Business Success with CRM

CRM Core Beliefs - Relations among People vs. just a Technology

  

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Having a mindset that CRM is Technology is certainly a limited approach. It restricts the long term relationship building success. Over 20 years ago I heard a wise CRM guru state that CRM is 60% about the people, 30% about the processes and only 10% about the technology.

The limiting mindset that CRM is just technology misses the core principles of business relationship development that is central to a CRM strategy and system.

It is the “relationships among people” that drive long term business success.

 Yes, there are the external customers, clients, leads, prospects, vendors, patients, and so forth that are traditionally considered part of a “customer-centric” people strategy.

But let’s not forget the internal customers- the sales reps, the customer service reps, the receptionists and others within a business that really provide that front end to a positive customer experience. These are the front line resources a business helps to develop and to support with systems like CRM

The true believers of the broader purposes of CRM realize that intelligently moving through the know, like, trust relationship building process is critical for personal and business success.

How many times do we remember our commitments without a system to help us?

Do you remember the conversations you had with a prospect a month ago or the details of that quote from 6 weeks ago, without having a trusted database system?

Do you remember that her son is playing basketball for the Michigan State Spartans or his wife sits on the board of a local and influential not-for-profit organization?

Additionally when the sales representative is out on vacation or unavailable, can the customer service representative easily turn to their CRM system to get up to speed on the current relationship to quickly build rapport?

Making that external customer feel at home and comfortable quickly is a requirement in our crazy busy world for those businesses that want to excel.

Better Decisions:

Finally we can all use reliable information from our knowledge database system to make those quality executive decisions, faster and easier. The sales manager who can quickly view those opportunities that are stuck can now more intelligently provide support and advice- thus improving the relationship with the sales staff and the development of the relationship between the prospect and sales rep.

Journey and Mindset:

Achieving success with a CRM strategy, system, processes and technology is a journey. The right mindset on what’s important and where to focus can make or break a business.

What is your mindset, and is it holding you back from available opportunities?

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