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The five very important people (VIPs) whom you need on your CRM success team
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) projects start with a lot of expectations - expectations of improved productivity, increased sales, streamlined operations, and money saved.
But how often are the business case successes realised? When you have the five key VIPs actively on your team, your chances of success go through the roof.
The five Very Important People whom you must have on your CRM success team are:
- The raving fan
- The sceptic
- The charismatic leader
- The tester
- The IT Expert
Some sobering statistics
The CRM industry is certainly growing. In 2016 the Customer-Relationship-Management (CRM) software market global revenue was $US34.36 billion and in 2020 this is forecast to be $US48.34 billion – an increase of over 40% (source statista 2019 https://www.statista.com/forecasts/966692/crm-software-market-revenue-in-the-world). However, in spite of this growth, up to 65% CRM projects fail (source https://c5insight.com) although those that do succeed experience a 240% boost in performance (source Gallup). CSO Insights claims that less than 40% of CRM projects demonstrate full scale end-user adoption – and in my experience, it could be lower.
So why is there this failure rate and low level of user adoption?
Technology is not the culprit.
With all CRM projects, we should remember that is all about People, Process and Technology – in that order. Too often, a mistake made in a CRM implementation project is that it is viewed simply as a mere technology hook-up.
In February 2016, Forrester, in partnership with CustomerThink, ran a survey to understand the main risks and what you needed to achieve to reach CRM success. From a population of 414 who had been involved in a CRM technology project as a business professional in sales, marketing, customer service, or technology management within the past 36 months, they found that 38% had problems people issues such as slow user adoption, inadequate attention paid to change management and training, and difficulties in aligning the organizational culture with new ways of working.
In contrast, only 35% had technology issues such as data problems, functional shortfalls in vendor solutions, a lack of the required skill sets needed to implement the solution, system performance shortfalls, and poor usability. Noting that this includes data problems, which can have a myriad of sources, many of which are not truly technology and problems with skill sets, which can easily be overcome with training, this leaves far fewer of the problems caused by technology than people.
Projects do not fail because the incorrect technology was selected. And rarely, is a mainstream technology to blame. The reason for failure is nearly always human, and usually poor decisions by humans.
Introduction to your CRM VIP success team
A CRM implementation is a journey, so you'll need a CRM success team to make sure it works as required and the success stays with you for a long time. Meet the key people in your CRM success team
THE RAVING FAN
The raving fan knows why CRM is a great idea and is equipped with CRM statistics, key findings, charts, and numbers that flaunt your CRM's benefits. Your raving fan believes in your CRM success - no matter what.
Your best raving fan is a project manager who likes to experiment with new ways of working and achieving fantastic results. Your raving fan already knows a lot about your selected CRM technology and is keen to help everyone to enjoy using CRM every day.
The raving fan is a very important person for CRM adoption because they bring all the other users along with them.
THE SCEPTIC
The sceptic is likely to be a results-oriented sales manager. He is impatient about anything that takes time to deliver results.
What he wants is sales hitting the roof right now. If noticeable benefits are not appearing "out of thin air", then the sceptic will continue to distrust the innovation.
As 71% of people will demand evidence before they fully embrace the new solution, your sceptic will be a healthy part of your team who keeps the technology team on their toes. This will include questioning how CRM will benefit and encouraging practical demonstrations of these benefits.
The sceptic is a very important person for CRM adoption because they challenge many of the assumptions and ensure that the CRM solution meets people's needs, not just IT's needs.
THE CHARISMATIC LEADER
CRM adoption has a top-down approach. Without the top-management buy-in, and leading by example, CRM initiatives are doomed to failure. When the leaders of your organisation don't show an example of using CRM every day, the rest of your employees will give up as well.
The top reasons for CRM project failure are – arranged in order of importance:
- Senior Executives fail to lead by example
- Vendors over-promise
- Integrator costs out of control
- Software too buggy
- Integrator not knowing business
- Software lacks features
Your charismatic leader (possibly your managing director, CEO or other highly visible and respected person) has the vision and communication skills to get the message about why CRM is being implemented to your wider audience. Their message will focus on the benefits to each team member more than the organisation as a whole.
Your charismatic leader demonstrates personal commitment to the new project by visibly incorporating CRM into his daily communication with the employees.
THE TESTER
Testing is key part of your successful CRM project, but is often overlooked. There are several different types of testing required, but the most important for your CRM success is user acceptance testing. User acceptance testing (UAT) is where real users confirm that the CRM solution delivers as scoped.
Your tester will work with your configured CRM and data and will ensure that your CRM – and the associated processes - works for him and his team, and everyone else. This testing will not be just the 'happy path' but will include the exceptions as well. Only testing the happy path is a common cause of issues, because you can be pretty certain that the exceptions will arise soon after go live. It will be much harder to fix them post go live than earlier.
THE IT EXPERT
Obviously, you need your CRM technical expert to help you and your team understand the technical aspects of your chosen software and solve the technical 
problems that may arise. However, although your CRM Technical Expert is important, he is only one member of the team and is no more important than his four team-mates. Having your skilled CRM Technical Expert around will take the initial frustration away, with assistance in maintaining the operations of your software. However, as well as specific CRM technical expertise your CRM technical expert must also have critical thinking skills and communication skills.
However, you must take care in selecting the correct CRM Technical Expert. Your technical expert undoubtedly requires a deep knowledge of your selected technology. However, the technical expert must also be able to assess problems, and find solutions to those problems that really leverage the technology.
For many people, finding this person can be the most challenging, as it can be extremely difficult to assess expertise outside your own expertise.
There's a black sheep in every flock
But the picture wouldn't be complete without one more character lurking in the CRM implementation team.
It is the hater.
Way worse than the skeptic, this person not only doubts the system, he is also "on a mission" to prove that the whole idea was wrong.
The hater is likely to be a top sales guy who knows it all already. He is comfortable with his ways, which enable him to succeed and close a lot of deals. He does not want change, and he will be waiting for anything to go wrong.
The hater just loves the moment when something goes wrong to be able to say victoriously "I told you so!"
But this one character does not get the privilege to be on our CRM adoption dream team, you can very well do without him.
The importance of training
All these characters usually represent different departments in a company, perform different duties and have their own goals.
So, it is important that people in sales, marketing, admin, IT, and management share the same well-defined goals that they want to reach after they've decided to make CRM their revenue-driving tool.
Finally, it is the ongoing and systematized training that is key to a smooth adoption process and CRM success. Don't think a few implementation sessions will suffice. After all, it is not like you are installing a new Windows update on everyone's computer.
Admit it – CRM can be complex at the beginning. So, it is a good idea to train the employees consistently on how they can use CRM in their daily work; i.e. focus on the basic, role-based functionality. Leave the complex bells and whistles for later.
So what does all of this really mean?
When dealing with a CRM adoption, companies shouldn't focus only on the technical side of the project, as this leads to either failure or perhaps haphazard success. It is the people's hearts, and then minds that you need to win.
And since CRM user-adoption is a team effort, you will need a set of common goals and an implementation strategy, ensure top management support, launch an incentive system, demonstrate ROIs, and, above all, provide an ongoing training.
No doubt about it – CRM adoption can be a long, often costly and time-consuming process, but if implemented correctly, it can change everything: starting from your daily routines, ways you treat your customers or convert your leads, to your revenues and your business profile.
How do you achieve CRM success? Is there anyone we missed from the dream team list?
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