Optimum CRM Usage
Implementing and maintaining the effective use of CRM technology is a challenge for many businesses. Managers are often frustrated with the way CRM technologies are used by executives; whilst executives often see management demands as an unnecessary distraction. However, there is a right way to use CRM, and in achieving this, businesses reap huge rewards with benefits spanning from individualistic goals (such as work-life balance) to an overall increase in sales performance. This is what I refer to as ‘optimum CRM usage’.
In this discussion, I break down three main ways in which you can achieve optimum CRM usage.
Cynics, Pragmatics and Addicts
The reaction individuals have towards CRM affects their overall usage. There are two polar extremes to this that are common in all organisations: cynics and addicts.
Cynics are resistant to the implementation of CRM and refuse to use it efficiently. More often than not, this is the result of a learning anxiety associated with adopting new ways of doing things being greater than the survival anxiety associated with not adopting them. They often feel frustrated with the change which replaces a person’s rationally guided behaviour, obscuring their abilities to see how it will help them achieve their own objectives and work more efficiently.
On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll find CRM addicts. These are characterised by their overuse of CRM, spending large periods of time performing administrative tasks such as inputting and analysing data. This is not to say that they don’t find CRM to be onerous; they often express the view that CRM is taking too much time and is restricting them from completing more valuable tasks. They seem unaware of the fact that they are overusing CRM and that they can use CRM technology more efficiently to achieve a better balance. This reaction often arises from their lack of understanding with regards to what CRM should be used for and how it connects with their normal daily tasks (such as communicating with customers); they don’t often see how it should work alongside how they work and isn’t an entirely new task that they have to dedicate more time to.
The point of best fit falls in the middle of these two extremes — that is those who take a pragmatic approach. These individuals deal with CRM usage in a sensible and realistic way that’s based on its practical benefits. They understand how it can benefit both their individual goals and way of working, as well as the overall organisation. This isn’t too say that they won’t be resistant to CRM at its earliest stage, but they are able to make sense of the reasons it is being adopted and find a way to adopt a pragmatic level of use into their routine
Those who address CRM with a pragmatic approach also appreciate that less can be more. They can identify the ‘right level’ of CRM usage, and understand that whilst they must continue to keep the information up to date, there are other important tasks that they must complete (such as sales specific actions). Whereas an addict might say “I’m in CRM all day, every day”, high-performers recognise that fewer actions on CRM are beneficial to overall sale-performance. They might, for example, use CRM for 1 hour a week which gives them a structured amount of time engaging with the technology whilst finding enough time to complete other tasks.
Be Selective with Information
It’s not just the time dedicated to CRM that needs to be a fine balancing act, but also the amount of information that people add to and leverage from the technology. Whilst it might seem valuable to know all of the ins and outs of your customers, this can waste copious amounts of resources and leave you with a cluttered catalogue of irrelevant knowledge. On the contrary, you must ask yourself what type of information you need to be collecting and how much. The key is to be selective.
There are a few straightforward questions you can ask yourself: what information will give me an advantage? What information will give the company an advantage? How can the information be used? And is the time spent recording and analysing the data justified. The infographic below can help you identify knowledge sets and types of information that might be valuable.
On the Value of Collaboration
Collaboration is often identified as an increasingly important dynamic to sales success, covering both interaction with customers and internally.
For internal team members, CRM creates a digital space in which individuals can access a wide net of information and customer knowledge wherever they are and whenever they need it. They do not need to spend time trying to find specific team members who might have certain customer knowledge in their little black notepads; instead, they can quickly perform a search and identify relevant information efficiently. This ‘ease of access’ to a populous of knowledge also reduces the time that a user has to spend on CRM technology and gives them more time to work on other things, such as developing personalised marketing content to their target audience.
In a CRM enabled world, collaboration is significantly compromised if not everyone is tracking and storing information using CRM technology. It’s important to be aware of any ‘lone-wolf salespersons’ who do not share information. These individuals (often CRM cynics), who refuse to collaborate, can hinder the quality of information that internal team members are accessing. This can be detrimental to overall sales effectiveness by weakening customer knowledge and altering the reliability of data to construct personalised marketing content.
This discussion on collaboration could be seen as a different way of thinking about the ‘less can be more’ argument above. Although team members may be reluctant to input information into CRM technology at first as they might feel as though it is a time-consuming exercise, it saves time in the long-run by streamlining processes across different levels of the organisation and allows salespersons to undertake sales-specific activities rather than administrative tasks.
