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WHITE PAPER CRM – A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS STRATEGY
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White Paper
CRM – a successful
business strategy
IN THIS WHITE PAPER
CRM – a successful business strategy
by Zync Customer Management AB
This document is guide for anyone who is
considering implementing a CRM system,
developing or improving a sales process or
building a common company culture in the
customer facing parts of your organization.
The document is built on experiences from
organizational changes, process development
and implementations of CRM systems in over
300 organizations during the last 20 years.
What is CRM?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is
a concept that is sometimes hard to define. It
can both be a type of software that contains
leads, customers, contacts, opportunities,
cases etc, but it is also a way to define how a
company is managing its customer facing
organization and processes.
Gartner defines CRM as follows:
” Customer relationship management (CRM) is a
business strategy with outcomes that optimize
profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction by
organizing around customer segments, fostering
customer-satisfying behaviors and implementing
customer-centric processes.
CRM technologies should enable greater customer
insight, increased customer access, more-effective
interactions, and integration throughout all
customer channels and back-office enterprise
functions.
The Eight Essential Building Blocks of CRM
initiatives are vision, strategy, valued customer
experience, organizational collaboration,
processes, information, technology and metrics.
CRM projects include traditional areas—such as
sales force automation, campaign management
and contact centers—as well as emerging
areas—such as enterprise feedback
management, marketing resource management,
pricing, performance management and social
media.”
Succeed!
How to succeed in your CRM initiatives.
Page 2
Why CRM?
In today’s global and competitive
marketplace it is increasingly difficult to
differentiate yourself by having a good
product or service – everyone has that.
Instead you buy from companies that
understand you and help you succeed, that
can explain how you will save time and
money using their product, that have staff
who are proactive, knowledgeable and
friendly and who are easy to work with in
sales, delivery and support.
Successful companies work actively with
understanding their customers and are
constantly challenging themselves with
questions like: Who are we? For whom do we
exist? Are we delivering our products in a way
that makes both us and our customers
successful?
In short, companies who are good at CRM!
What can go wrong?
How to avoid the usual pitfalls
Page 3
What are the challenges?
Identify and manage the challenges in your organization.
Page 3
WHITE PAPER CRM – A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS STRATEGY
Succeed!
How to succeed in you CRM initiatives
CRM projects and objectives
Succeeding with a CRM project is difficult. As
many as 70-80% of all CRM project do not
reach the desired objectives for user
adoption, improved efficiency, increased
sales and quality, securing vital customer
information etc.
These are daunting numbers that would keep
any rational organization away from CRM
initiatives. But being good at CRM is a crucial
success factor for any company so we
believe, on the contrary, that you should
focus a lot of your attention to this area. But
do it with greater insight, attention and
control then your competitors.
Common view of the CRM project
To succeed in any CRM initiative it is very
important that the project steering group is
in agreement concerning both the CRM
strategy in general and the specific project
objective. Why is this project started? What
should it achieve? What has highest priority?
How much can it cost? What is the project
manager’s mandate? When must the project
be finished and what do we do afterwards?
Focus on structured, implemented
and accepted processes
Believing that installing a CRM-system will
increase sales and quality is like believing that
installing Microsoft Word will make you a
better writer.
Regardless if the project focuses on
marketing, sales, delivery, customer service
or a combination of these, it will not succeed
if there are no clear objectives and business
goals tied to structured, implemented and
accepted processes.
Otherwise you run the risk of getting a very
expensive Christmas Card database..
Manage the behavioral change
associated with new systems and
processes
The CRM system is normally the easy part of
the project. It is strategy, process and
managing behavioral change that requires
the most focus and effort, both during the
implementation and after go live.
Five basic principles
A well functioning CRM system is a natural
part of a successful selling organization.
But to get the system implemented
correctly, used by the entire organization and
delivering the effects you were looking for
there are a number of things you need to
address.
By adhering to Zync’s five basic principles you
will significantly increase the chances of
succeeding with your CRM implementation
and getting the increased sales, higher
quality, better profitability, more satisfied
customers etc. you were looking for (read
about Alektum on page 4).
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Create a common view of the
CRM project
Focus on structured,
implemented and accepted
processes
Manage the behavioral
change associated with new
systems and processes
Implement step by step in
clearly defined projects
Choose a user friendly,
customizable and stable
CRM-platform.
