Successful CRM Implementation Requires Software Plus Skills

Running a CRM solutions business, just like running any business, is challenging. This challenge is multiplied by the general perception that CRM is simply ‘software’. In our 30 years of experience, we can say with confidence the successful CRM implementations are not directly correlated to software, but rather to how well the ‘software’ is designed to support business processes and user roles. Our recent post on the benefit a CRM partner brings, outlines some of the many benefits.

Many orga­ni­za­tions imple­ment a new CRM (Cus­tomer Rela­tion­ship Man­age­ment) sys­tem hop­ing to make dra­matic improve­ments in sales as well as to improve the cus­tomer expe­ri­ence. While a new CRM sys­tem can cer­tainly help, many com­pa­nies find that the software alone isn’t suf­fi­cient to meet these goals

Successful CRM implementation – what the research say

Unfor­tu­nately, many CRM ini­tia­tives fail to reach their goals. Research on the effec­tive­ness of CRM soft­ware found that the failure of CRM project was related

• 1. Application func­tion­al­ity (only 30%), while the majority stated that it related to
• 2. the onboarding of the company’s employ­ees.

The onboarding process relates to how the ‘software’ fully supports or reflects the organisations inter­nal processes, the strat­egy for exe­cut­ing the imple­men­ta­tion and knowledge transfer and training process..

Successful CRM implementation –Soft­ware is not enough

Even with a suc­cess­ful CRM imple­men­ta­tion, many com­pa­nies find that their goals are still not achieved. Employ­ees may know how to use the soft­ware and have addi­tional infor­ma­tion at their fin­ger­tips, but what if the sales team doesn’t have the skills needed to close sales? Will new soft­ware help them sell bet­ter? Will cus­tomer ser­vice reps have the skills to pro­vide ser­vice? Not as a result of pur­chas­ing new software.

Successful CRM Implementation = soft­ware + skills

Accord­ing to other research, what is required to improve sales, ser­vice, and the customer’s expe­ri­ence is, “…a bal­ance of human and sys­tems sup­port…” To maximize your sig­nif­i­cant invest­ment in a CRM imple­men­ta­tion, you need to pair the func­tion­al­ity of the sys­tem with improved cus­tomer ser­vice and sales skills.

As part of your plan­ning process, develop a train­ing sched­ule to launch fol­low­ing soft­ware imple­men­ta­tion. In addi­tion to train­ing your direct sales staff, invest in tele­sales train­ing and cus­tomer ser­vice train­ing so that all your customer-facing rep­re­sen­ta­tives are equipped with the right skills to max­i­mize the new, robust infor­ma­tion they’ll have at their fingertips.

Imag­ine what your employ­ees could do with top of the line soft­ware AND best-in-class train­ing. Imple­menting one with­out the other, and meet­ing your orig­i­nal pur­chase objec­tives becomes difficult.

Successful CRM Implementation – How CRM benefits your organisation

A CRM system benefits an organisation through the visibility of its activities. This visibility is fundamental to managing sales performance and control of the sales process. This visibility enables management to understand why, when, who and how opportunities are being won, stalled, or being lost.  If it cannot be monitored, it cannot be managed. The visibility offered within the CRM system also allows management to make educated business decisions based on hard data. A CRM system will enable structured data to be used to access performance. This assessment should indicate which sales person is out performing others.

ProAptivity are an independent CRM solutions provider. We focus on the implementation, training, and support of highly customised CRM software solutions. Our CRM software supported by our sales training provide customers with the tools needed to deliver successful sales process management.

Fundamentally, we help organisations embed CRM best practice throughout their organisation. This helps organisations become more competitive, customer focused and ultimately more profitable.

IIf you need help in understanding why my business needs CRM, maybe some of our video’s or  eBooks could help! Alternatively visit Maximizer CRM for more information. You can contact us today on 0330 223 6362 or via email at  info@proaptivity.com. Contact us today for a free CRM consultation that will assess if your business is CRM ready.