple yet effective fields to account monitors and specific reports in these key areas:

• Buying Qualities:
  

  Monitor and record customer preferences and translate that data into optimized sales cycle management tools

• Service Factors:
  

  Customer satisfaction, service and Case Management components tie the entire company relationship to the customer experience

• Value:
  

  Monitor where you are wining against competition, one click recording of sales factors, value milestones, even managing road blocks

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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Optimized Data Quality Beats Quantity Hands Down

The data explosion and subsequent mash up of mis-aligned information has led to the biggest area of frustration for users and probably the top reason why CRM programs flounder.  CRM data quality is far more important than all the programming doodads put together. Without high quality, strategically defined data, the value and function of the CRM program will drive sales people (and customers) away in a hurry. I have found these techniques to be helpful in the creation, maintenance and ongoing user policies for CRM:

1: Define Value

Data should be proportionate to the value you can gain with it. In other words, limit your diet of customer knowledge to only those items that will help you to better predict the outcome of your sales efforts.

2: Nail down your objectives.

Clearly spell out what the data requirements before you enter the first file. What does the ideal client look like? What is going to make them buy? What must sales and marketing personnel do with the data and when?

3: Minimize the time it takes.

Nobody has any extra time and even less patience with globs of undefined information/data fields. All that data might look impressive but in reality, it is a sales killer.

4: Link any and all data to your mission critical business priorities.

The reason is obvious: there’s not much point to the whole leads and account intelligence thing if you don’t know what you’re going to do with it.

5: Standardize the customer info needed.

Too often sales personnel (and list buyers) take whatever customer/data information is available with no plan of focusing only on the vital few factors that can clearly lead to business gains. Develop a vital data information ‘needs list’, make sure everyone is aware of it, and stick to it.

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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In a recent conversation with a prospect, he lamented that Free Demos concentrated more on how fast you can copy over what you are using now e.g. an excel spreadsheet and declaring it done and a success. Identifying the objectives and processes he needed to drive results was far more valuable but missing. That begs the question: CRM changes everything: without changing your process and updating objectives is this the reason for the epidemic of such low CRM success rates?

1. Don’t limit your CRM vision.

A thirty minute ‘here it is show’ and how to master menu lists won’t exactly make you a CRM pro. I haven’t met an organization just starting out with CRM that knew their way around CRM better than I do. Its equivalent to reading a book on driving and letting you go with the keys. I wouldn’t give the car keys to anyone without extensive and professional instruction. Same for CRM: I care about our clients especially when their CRM is certain to benefit from our deep sales and programming experience.

• Make sure you get adequate time on the bench with the pros.

2. Check lists won’t get you there.

You’ve spent months, maybe years, musing CRM concepts around. During that time you have created a mighty list of wants and needs. Unfortunately most organizations ‘want lists’ are not clearly defined objectives or ways of measuring progress and results. Our expertise and the time we take to peel back the onion skin to find out exactly how things tick in your organization can make shorter sales cycles and identifying customer buying cycles a breeze. This, by most accord, is way more valuable and measurable than how it syncs with a Blackberry.

• Know where you want to end before you begin trial CRM programs.

3. How does it really perform?

Just like test driving a car, a CRM test drive you get the look and some of the feel but sadly zero data on exactly how it will fit your business, sales culture and processes on a long term basis. A month will get you even less concrete data on business process improvement measurements.

• To be fair to yourself, it often takes two or more months to get it right so you can actually see what your CRM really has to do and how it does it.

4. Part time learning is weak at best, and flawed throughout.

You need feedback so you set a couple of bright and eager bodies into the program, maybe even an office. They are busy, haven’t been guided through the real objectives and probably have an hour or two of generic training. So they take a stab at it here and there and trying this and that. Then declare it doesn’t work or doesn’t work how they need it to. That is not at all surprising.

• At MosaicCRM we first question and rationalize every single step of your processes. Then we get joined at the hip so to speak and help you set out the objectives, business processes, and measuring programs unique to your needs.

5. A month is generally not enough time to customize it to your true needs.

CRM always adds a whole new dimension to sales and marketing business processes. Simply copying over your spreadsheet doesn’t make for a better sales system… anymore than your excel spreadsheet did when you left yellow ruled pads or Outlook.

• The pros at MosaicCRM know how to move a field here, change a report there and modify an alert system…. small but knowledgeable things that can totally and dramatically change how you view CRM. This takes time and effort on both sides.  But it’s worth it.

Who Benefits?

There are some benefits to a free trial period. Frankly I feel the only guy who benefits from free demos is the CRM salesman. He gets to add you to his pipeline and with an active demo and moves ahead to an assumptive close position. You get a barrage of email and calls and pressure but not solutions.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

First and foremost, get a firm grasp of the results you want to achieve and know where you will gain the most. What you really need is a partner that adds to your knowledge and experience base. It does take more time but if that works, there is no need for a high pressure ‘close’ or a rushed implementation. Our expertise and the time we take will allow the both of us to evaluate and prioritize exactly what has to be done.  One thing that you will notice right off the bat: we won’t simply copy your spreadsheets into a CRM program. That is a prescription for disaster.

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Written by

Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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Pre-CRM Planning Tips for SMB’s

I’ve put together this slide presentation that covers a number of key elements that can help in your CRM Plan or Re-Start program.  Some of the topics include Beware of ‘Quick and Easy’ CRM promotions, The Human Factors, Competition Applications, Abilities, Resources and Sales Process Design, Budgeting and more.

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CRM Adoption: What makes for long term CRM success?

CRM adoption is a topic that has been around from day one and has seen many iterations of the good, bad and ugly when it comes to what adoption factors work.

The reality is that people still sell to people so it goes that the human interaction with CRM can’t be ignored or swept under the rug. So rather than focusing on what the technology will do, let’s look at how to make CRM more in sync to how people sell,  and what they need to sell, to improve adoption success.

Sales Personnel:

The job of modern selling now demands a number of practical skills, CRM is one of them. If sales personnel are resistant to CRM, they are simply not a good fit for the organization.

• They must like to use and are comfortable with selling in a technology enabled environment and the efficiencies CRM brings
• They are wholly invested in the value of and the work needed to maintain the customer relationship, and not just a sale
• The CRM is designed so that they learn from the data, make a profit with it and not just input data

The Company:

From a company perspective, it has to wring out the inefficiencies and excuses with not using CRM.

• Insist that CRM is essential to meet their objectives, no exceptions
• Company must be focused top down on maximizing the customer relationship, not spreadsheets or historical transactional data
• Have a definitive plan and objective with each part of CRM and how it benefits the sales personnel
  
• Make CRM clear, concise and profitable e.g. what will be gained at every stage

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

We have learned that if the sales personnel and company are doing their part, it is essential that the CRM be designed to compliment that business process and structure.What this means is that each CRM program must exemplify usability and value:

• Apply only the tools that make the result more effective
  
• Ignore anything that doesn’t improve sales/profit
• Eliminate, table and squash any distractions
  
• Make pipeline design and management clear, concise, easy
• Design CRM to cultivate the customer relationship e.g. focus on the individual
• Automate everything that assists in customer buying cycle  and sales cycle management

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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