CRM and Sales Force Automation End Goal - Create Value for your Sales Team

5 Most Common Reasons why CRM Fails:

1. Not identifying all of the business processes that impact customer relationships

2. Not setting clear goals to accomplish

3. Not defining metrics for success

4. Letting IT take the lead on projects

5. Failing to build a customer data integration strategy

Since hundreds of CRM and SFA projects fail each year, people think that Customer Relationship Management and Sales Force Automation is a myth. However, success stories do exist and these successes can generate substantial returns. Payback within months and Return on Investment (ROI) of more than 100% is by no means impossible.

What is mythical is the concept of generic best practices. Only specific, customer-focused practices that are matched to the business capabilities of companies make money. How do companies define a CRM strategy that is customer-focused?

Successful CRM Strategy is Built by Addressing 3 Fundamental Concerns:

1. Understand who the Customers Are
   Few companies can be all things to all potential and existing customers. To get value from customer relationships, you need to understand who you are building these customer relationships with. For example, are you providing a broad range of services to a distinct group of companies, or a single product for a wide range of businesses?
2. Understand how both parties obtain value from the relationship
   A relationship only lasts when both parties benefit from the relationship. What do your customers need from you? If customers are looking for after-sales service, then you need to be able to provide distinguishable service while still making a profit. For customers who simply want to buy and walk away, a different strategy is needed.
3. Build processes and systems to remove blockages
   Only people can build relationships. Systems and software only support people as customer relationships are built. Being able to access information easily

Unsuccessful CRM projects rarely answer these fundamental areas clearly. Instead, these CRM implementations focus on generic practices that scatter resources across multiple areas that have little or no impact.

At best, what these CRM projects deliver is irrelevant. At worst, these CRM implementations get bogged down in debates, politicking, and complex systems integration.

Projects that do answer these questions develop a focused strategy. Identify what business intelligence is needed and focus your systems on giving this information. Spend money and utilize resources on targeted capabilities that lead to increased productivity and business process enhancements.

Design processes from the outside in; find the two or three processes that customers care most about and design the processes from the point of view of the customer.