The first step in setting up any CRM system is to determine how the people in the company will use it for their daily tasks. The best approach is to look at the general structure of the business, and then at the “hats” the workers wear. Even in a very small business, all the typical job roles exist even if the tasks aren’t broken down to be performed by different people. Create a simple organization chart, but use job names instead of people names. This helps you to understand the roles that play a part in the organization’s operation.
The next step is creating a simple flowchart of the basic business process. In general, every business follows a similar high level process flow: sell – deliver – bill – support. There are certainly more details involved, and probably far more steps, but at a very high level this is how the business operates.
The final step is to combine the organization chart with the flowchart, creating a diagram which demonstrates how the roles in the company work together to perform the basic business process. This diagram (called a cross-functional diagram) shows the flow of work, as well as the role or job function in the company responsible for the task.
With this basic framework of information, you now have the necessary details to set up the initial CRM system. This simple framework also provides the basis for more fully exploring the business in detail, gaining a better and more in-depth understanding of the tasks performed and flow of information throughout the organization. Frequently, this type of exploration results in business process “re-engineering”, where areas of improvement are identified and greater process or information handling efficiencies are implemented.
It starts with sales
With most businesses, it’s all about sales. The sales team has the relationship with the customer. The sales team knows what products and services the company represents. And the sales team brings in the money. Marketing, support, accounting – all are involved in the business. But the sales team is out there, in front. This is why it makes sense to begin a CRM system deployment by focusing on the sales team. This is where the basics of the business process really begin – where your company and your customers first directly interact, and where information gathering is the key element to building business intelligence.
The sales department usually requires access to a broad range of business information and, subsequently, often a range of business systems. For example, current customer and product information may be stored in an accounting system, but sales prospects and contact information may be stored in a contact management system. Further, an email system probably contains contact information as well, and may additionally handle tasks and appointment scheduling, and may or may not be connected with or part of the contact management software. Even with calendar/schedule programs, email, contact management, and accounting system access – the sales team is frequently not privy to ongoing service or support data. This is often handled by yet a different application or system, and may not be integrated with the systems the sales team uses.
Because of the broad range of information required in order for the sales team to truly excel at managing customer and contact relationships, it is desirable to create a system where a total history – including activities from sales, billing, and support departments – may be stored for each customer or account. Because the sales teams also works with non-current customers (leads and prospects), information should be captured as early into the relationship as possible, ideally at the first contact, and identifying the original source of the lead. It typically takes multiple “impressions” to finally drive a sales lead to contact your business. If you can get this information – how many times the prospect saw your add before they clicked on it; how many emails they received from you before they responded; which search engine they used to find your website – you can find out what works; how your customers found you and what they were looking for.
Frequently, certain sales processes can be automated to improve the speed of follow-up, or to more fully qualify a prospect’s interests. A simple approach to automating certain sales tasks is to create email templates with standard sales responses. For example, the participants of a particular seminar may receive an email follow-up with more information, or links to product or services offered. Another example might be for leads that request information via your website, replied to with standard product information and specific contact information for their sales representative.
The key is in providing a system which gathers and compiles data while workers simply perform their job functions. While the sales team emails prospects and customers, holds scheduled calls and meetings, and produces sales quotes and orders, the details of their activities are captured and stored. In the due course of handling their daily tasks, users create and add to the data which ultimately becomes the source of valuable ongoing business intelligence. Not only are the results of the efforts documented, but the time and activities are also measured, providing information for activity and performance reporting simply as a result of using the system.
