Are you looking to grow your business this year? If so, it is a no brainer that you need to make most out of each customer interaction. This CRM implementation guide will go a long way in streamlining your sales, customer support and marketing functions.
It takes months to find a customer and seconds to lose one.
Most companies do not have any systematic manner to track their customer information. Some companies maintain customer spreadsheets. If you fall in any of these categories, you might be surprised by how quickly, an operational CRM solution make noticeable business impact.
CRM Implementation guide and intended audience
Before we dwell further into this, first thing first. I must let you know for whom this article is intended for and a little bit about myself. This article is meant for CXOs, business owners and Sales Head who are evaluating their way forward with CRM Implementation. I have been into CRM strategy consulting for the last 15 years. My company deals in many CRM development projects.
This article is meant to serve as a step-by-step guide on how you can succeed in implement such a solution at your company. If you leverage the ready to use templates, avoid common mistakes companies make and set up an implementation strategy, I assure you that you will be on course to success with the assignment. I have tried to keep the language of this article simple to understand and jargon free.
Why Implement a CRM solution
Here are some examples of results real companies have achieved by implementing CRM. These stories are from various industry verticals.
CRM Success Stories
Zillow as able to increase their daily sales calls per sales rep from 65 to 150. With integrated virtual consultation, the sales team was able to improve the efficacy of those calls lead to increase in sales.
Brothers International, a leading hi-end printer manufacturer, was able to reduce product returns from 5% to 3.4% by improving the customer support functions. This led to a saving of more than $600,000 annually.
By moving from spreadsheets to a CRM solution, Tetley Harris, a North American tea distributor, increased both their customer base as well as sales by 10x.
Sherpa, a B2B media company, reduced their lead to quote time by 60% due to higher automation. This helped them close more deal with accurate information and notes.
Clinical trial division at Apollo Hospitals, a leading Asian hospital chain, grew 42% after implementing a customized CRM solution. This was achieved by patient visit automation, online ethical committee approval, better patient handling and real time reporting to sponsors.
When vending machines break down, it results in loss of sales for Coca Cola. The German division of the company leveraged a cloud CRM solution to handle cases and increase productivity by 30%.
Table of Content
Having realized some of the benefits of CRM lets deep dive into how to get it done right. To organize this CRM implementation guide, I am breaking it down to into the following sections.
Quick Links
Before you start implementing a CRM Solution
Your success with customer relationship management software solution has a lot to do with having realistic expectation from the application. I would highly recommend getting to know what a CRM software solution really is.
If you are wanting to get acquainted with use cases of a CRM solution this Harvard Business Review article is a great place to start.
This leads us to the next section of this guide which explains how to identify measurable business metrices that you need to improve leveraging CRM.
How much should I spent on a CRM project? This is often a question that baffles many CXOs. At this point of time, it may be good to budget for the same. Though a more accurate CRM development cost can be accessed later, the next step may be able to guide on how much you might want to actually spend based on the benefits you can expect.
Conservatively speaking, if CRM helps you close 2 more deals every month each with a deal size of $5,000. Let us say that average margin is 20%, your total annual business return is $24,000. Assuming that it would be fair to say that even if you are spending up to $50,000, your annual return on the investment is greater than 40%.
This budget is more enough to build a moderate to complex CRM solution. One catch though, it doesn’t take into account the recurring CRM license cost. We will come to that in a bit.
How to Quantity returns on investment for a CRM implementation
Many times, the purpose of a software is not quantified. This is one of the mistakes decision makers commit. Let us explore what typical business benefits a CRM package brings.
| Function | Key Performance Indicator | How CRM helps |
|---|---|---|
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Sales |
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Customer Support |
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Integration with IVR for call center operations. |
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Marketing |
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Select the relevant KPIs from the above selected list and add to the same. You may not know the current figures, but in these months try to quantify those figures.
5 Key CRM implementation strategy to ensure success
Sometimes this kind of projects may become overwhelming. These three core strategies will help you overcome the challenge. Believe me I have seen them work across verticals and geographies.
#1 Involve your CRM users early
Involve the people who would be using CRM in your company. Ensure that each function is represented in the core team. Even if as a business head you think you know all the answers, it is important to simplify day to day jobs of each function. Involving people also drives the ownership and adoption of the CRM solution.
#2 ABC Prioritization of your CRM needs
Categorize your CRM needs as per ABC Method of prioritization. Items falling into category A are “Must Do“ must be fall into phase I, category B items can be taken up as a subsequent step. Category C requirements may be taken up as per resource and budget availability.
#3 Build key operational features within CRM
To quickly drive use of CRM within the user community, ensure that features like daily activity reports, commission calculation report, approvals and travel allowance are built into CRM.
#4 Identify scope for automation
People do not like doing repeat work. CRM can help you do things automatically. For example, CRM can automatically send daily report of top won / lost opportunities that day along with the loss reason. By automating mundane activities, you really put your people’s time to best use.
#5 Integrate and build efficiency
Think about what other software you have that you CRM to integrate with? You may want to integrate your WordPress website with back end CRM solution. Usual integration of CRM happen to be with VOIP, Finance, SMS and payment gateway.
Typical CRM implementation timelines
Though CRM implementation timelines largely depend on complexity and nature of requirements, a medium complex project may fall into the below timeframe.
#1 Core CRM Team Formation (1 Week)
Identify the core team members who will be providing requirements, approving solution, testing the CRM solution, and training others once the system is operational. This team must truly represent a cross section of your company.
#2 KPI Identification (2-4 Weeks)
The team must list the KPIs that the CRM team want to address with CRM implementation. The KPIs must then be vetted and categorized as per ABC classification. It is important not to eliminate any KPI at this stage. Anything not important can always be put into category C.