Very few CRM systems are difficult to
understand and work with, especially
Microsoft Dynamics CRM that looks like and
functions like the other Microsoft Office
products and is totally integrated with
Outlook. In spite of this many organizations
have problems getting everyone to use the
system and thus failing to get the expected
results.
Implement step by step in clearly
defined projects
Why is this so? There are many reasons. It
can be weak leadership, a poorly defined and
communicated CRM strategy, complicated
systems forcing the users to input
information that is not used or perhaps a
view that salesmen are special people that
cannot handle administration or follow
common processes and must be given their
“artistic freedom” to perform their craft.
We believe this is wrong for several reasons.
The complexity and risk increases both
concerning project economy and timeframe
and it particularly increase the demand on
the organization to be able to understand,
accept and use new systems and processes.
These things must be addressed and handled
for the project to succeed. You need to make
a strategy and plan for how to communicate
the project to the organization, map the key
users, identify those who might not use the
system and how to handle them, decide how
and when follow up should be performed and
look at the leadership to see if there are any
issues concerning buy-in, coaching and
driving change in the organization.
Implementing new processes and IT-systems
and getting the whole organization to
understand, accept and use these is difficult.
Despite this there are many organizations
who want to include as many parts of the
business and as many CRM functions as
possible “while they’re at it”.
Zync recommends instead the Crawl-WalkRun principle. The implementation of a CRM
system and of any new process should be
done in manageable, clearly defined steps
where you focus first on the areas where you
see the best and fastest return on
investment. Let the organization adjust with
continuous support and commitment from
management before moving on to the next
step. Do not handle CRM as one of project;
see it as a continuous development initiative!
Choose a user friendly, customizable
and stable CRM-platform
Choose a CRM system that is user friendly,
easy to customize, developed by a global
stable company and has a large community of
local partners and professionals.
Choose Microsoft Dynamics CRM!
WHITE PAPER CRM – A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS STRATEGY
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What can go wrong?
How to avoid the usual pitfalls
CONTENT
The reasons why many CRM projects fail to
reach their objectives are many, but we think
the following four are at the top:
Product focus
Companies in general and Swedish
companies in particular often have a very
strong product focus. They are very skilled at
design, manufacturing, logistics, finance etc,
but lack the same structure and control when
it comes to sales and marketing. This makes
it hard for them to successfully purchase and
implement a CRM system with reasonable
expectations and requirements. The
companies have not done their homework
around strategy and processes and believes
that implementing a CRM system will
automatically generate a number of positive
effects around quality of customer
information, increased sales, improved
customer support etc.
Inexperienced purchasers
Most companies (and especially the
departments that are the target group for
CRM systems) are inexperienced purchasers
of IT systems. They do not how it is done,
what you can expect, how to set the right
requirements and what you can demand
from software suppliers and the
implementation partners.
CRM as an isolated project
Succeeding with CRM requires an ongoing
process and continuous efforts.
Unfortunately many companies put too much
Inexperienced project managers
Many companies are not used to managing
project and especially not internal change
management projects. They often assign an
employee who has not run a complex project
before, who is supposed to also manage their
normal day-to-day activities and
responsibilities and who lacks sufficient
knowledge and mandate to make necessary
decisions concerning functionality, priorities,
budgets etc.
focus and expectations on the
implementation project and revert to the old
ways soon after the project is done.
What are the challenges?
Identify and manage the challenges in your organization
Sales
In our experience the following challenges
are the most common reasons why
companies do not succeed with sales,
marketing, delivery and customer service.
Implementing a CRM system without being
aware of and managing this greatly increases
the risk of the project failing.
General
Poorly structured, implemented and
accepted processes
Lack of relevant information from rest of
the organization.
Lack of good support systems
Unclear marketing process that does not
generate leads and sales
No understanding of the customers
buying process
Too few contacts at customers
Poor differentiation/segmentation
Unclear KPIs
The value proposition is not formulated
and clearly communicated
Weak leadership that does not support
and drive change
Marketing
Sales and Marketing do not act as a
team
Too little planning, executing, evaluating
and too much ad hoc
Poor management of No E-marketing
and social media
Lack of integration between CRM and
other marketing systems and tools
Delivery
Staff introduction time is too long
Difficult to do profitability calculations
on assignments
Future resource needs are not match by
recruitment
Future competence needs are not match
by staff development
Poor coordination with sales – difficult
to plan resources
Customer Service
Clear separation between Service and
rest of the organization
Difficult to plan resources
IT systems are not integrated to CRM
No follow up on satisfaction and quality
Customer Service is not used as a sales
channel.
