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Insiders Guide To CRM Success Review..
Are you taking your CRM Project seriously? Read our review of The Insiders Guide To CRM Success: So many companies make the same avoidable error, like history repeating itself. In their (justified) enthusiasm to purchase a CRM solution, they forego steps involved in making a considered decision. They then continue in the same vein when implementing the CRM software, further exacerbating the problem. Only for it to all unravel later. At worst you experience the double-dipper conclusion - the first CRM purchase/implementation was a dismal failure, now you have to go through the whole CRM acquisition process again, with lost time, lost money and a demotivated team adding to the pressure second time around. Or you limp along with a half-baked CRM installation that nobody uses, or uses correctly, becoming this maligned white elephant, this swear word around the company. This is where the oft-quoted 70% CRM failure rate statistic comes from. Very unfortunate. Another likely unforeseen casualty of this failed CRM implementation is the loss of key sales people. I have seen companies lose their best sales staff who figure if this is how the company applies itself, there are deeper management problems exposed here, so it might be a good time to move on. And they are probably correct in their assumptions! Having seen this scenario play itself out ad nausium over my 16 plus years in the CRM industry, I wondered how far the The Insiders Guide To CRM Success Toolkit goes to address these problems. The CRM Success Toolkit is not simply a book, however. It includes CD’s complete with templates you can use. Scott Gingrich, the author of Insiders Guide To CRM Success, seems to have had a similar stay of duty to myself in the CRM industry. These experiences he has turned into solutions in this Guide, but he also adds some other surprising gems, that alone I would consider make this an essential addition to the company library. Prescribed reading, in fact. The chapter on how to get the best deal from your vendor was most enlightening. Far from being to how best to screw your vendor, who should really be regarded as an extension of your company, you are shown how to get a really fair exchange, a win-win. Your new 'partner' will appreciate and respect your approach, too. This will bring out the best in them to your advantage. You win, they win, they get referral business and everyone lives happily ever after. But to go back a step, Gingrich's advice on how best to structure your CRM RFI (Request for Information) project is also required reading. Part of compiling your RFI is determining a realistic CRM budget. This is comprehensively addressed. You will also be able to protect yourself against ‘scope-creep’, an expensive yet avoidable reality not unique to CRM projects. Over and above the invaluable information imparted in this CRM Success Guide, it is written in a very accessible and readable format. Scott even has a sense of humor - a rarity in our rather stuffy, acronym-saturated world. I would suggest CRM vendors themselves purchase the Insiders CRM Success Guide. It would strengthen their negotiating skills while showing how to do a better job of all things CRM, including guiding their prospective and no doubt uninitiated client smoothly down the CRM road. All their sales staff should certainly invest time reading this up-to-date product. Furthermore, Scott and his team are available on the other end of the phone or email for extended services where required. The CRM Guide will cost a few hours of your time but will save you days, if not weeks or months in sweat and other equity. If you follow the steps clearly laid out in the CRM Guide, you will your CRM strategy and acquisition right first time, painlessly and within budget. Take the kudos with a smile. Insiders Guide To CRM Success Review Back to Small Business CRM Home Page Copyright SmallBizCRM, 2007.
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