Selling: What did CRM ever bring me?
Sometimes everything really is in the name!. In this case it’s Customer Relations Management.
Quoting the SalesForce website “The beginnings of CRM as we know it started in the 1980s. Robert and Kate Kestnbaum were pioneers of database marketing. Which was a form of direct marketing that analysed the customer database statistically to identify which customers would be most likely to react to a marketing campaign. The concept took off and Kestnbaum, together with Robert Shaw, brought us new concepts and methodologies, ranging from customer lifetime value to channel management. There is a lot of debate about who invented CRM, but, if you take Bob Kestnbaum's contributions to modern marketing and strategy, he probably has earned the crown….“
In the large B2C markets in which the Kestnbaums focused, it has clearly been beneficial to understand the buying habits and trends of your customers, as well as capture them in a database that can be shared throughout your organization. So why do so people question the benefits of CRM investments.
The question we should be asking is “ Do you work in a way that makes CRM a useful tool?”.
The analysis of buying habits helps strategic decision-making and insight into market trends. At a certain level, this information is hugely useful. However for the individual sales person who is charged with “feeding the beast” the returns can be limited or non-existent; quite simply because the market and buying habits of your customer’s do not lend themselves to this level of mass data analysis. In these situations CRM systems are frequently viewed as management reporting tools with little direct value to the customer-facing team.
The advent of Sales Enablement systems was a definite improvement, bringing the direct usefulness down to the sales team, even if the greatest benefit can be derived by the sales manager rather than the people who own the opportunities. The ability to define a unique sales process and provide pertinent support as an opportunity progresses provides a much sounder platform for sales teams than an adapted CRM. The fact that Sales Enablement platforms include a CRM database for reporting and data collection means they can be viewed as an evolution rather than an alternative.
Where even S.E platforms struggle is in the domain of complex sales, with multiple buying centres and conflicting interests and needs. What is needed is a platform based around the customer’s buying process rather than the seller’s sales process.
Virtually all CRM/SE platforms enable you to replicate the customer’s organization chart, and some even attempt to reflect the level of engagement you have with individuals, to the limit of personal data regulations. What few, if any, do is help you map who is influential at each stage of the buying process. Logically your stakeholder analysis in the early buying stage will look very different to the Proposal phase which may be dominated by supply Chain and business owners rather than technical specialists. At what point does the early contact no longer help you in your efforts to win the work?.
Similarly it is rare to find a platform that helps a sales person validate the strength of the customer’s compelling need(s) and by consequence the robustness of their own compelling sales message to various stakeholders within the customer’s organization.
If this a sales process you recognize, you will be feeding the beast” rather than using your CRM/SE platform as a useful tool to help execute key activities in order to win more work, more profitably.
Such tools such as the “Mbrace Winning Opportunities” do exist, but are not integrated into online platforms. Ultimately is it more useful for a sales person to have an Excel workbook that she or he can use as their opportunity diary, or a fully integrated online system with less functionality.Like any compelling need, it depends on who you ask!!
