Gail looked over her glasses and snorted, “Will you ever
stop beating that CRM horse?”
It was the usual lunch gathering but with a slightly
expanded group: Rob; our branding bulldog, Rick; the Direct Marketing guy,
Chris; a new member of the group with a vast knowledge of on-line stuff for one
so young and the senora of sales; Kate.
“I don’t get it,” I said. “Getting you guys to buy in is
like watching ice melt in a deep freeze.
I’ve told you how the research shows you can’t keep more
than 7 items in memory at the same time. I’ve shown you how easy it can be to
put in basic contact data and add to it as things develop. Rick and Chris have
told you how important personalization can be in today’s world. Rob just keeps
telling us how important the relationship with the customer is to having a
great brand. And I know Kate keeps extensive notes on hot prospects.
Why don’t you guys have a Contact Relationship Management
system in place in your businesses? I
really want to know and I promise not to interrupt or try to sell you.”
“That will be a first,” Kate said. “But I’ll start. You know
that CRM used to be called just Contact Management. It wasn’t so fancy…or so
complex.
CRM has always been sold as a way to increase sales. And that
is true—for the guys and gals in the middle of the pack. The top performers
don’t like it because it takes too much time for such a small difference in
performance and the ones on the bottom, may loose their jobs because of their miserable
metrics which are made painfully obvious to their boss. The ones in the middle
can profit if they put the system to work and use the time saved to make more
and better sales calls.
I train individuals and sales forces to be more profitable.
I don’t recommend CRM systems because I know how hard it is to get people to
use ‘em BUT they can really help a sales manager get a handle on the levels of
performance in the sales team.
“So what do you use?” I asked.
She mumbled, “Outlook and a spread sheet.”
Before she continued a couple of others piped up that they
did as well.
Gail, a Mac user said “There aren’t any systems simple
enough for me. I just go with the one that comes with the computer and I use
Constant Contact to do e-mail marketing and I have guy that syncs the lists and
takes off the ones that don’t go through. And I just type people’s data in as I
get it.
Chris winced and said, “So how do you handle sign ups for
your blog or your newsletter not to mention the people you are working with and
those you want for clients?”
Rick said, “I’m a Mac user, too and i have to tell you that
a CRM system is a lot of work and I don’t think a small operation really needs
one. When I was running a Direct Marketing firm we needed one to keep new
business on track but now that I’m consulting I can pretty much keep track of
what I need to with a spread sheet and a calendar.
I still follow your advice to decide what to do next,
calendar it and then just do it each time I connect with a client or prospect.
That works. And If you have some kind of software that allows a team to see a
calendar that could be helpful.
“That’s for sure,” said Chris. “I work with a lot of
startups and small companies and most of them feel like a CRM system would cost
too much in money and time. The thing is they’ll spend several hundred dollars
on paid online advertising a month and not take advantage of web site visits to
capture at least an e-mail so they can continue the conversation with someone
that is interested in their product or service.
A CRM system can pay for itself if you put the information
to work.
Me? Well I use Outlook and Excel and make do but I should
probably take my own advice.”
Rob drawled, “Y’all seem to me to be a couple biscuits shy
of breakfast. Everything we do for
ourselves and our clients adds to Brand. That is why they call it CRM Customer Relationship
Management these days.
Put the relationship in to build the Brand.
There’s more to it than sales and sales tracking. There’s
personalization and understanding what folks want on the fly. CRM is the heart
of how you build your business and our brand. You have to have the data
available to everyone that can use it in a way that it each touch point in the
company can add to the customer experience. It has to fit into on and offline
marketing and be trackable. Tain’t easy. Just make sure any one in the pack can
tree ‘em and that all of you make ‘em feel good about bein’ there.
“Tree “em?” I asked
“Get the information that will allow you to get back to them
or to drip on ‘em or allow anybody in your organization to treat them the way
they want to be treated next time they stop by. It’s all about the brand and
every thing you do right will keep ‘em in your tree.
Just make sure your CRM is simple enough for all the folks that
have to use it.”
Jerry Fletcher is known as a Contact Relationship Magician Have
a system in place? He starts where the software stops. Putting one in place? He
knows the right questions to ask. www.JerryFletcher.com
Jerry speaks internationally on Trust Based Marketing &
Contact Relationship Management. See video at www.NetworkingNinja.com