© 2014 – Apracor GmbH

In many situations the goals defined for a CRM introduction are too ambitious, resulting in far too big

solutions that are not used later. During implementation large budgets are wasted implementing these

goals.

CRM systems should therefore start as small as possible and grow organically later. Through early

adoption of the system necessary experience is gathered that can be used later on to take on the next

steps. Rome wasn't built in a day either.

A CRM system often entails increased transparency and control for the management. Many users - if not

included early in the introduction process – perceive a CRM as a surveillance system and resulting in a

dramatically decreasing acceptance. This leads to incomplete data or worse: wrong data.

To accommodate this situation end-users working with the system on a day-by-day basis should always

be in the focus during a CRM introduction. A CRM must provide the user with all means necessary to fulfil

his/her daily work. End-users should therefore be involved from the beginning to ensure they understand

how the system will help them do their work.

CRM systems are often introduced under the assumption they will increase efficiency and productivity.

However people regularly overlook that a CRM is only as good as the processes linked to it.

Essentially organizations and their business processes have to be established first. A CRM is only a tool to

implement these flows – it’s not a solution for a lack of organizational structure. Processes and workflows

should be analyzed holistically to allow Marketing, Sales and Service to work hand-in-hand.

In many CRM environments companies collect every piece of information about its customers it can find.

The resulting data overflow prevents users from finding and leveraging the information necessary to work

with the system efficiently.

Information gathering should therefore be clearly defined and answer a specific purpose. Not every piece

of information that can be collected is worth being collected.

Regularly information gets lost between different systems or is not even be exchanged with other systems

in the beginning. This results in an unnecessary complication of a sales rep’s daily work because relevant

information is not available or accessible.

A CRM should not be a single, monolithic system. It should be understood that a CRM is usually only one

system in an environment of many. Through direct integration with other systems, business processes

from quotes to order to delivery can be accelerated and errors reduced.

© 2014 – Apracor GmbH

www.apracor.com

Media discontinuity massively reduces sales efficiency and is one of the most common reasons for

erroneous or missing information in a CRM. If all opportunities are stored in a CRM, but quotes are written

manually in Word, information is predestinated to get lost during manual data entry.

A CRM should be the only system where information about customer interaction is entered. This results

in having only one system to query data from.

A big focus is placed on office workstations when introducing a CRM system while neglecting mobile sales

users. If a user interface is optimized for a notebook’s screen, it is usually not usable (or at least very

uncomfortable to use) from a mobile device. This leads to user frustration and reduces user acceptance

of the system.

A modern CRM has to ensure that all users can do their work properly – no matter where they are located.

It has to be arranged for universal access to the system, no matter if a user works with a smartphone,

tablet, notebook or desktop system.

The simple configuration and introduction of modern CRM systems is good on the one hand but more

than often leads to situations where each region or event department setup their own system. Through

such uncontrolled growth company knowledge and data is distributed of the most different environments

and therefore not accessible to all employees.

One single, well planned system for the entire company concentrates data and allows for the necessary

transparency to come to a well-founded business decision.

Modern CRM systems are seemingly simple and self-explanatory and tempt companies to do a CRM

introduction by themselves. This commonly results in late launch dates, overspending and unintuitive user

guidance.

It is best to start with an experienced partner right from the start. The partner should not only have an

excellent understanding of the system to introduce but also experience in consulting sales departments.

This regularly produces valuable perspectives from outside the corporate vantage point and helps to

implement company processes in an optimal way.

If success of using a CRM system is not defined, it cannot be measured. Therefore statements about sales

efficiency and sales productivity cannot be made reliably.

In preparation of introducing a CRM it should be evaluated and decided why a new system should be

introduced and how data is used. Only by clearly defining success factors it is possible to say whether or

not a sales strategy is successful.

Levin Beicht is CEO of Apracor GmbH, a provider for process management

solutions for salesforce.com and has long-standing experience in CRM

consulting. You can reach him by email via info@apracor.com.