Here is a synopsis of an excellent article by Jean Frohman, Marketing Manager with Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLC, full of valuable suggestions for successfully implementing a CRM solution, Tips on Implementing CRM Software at Your Firm:
Making the Case, Picking a System
Based on your firm’s growth continuum, invest as early as possible in a CRM solution. If you are experiencing rapid growth, it’s probably a good idea to re-evaluate the firm’s marketing goals to see how your existing technology aligns with and contributes to them.
Listen to the people. There are employees at all staff levels and functions who will play a role. Rather than propose a system with only marketing and IT goals in mind, listen to what your potential user base is seeking to augment that they don’t have today.
Map out what the new CRM system is intended for. If you can paint a short- and long-term picture of opportunity and growth for partners, they will see its value. It will also help you find which CRM system can not only meet expectations now, but be flexible enough to grow with the firm.
Ensure that IT is on board. While there are times CRM initiatives are spearheaded by IT, they most often come from marketing. With that being said, make sure the appropriate IT personnel are involved in the evaluation process so when it comes time to build and sustain the system, IT is cooperative and by your side.
Setting the Stage for a Successful CRM Launch
Pick a CRM implementer. Half the battle is choosing the system; the other half is spent selecting who will help you build and implement it. Definitely weigh the pros and cons between hiring a third-party consultant and using implementation services provided by your CRM vendor. Check references and don’t be afraid to post questions on forums or blogs about the experiences of other firms that have gone through a similar process.
Get everyone involved from the start.
Understand your audience. Since administrative assistants are key users, invite them to a meeting to find out how days are structured and with what tasks. Help them by implementing new business processes (using the CRM system, of course) to make their lives easier. They will definitely appreciate the opportunity to have a voice.
Inform and prepare users for the launch. Managing expectations is important during this time. Hold informative meetings or lunches with users to let them know what to expect from the system in the initial phases and what you envision it will do in the future. Showing a “sneak preview” of the actual system sparks interest and lets people know that their initial opinions and wishes did not fall on deaf ears.
Prepare metrics, tools and analytics to assess the success of the system and launch. During system launch, there is little time to develop metrics. Spend time early on to plan how you will ensure that the firm’s investment is successful, how you will meet your milestones and goals, and how you will engage users long term.
Plan your rollout strategy. Work with IT to schedule the rollout and build a marketing campaign and training program to keep adoption high. Making sure the system is implemented and launched in a seamless and positive fashion can make or break a project. Give users a heads-up of the launch timeline and what they can expect to ensure a painless transition. During this time, prepare your data stewards (should you need them) or data managers to deal with the influx of data they will have to manage.
Go Time!
Stick with the basics. During the first year with a CRM system, remember it is something completely new and foreign to most users. Give them time and confidence to learn it and figure out how it benefits their business processes.
Tailor your training sessions to different user groups. Cater to different user groups throughout the firm. Partners and administrative assistants will definitely value different pieces of a CRM system.
Pay close attention to how people receive the system. It’s easy to get caught up in managing the data and coordinating with IT to make sure most users are having a positive experience. However, walking the floors and engaging in casual chatter with everyone can provide further insight as to what people really think about the system. Use this time to directly address any hiccups, tweak the system and manage expectations.
Infinity and Beyond…
Keep it fresh. After the “honeymoon phase” of a CRM launch is over, firms are most vulnerable to losing their new investment. Think of creative ways to keep interest and adoption high.
Introduce a new series of training programs that go beyond the basics and educate partners and other users on more areas of the system that bring value.
Confirm that your data is reliable. If everyone did their homework in the beginning and scrubbed their data prior to putting it into your CRM system, your data should be reliable, right? Not always. You may have done your best to manage the clean-up when you launched your system, but bad data and lax data-change management processes can corrupt one of the firm’s biggest assets.
Think of ways to populate the system with meaningful data. Whether it’s industry segmentation or areas of expertise, start adding valuable intelligence to the contact information already in the system.
Keep key management at your firm abreast of how the system is performing and what the success stories have been.
Build a library of useful reports. Producing tangible tools that help partners make valuable decisions is important to provide reasons why they should continue to populate the database with intelligence.
Add new modules. Expanding the system and keeping it alive is key. Sometimes the way to do this is to purchase a new module for your CRM system. Revisit the original firm goals you weren’t able to accomplish during the initial launch or still want to address.
Purchasing and deploying a CRM system is a big investment of time, money and effort for any firm. By leveraging what you have and establishing proactive short- and long-term planning, your CRM system will be successful and give the ROI on which you’ve been betting.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been looking at Infusionsoft’s CRM software and am really impressed with it.
Have you any thoughts on how their security and reliability is?
InfusionSoft is one of the up and coming stars of the CRM marketplace for small and mid-sized organizations (SMEs). Although I don’t have any empirical data regarding InfusionSoft’s Servers, I suspect that the security and reliabilty offered are superior to what most SMEs could afford on their own…