WHITE PAPER CRM – A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS STRATEGY
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MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM
REFERENCE CASE: HOW ALEKTUM WENT FROM PRODUCING TO SELLING
Thanks to extensive business
development and Microsoft Dynamics
CRM Alektum Inkasso has transformed
itself from a production oriented
company into a sales organization.
About Alektum
Alektum Inkasso is a pan-European debt
collection agency. They help companies get
their money back while at the same time
preserving good customer relationships.
Alektum has many large customers like
Klarna and Ellos and has grown to be able to
support their international operations. With
offices in 15 countries Alektum Inkasso is one
of the Europe’s leading collection agencies.
Initial scope
When Alektum decided to implement a CRM
system the original goal was not to use it to
support sales since there was no real sales
organization in place. It was rather meant to
support key account management and get
better control over vital customer
information.
Step by step implementation
The CRM system was initially implemented in
the Nordics in 2009. Step two meant rolling
out to other key countries in Europe and to
other parts of the organization and step three
rolled it out to the remaining countries in
Europe.
Alektum was upgraded as a company
Zync has been deeply involved in the CRM
project from the start. And not only as a
provider of IT solutions.
Zync did not only upgrade the IT support with the
CRM solution, they also helped Alektum upgrade
itself as a company. For example they made us
realize that the CRM system can be much more
that a key account management tool and, among
other things, helped us develop our sales
processes and brand identity
Helena Sallander, Marketing Director, Alektum
Working with Zync made Alektum realize
they needed a proper sales organization and
a global Sales Director to run it. Both of these
things are now in place.
Complex implementation
The implementation of the CRM system was
complex with integrations to the production
systems and local databases that were
migrated into the CRM system.
You have to remember that we were only six
persons in 1995. Today we are over 300. Alektum
has grown very fast and in the 2000s we have
established operations in 15 countries. This has
created challenges in new areas where our focus
and competence sometimes have been lacking.
The configuration and technical installation of the
system is in many ways the easiest part.
Anders Svensson, Development Director, Alektum
Structured sales
Since Alektum stared working with Zync they
have worked hard with their sales processes
and today all counties have a sales operation
working the same way. They have focused on
their sales and marketing strategy and have
more staff dedicated to sales.
Just moving to Microsoft Dynamics CRM created a
more sales oriented structure. Our organization
now matches the inherit possibilities in the CRM
system.
Helena Sallander, Marketing Director Alektum
Create understanding
Alektum and Zync are working on establishing
a better understanding of the possibilities
connected to Microsoft Dynamics CRM
system to make sure it is used to its full
potential.
To fully reap the rewards of using Microsoft
Dynamics CRM it is important to have an
organization that is willing to use the CRM system
and embrace new ways of working. Learning the
system is not an issue. The Outlook based user
interface is very easy
Helena Sallander, Marketing Director, Alektum
Next step
The next step is to integrate the finance
departments into the CRM system to further
increase insight and return on investment.
The system already provides extensive
reports for follow up on customer care and
driving sales.
Our competence in structured sales management
was low and they made us realize how much help
we needed.
We have moved from a production oriented to a
sales oriented company. That requires a central,
transparent system for all our customer
information. We could never have made that
transition without Zync and Microsoft CRM
Anders Svensson, Development Director, Alektum
Anders Svensson, Development Director, Alektum
Sales Automation
Optimize sales with the smart and familiar
functions in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Benefit
from an intuitive user interface with
imbedded Microsoft Office functions to get
more time for customers, shorten sales
cycles, close more deals and get important
information in real time.
Creative Marketing
Get a marketing functionality that is flexible,
easy to use and adapted to every company.
Convert every lead intto a business
opportunity and discover new possibilities in
your customer base. With the familiar and
smart marketing functionalities in Microsoft
Dynamics CRM companies can market
themselves more efficiently, increase
productivity and get practical insights into
their marketing operations.
Personal Customer Service
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is well equipped to
handle customers changing expectations with
a service solution that is both flexible and
stable giving users access to powerful and
familiar functions and a user friendly
interface. In this smart solution customer
service staff has easy access to case and
customer information as well as a knowledge
database giving them a platform for a
coordinated, cooperative and integrated
customer service.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
ZYNC CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT AB
Tel: +46 (0)10-330 03 20
E-post: [email protected]
Webb: www.zync.se
MICROSOFT DYNAMIC CRM
http://crm.dynamics.com