#3 CRM Platform Assessment (1-3 Weeks)
There are many CRM software solution in the market with their own merits and limitations. It is therefore important to take an informed decision to go with one. You might want to hire an experienced CRM consultant who has worked on multiple packages to help you in this step.
#4 Requirement Gathering (3-6 Weeks)
Now is the time to transfer the requirements to the selected CRM platform and make them fit. The items which do not fit into standard features of the package will need development.
#5 CRM Development (4-8 Weeks)
During this phase CRM customization needs are configured in the application. In this phase automation and integration needs are set up too.
#6 User Acceptance Testing (2-3 Weeks)
The business team needs to test the features as well as get familiar with the application. In this phase entire application is tested as if it is operational.
#7 CRM Data migration (1 Week)
The master and historic data needs to be in CRM system before you can start using it. The live data is uploaded into the application from various sources after cleansing and formatting the same.
#8 Go-Live (1 Week)
This is the time when the system becomes operational. Special attention is put to monitor any error or logs that might show up. Any issue that shows up during this time are attended to on urgent basis.
#9 Maintenance & Enhancement (As needed)
After the initial success you want to apply version upgrades or execute minor changes to the application. You might also want to plan undertake any category B or C requirement.
Essential features to look for while executing a CRM project
If you are wondering what the most sought-after features of CRM software solution are, here they are. Feel free to explore more about each of these in the associated articles.
360-degree customer information
Undoubtedly the first thing you want to look for. When you open the customer record within the application, the user can view entire history of transactions and communication that have been done in the past.
Salesforce Automation
This encompasses tracking of various activities being done by Sales team members including real time visibility on opportunities across stages (also called pipeline).
Customer Support tracking
Tracking complaints or support requests and assigning individual owner to them. Keeping track of repeated support requests and creating knowledge base.
Dashboards and Reporting
Whereas dashboard refers to more operational day to day tasks, reports are linked to KPIs. Together they help drive companies to achieve both operational as well as strategic efficiency.
Integration and Workflows
This is the part where you can automate business processes. Automatic notifications, alerts and exchange of information helps take operation to a new level altogether.
Some other popular CRM developments
Other frequently asked for CRM customizations include creating order management system, a solution to manage customer loyalty and integrating to send SMS. Industry ready solutions can cater to needs of real estate, medical devices, professional services and many such verticals.
Frequently asked Questions
Here are some of the answers to questions you might be having regarding your CRM assignment.
It would be indeed correct to say that Salesforce Sales cloud is the leading CRM solution for enterprise. If you are looking for something more affordable you may evaluate SugarCRM. SuiteCRM is uniquely positioned as it can be installed on premise and it is a open-source solution which means you need not pay any recurring license cost. Other popular solutions are Zoho, NetSuite and Oracle CRM.
An on-demand CRM software is one where the solution is hosted by the company itself. You do not need and software to be installed on your end. Internet connectivity and browse are the only thing you require to access these solutions. They are usually priced on a per user / month basis.
I would break down the cost into the following buckets since it is often misunderstood.
- CRM license cost – This is money that you need to pay per user / month to the CRM software company. This can range anywhere from $10-$150 depending on features you need.
- CRM Implementation cost – As you may have guessed, this largely depends on to what extent the CRM needs tweaking to meet your needs. This is a one-time expense and is the core of making the package usable in your business context. This could be anywhere from $5,000 – $100,000.
- Hosting– If you are going for on-demand version, you do not need to pay this. However, if you are putting the application on your own server, this may range from $30-$100 per month. It largely depends on how many concurrent users would be using the solution. The larger this number, better the hosting you will require.
- CRM Maintenance – Do you need a consultant to support when you are stuck with anything in CRM? Do you think you might need some minor tweaks and feature additions after starting to use the solution? If so, this is what usually support covers. Depending on your support levels, this may start anywhere around $500 for shared support.
Some CRM solutions like Zoho provide limited user / limited feature CRM for free. Also, on the other hand SuiteCRM is completely free for anyone to download and install. Customizing and implementing CRM is, however, never free.
Simple CRM implementation may take 3-4 weeks. However more complex ones can really take a while. It is therefore advised to break complex integrations into sprints or phases not more than 3 months each.
As we discussed, this really need to start with a bit of internal analysis and getting to know the objectives of the implementation. A CRM implementation specialist can then guide you to select the right solution and help implement the same.
80% of the times the KPIs are not listed, and this leads to ambiguity / conflict during CRM implementation. Another challenge is the package selection. If the right package is not selected, it may lead to extended implementation window and increased cost. User adoption can also become a challenge if there is limited involvement and low automation in the system. In that case, the team may actually feel that CRM is adding to their work instead of solving issues.
Hiring a CRM implementation specialist – What to look out for
Once your objectives are clear, it may be a good time to start looking for CRM consultant who can help realize an optimum solution.
Below are some of the things you need to ask the specialist to be sure that you are hiring the right person for the job.
Do you use any form of agile development?
Look out for how frequently you can review the work in progress development and validate the progress made. This also gives you a chance to give feedback at regular intervals. Also check the documents will be prepared. Remember you will need proper details if you want to change CRM developer or upgrade CRM to latest version.
What kind of automation can you achieve in my business needs?
I have been discussing this all this while. I cannot stress enough how important this is. Evaluate how effective and relevant the proposed solution would be after go live.
What kind of automation can you achieve in my business needs?
I have been discussing this all this while. I cannot stress enough how important this is. Evaluate how effective and relevant the proposed solution would be after go live.
What CRM integrations will you write for me?
Judge the understanding of overall information flow. Ensure that the consultant is able to design overall architecture in a way that requires minimum manual interference.