Thursday, April 3, 2008

A Classic Example of CRM Failure

I was contacted by a company that has experienced "The CRM Dilemma" through what is now two full CRM implementations. After reading my research, this particular executive now understands why his sales force has been giving nothing more than "Lip service" to CRM, for several years. Each time the company has met with the sales force to determine the reasons behind their lack of CRM usage, sales reps have provided a long list of excuses.

Each time, changes and upgrades were made to accomodate the concerns expressed by the sales force. Extra training was provided, mobile devices for real-time CRM were purchased, system speed was upgraded, and additional data integration was done. The sales reps had all agreed that with these upgrades, CRM would be a "Great Tool" for them.

After the second launch, of the second CRM system was completed, executives anticipated finally having a 360 degree, collaborative view of their customer relationships. Unfortunately, despite all efforts and expenditures, CRM usage by sales reps, remained the same as
before - Zero.

After reading my research, this executive had several sales reps in the company read it and provide their opinions on it. Because the sales reps felt validated in their fear of activity controls, their response was to state that "The CRM Dilemma is bang on!"

Because the original intent of CRM at this company was not to control the activities of sales reps, my research has provided an avenue to finally get some value out of the system. I will be working with this company to determine the truth behind their CRM failures, and institue PACT for them. This company has decided there is enough value in CRM without using it for activity controls, that they are willing to make the additional investment to try to finally obtain some value from their CRM system.

2 comments:

Ben said...

I (and several of my counterparts in other offices) had the hardest time making CRM work for us. What the experiences have taught me is that there needs to be synergy between product and user. Enterprise Wizard (www.EnterpriseWizard.com) has provided that in my company, and we’re posting great results even in the current climate.

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