Here are our 10 essential steps to successfully transitioning to a CRM-centric enviornment:
1. Build Your Team
Your implementation team should comprise of the following people: a member of the executive team, a project manager, an IT administrator (if applicable) and 3-4 representatives from the front line and sales teams.
2. Identify and Document Existing Processes
All companies rely on a set of processes that help move their business forward. Part of initial deployment process will consist of asking yourself these questions:
- How does my company collect leads?
- How are our deals guided through the sales process?
- How does my company maintain relationships with current customers?
- How does my company identify our most important clients?
- How does my company handle customer service inquiries?
- How are contacts stored and shared?
The answers to these questions and others will help you gain an understanding of your current business processes and allow you to understand how a CRM solution can help improve and automate some portions of them.
3. Conduct a Gap Analysis
Conduct a gap analysis. Take a look at where you are currently standing, where you are willing to head and examine the gap between the two paths. Think of how you can close that gap using CRM tool.
4. Define Your Vision
Set high goals and make sure that they are viable and measurable. Example of goals may include better reporting, increased conversion, improved retention rates, more marketing leaders etc. Make sure to also define how CRM will fit into the overall direction and strategy of your organization.
5. Prioritize Your Goals
Plan your CRM implementation with a staggered approach that focuses on quick wins for your team. Goals that you feel can be most improved with the implementation should come first. Remember, Rome was not built in a day and neither will be your CRM. In the implementation phase, your project team will need to determine what you want CRM to do for you. Think big picture.
6. Partner with the CRM Consultant
Buying and deploying a CRM tool can be made easy with the guidance of an experienced CRM consultant and vendor. If you want to have the greatest chance at success and the highest ROI from your investments, it is wise not to go through the process alone.
7. Share your Vision
Share your vision with the rest of your team. It should be no secret that you are trying to improve businesses processes and make working more productive. Don’t forget to also provide training to staff who will be utilizing the software in order to ease their mind and prevent reluctance in adopting the change.
8. Data Migration
Depending on your current processes and the tools you use to store your data, data migration can be the most challenging and expensive part of the entire deployment. The cost of your data migration effort can be affected by a number of factors, including the size, complexity, and format of your existing backend database. A savvy CRM consultant can help you do it in the most cost-effective way possible.
9. Test
The second last step is to test the system thoroughly before it enters into production in order to avoid the heartbreak of failure or unexpected glitches.
10. Don’t Stop!
CRM is an ongoing effort that never stops and neither should you. To be successful you need to continually coach users, re-state expectations and introduce new features. Offer a “suggestion box” within CRM that users can request new features and then give them credit when those new features are rolled out.