Getting Started with a CRM: Less is More
There’s a logic often employed when launching a CRM: If you build it, they will use it. If you build it with a lot of features, they will use it a lot. If you build it capable of everything they could ever want or imagine, they will use it for everything they could ever want or imagine.
But it’s not true. Increasing the capabilities of your CRM at launch actually decreases the chances your staff will use the CRM.
So the one thing we tell every CRM client, whether they want to hear it or not, is less is more.
A CRM can do a lot of great things for your business, but only if people use it. Want to make sure no one uses your CRM? Load it up with so many expectations and features that everyone is completely overwhelmed.
Here’s a snippet of a CRM request we received a few months back:
We would like SugarCRM (Community Edition) installed with complete integration with Peachtree Quantum 2010 accounting and our telephone server. The CRM should be able to pull up a customer record based upon the reverse lookup derived from the phone system. We would also like the following modules added:
- Connector for Google Docs
- Email Inbox dashlet
- Thunderbird Extension
- Team Notices Open Source
- Contact Grabber
- Marketing Manager
- Contact Capture
- Workflow Engine
- SMS Emailer
- Process Manager
And on and on, with nearly 40 specific add-on requests.
We passed on that project. It didn’t obey the first law of getting started with CRM. Less is more.
Can SugarCRM integrate with a back end accounting, display relevant revenue information and help sales reps evaluate and act on their accounts? Sure.
Can it integrate with a phone server and automatically pull up a customer record when your phone starts ringing? Yep.
Can it do the 40 other things this company had in mind? Absolutely.
But you and your staff can’t. At least not all at once.
The best way to ensure the success of a CRM is to get it in the hands of the people who will be using it as fast as possible. Then get their feedback and make incremental enhancements while the CRM is in active use. Bunkering down for a massive project to make the greatest CRM this side of the Mississippi may produce a really impressive piece of technology, but most likely no one is going to use it.
Here’s our opening advice to companies getting started with a CRM:
- Decide what information your CRM is going to capture. Name, company and contact info is easy. What else do your sales or support reps need to know? Customize your data fields and layouts to be as streamlined and user friendly as possible. Leave all unnecessary information off the screen. Clean, accurate data is everything.
- Include two features at launch that management will really like (this is usually some sort of reporting and sales pipeline visibility).
- Include two features at launch that sales will really like (this is often mobile friendly screens, Outlook integration or automated reminders).
- Quickly knock out those 5 things (field/layout customizations, two management features and two sales features) and get the CRM in the hands of a pilot group who are anxious to use it and see it as valuable.
Now your CRM can be improved week after week with live feedback, and you have a stable base to build on integration like accounting, phone, ecommerce, inventory, etc.
You don’t need the best CRM ever conceived right out of the gate. You need one your staff will use. Thus the first law of getting started with CRM. Less is more.
