When your wife is a Marketing Manager, there are always some interesting bits to learn. Often we discuss office situations and see what we can learn from it. In one such recent discussions, I realized how important a CRM system is to a company. Even before talking to her I had envisioned of something similar for my company (when I start it), but talking to her not only helped me to get the "technically" right words for my ideas but to also see the practical implications of the same with a real-life case study.
There are two critical functions that can be made hell lot of easier by automated CRM systems like Salesforce: tracking Sales and measuring Marketing.
Keeping track of the sales data can be a herculean task. If a CRM system has not been incorporated right from the start, the sales executives and managers may get really insecure about sharing their contact lists one fine day. Implementing CRM retrospectively can antagonize people and needs a major internal marketing initiative, after all you will be selling to a sales guy! The sales team needs to understand that their confidentiality will be respected and the CRM system will help them to track and serve the clients in a much more effective fashion. If they are not convinced about this, there is little chance that the organization will be able to benefit from the CRM implementation. Hence, get it in as soon as possible and keep it. Sales professional may feel that such systems would make them "dispensable" by making hand-overs easier and by ensuring that the company does not have to worry too much about a huge portion of sales disappearing with a sales executive. They need to be reminded that sales is, anyway, a strongly personality based activity. Hence dependence on the executives cannot disappear and they will always be invaluable. The CRM would, however, discourage any kind of rent-seeking or unethical behaviour and make Sales more robust. Ultimately, it is good for the company and would make Sales more effective.
Measuring Marketing is increasingly seen as a way to rationalize marketing costs and get "greatest bang for the buck". Many organizations, especially the small and medium sized, tend to see Marketing as a cost and a luxury. Then there are professionals who exactly do that: talk and not back it up with data. This can lead to politically very uncomfortable situations for Marketing and it may struggle to explain the necessity of its existence. No wonder in down times it is one of the first to face the axe. Let us try to understand this with an example. Lets say that the Marketing Department of a company A organises a series of seminars that help the Sales to get an average of three new customers per seminar. The CRM would enable to easily track the sales generated by these leads. This would not only help Marketing to understand the success of the event in terms of ROI but to also tailor future events to be more cost-effective. Additionally, it would provide the necessary political cover to advocate the existence and growth of the department.
Concluding, if I am made in-charge of a Sales and Marketing Department, I wouldn't even touch it with a six-foot long pole if it does not have a proper CRM system in place. In fact, it will be my biggest priority to get such a system up and running before I try to implement anything.
There are two critical functions that can be made hell lot of easier by automated CRM systems like Salesforce: tracking Sales and measuring Marketing.
Keeping track of the sales data can be a herculean task. If a CRM system has not been incorporated right from the start, the sales executives and managers may get really insecure about sharing their contact lists one fine day. Implementing CRM retrospectively can antagonize people and needs a major internal marketing initiative, after all you will be selling to a sales guy! The sales team needs to understand that their confidentiality will be respected and the CRM system will help them to track and serve the clients in a much more effective fashion. If they are not convinced about this, there is little chance that the organization will be able to benefit from the CRM implementation. Hence, get it in as soon as possible and keep it. Sales professional may feel that such systems would make them "dispensable" by making hand-overs easier and by ensuring that the company does not have to worry too much about a huge portion of sales disappearing with a sales executive. They need to be reminded that sales is, anyway, a strongly personality based activity. Hence dependence on the executives cannot disappear and they will always be invaluable. The CRM would, however, discourage any kind of rent-seeking or unethical behaviour and make Sales more robust. Ultimately, it is good for the company and would make Sales more effective.
Measuring Marketing is increasingly seen as a way to rationalize marketing costs and get "greatest bang for the buck". Many organizations, especially the small and medium sized, tend to see Marketing as a cost and a luxury. Then there are professionals who exactly do that: talk and not back it up with data. This can lead to politically very uncomfortable situations for Marketing and it may struggle to explain the necessity of its existence. No wonder in down times it is one of the first to face the axe. Let us try to understand this with an example. Lets say that the Marketing Department of a company A organises a series of seminars that help the Sales to get an average of three new customers per seminar. The CRM would enable to easily track the sales generated by these leads. This would not only help Marketing to understand the success of the event in terms of ROI but to also tailor future events to be more cost-effective. Additionally, it would provide the necessary political cover to advocate the existence and growth of the department.
Concluding, if I am made in-charge of a Sales and Marketing Department, I wouldn't even touch it with a six-foot long pole if it does not have a proper CRM system in place. In fact, it will be my biggest priority to get such a system up and running before I try to implement anything.
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