There are some pretty damaging statistics about CRM failures. Plenty of articles and percentage figures are floating around about the probability of making a CRM work for your company.
This may have been right some years ago, but today with modern user interfaces, technology available on the move and SAAS installations, the right CRM does succeed and can be a spectacular boost to your business.
For the record BuddyCRM’s success rate is over 90%. How are we more successful than our competitors?
The Buddy Difference
We want BuddyCRM to succeed in your company so we walk everyone through these key steps to make sure that you’ve chosen the right system and everything is in place for success.
Have a plan:
We like to see our customers have a reason for using BuddyCRM. You may have been told by friends or colleagues that you need a CRM but why and what do you hope to gain from using it? Setting business goals that your CRM project needs to achieve will help you stay on track to success. Keep these goals specific, such as targeting higher-quality leads, finding more prospects, or discovering best practices amongst your salespeople.
Nail your sales process:
A defined sales process is a required step in making your CRM work for you. What happens to leads? How do you define a customer? What’s the next step to a sale? etc. If you don’t have one, we’ll happily help you put it together.
Involve users:
At every step in your plan, ensure you’re working to involve the front-line team who you must convince to buy into the new system. The front line is not the sales director or MD but the telesales staff and your sales representatives on the road – these people need to know why they’re using this new tool. It isn’t going to make their life worse, and management values their input into the implementation process.
Select a CRM champion:
Getting ‘buy-in’ from the salespeople is key, so you’re going to need someone who can tirelessly enthuse internally about the CRM’s benefits. A CRM champion is someone who just ‘gets’ why the CRM is being put in. They realise the benefits and can espouse those to others. Once you have your champion, empower them to teach others and watch their enthusiasm infect the team.
Take baby steps:
Jumping in and expecting every aspect of your implementation to work instantly is going to overwhelm everyone. So break the project down in to smaller steps and implement them one by one. By successfully implementing each of these project phases, you’ll show management and users the system works for them and encourage them to buy in to the project.
Connect everything together:
There are plenty of reasons people don’t want to fill in forms or click a few boxes on their diary. Don’t make it easy for them to find an excuse. At BuddyCRM, we can connect your CRM to sales data or accounts packages so salespeople get an entire customer view when they look at a client.
Go Mobile:
If you want your salespeople to use your CRM, you need to give them the ability to access it on the move. BuddyCRM has a fantastic iOS app that lets them update contacts and appointments and access sales information anywhere.
Accounts matter:
We put the company first in BuddyCRM. Not contacts. Contacts leave companies every week, but you’ll be left dealing with the company when they’re gone.
Love your Sales Team:
We put salespeople at the heart of the CRM implementation. After all, they’re the people who will be using it daily. The information they need is presented accurately and intuitively and lets them see everything that’s been going on with a particular company, prepare sales presentations, monitor their sales pipeline and keep their diary updated.
Hand holding:
We don’t just let you charge on in and do things yourself. We know that no one likes being treated like a baby, but you’ll need help and guidance with something this important. We have a huge amount of support and advice available to you including £10,000 of free professional implementation advice on setup. Our support staff are always available too. Along the way, we’ll appoint a specific CRM manager in our team to make sure it is working out and to help with the baby steps you make as you roll out the plan. Someone you can call on for advice and help at any time. We don’t just leave you to figure it out like others do. That’s why we want you to have a plan, follow your sales cycle, appoint a CRM champion and fully embrace the implementation. If you do, it’s going to be a massive success!