how to lead a crm planning workshop - ism...

www.ismsystems.com © 2008 Integrated Sales Management

How to Lead a CRM Planning Workshop A Practical Guide for Launching a Successful CRM Initiative


Why Hold a CRM Planning Workshop?

Challenge: You are buying a new CRM system.

Solution: A good CRM planning methodology can make sure you don’t buy the wrong one. You may find you don’t need a new system after all.

When it comes to CRM projects, there are generally two kinds of companies – those that have already bought a CRM and it needs to work better or those that are buying a new system altogether.

Keep in mind that many companies get so fed up with their current system that they think the only solution is to start over with a completely new system. A good CRM planning methodology like the one explained in this paper may bring alternatives to buying a new system. It could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars and save you a lot of heartache.

The process for planning a new CRM versus fixing the one you have already is essentially the same. For this reason, it’s better to go into your planning sessions with an open mind. Many companies favor a particular CRM solution they have heard about or are familiar with before they even start planning. This is not a best practice.

As a best practice, go into your CRM planning meetings with an open mind. Be clear on your objectives and plan process improvements carefully. You may find the right CRM solutions will emerge from this process. And they may be cheaper and faster solutions than you have been planning for.

Challenge: You bought a CRM system and it’s not what you hoped it would be.

Solution: A good CRM planning methodology can help you get the results you want out of the system you have.

I’m getting a new CRM! I bought a CRM and I need help.


Why CRM Projects Fail

Research shows that 1 in 3 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implementations fail to deliver their intended results. Generally speaking there are three root causes that practically every CRM failure can be traced to:

1. Companies do not have a clear understanding of HOW CRM will benefit the business. You need to answer questions like, “How is CRM going to make jobs easier? How will it streamline processes? How will it improve the customer experience?” Because of this, stakeholders have difficulty getting aligned around clear objectives. Internal support is not established and the project fails.

2. Many companies start looking at CRM software products without thinking through the impact they will have on the people and the processes of the company. CRM is NOT software. CRM is about using technology to make it easy for people to execute the right processes and enrich the customer experience.

3. Companies fail to plan adequately. CRM initiatives are inherently complex. It takes the right team of skilled planners, business analysts, and technology experts to ensure that the execution of the project goes flawlessly.

Following this guide will help ensure you won’t make these critical mistakes and your CRM implementation goes flawlessly.

NOTE This Guide assumes that you already have completed a business case. You simply cannot adequately plan a CRM initiative without a business case. For more information on how to prepare a business case, go to www.ismsystems.com and download the CRM Guide entitled How to Prepare a CRM Business Case.

People

Process

Technology


8:30AM - Getting StartedThis Guide follows a one‐day timeline; however, the timeline is not firm. This workshop could easily turn into a two‐day exercise depending on how many processes your team decides to map beginning in the afternoon.

Make sure you have the right people in the room. Too many companies plan implementations with only some of the people. CRM is about people first, so make sure you get the right input and buy‐in from the right people.

Start off your meeting by communicating the purpose of the meeting and having a clear agenda.

You will need:

• A whiteboard

• Butcher paper

• Lots of wall space to work in

• Lot of post‐it notes

• A projector The use of Mind Mapping software can be especially useful to capture ideas and information and manage the meeting.


9:00AM – Present Business Case

Current Situation Ideal Situation Impact

• 25 Salespeople, 4 Sales Mgrs, 2 VPs • Two channels – direct ecommerce

marketing and outside sales • 40 Users, generally with limited PC skills • Customer service has good PC skills • Users use Outlook, spreadsheets and

sticky notes to keep client notes – poor compliance

• Use process to focus individual selling efforts

• Reduce admin time for sales people creating price quotes manually

• Align sales and service with best practices to improve results

• Clearly defined an easy process for staff to follow

• Aligned with best strategies to maximize revenue

• Increase avg. sales per rep • Increase total sales per rep • Decrease selling time • Reduce non-selling time • Strong and continual customer

relationship

• Close rate is 15%, down 5% from 2 years ago

• Forecasting accuracy is extremely poor – less than 30% accurate for each following month

• No visibility of deal stages, sales management is unable to save deals that are in trouble

• Quoting prices takes too long • Sales & service spend too much time

answering order status questions • No integration between website

pricing and the sales quoting system

• Develop standard forecasting, opportunity, and customer management process

• Develop method for prioritizing opportunities for more focused selling efforts

• Implement standards for sales forecasting based on specific sales stages

• Develop standards for forecasting that will increase focus and accuracy

• Increase total sales per rep • Increase close ratio • Increase deal size • Increase lead conversion • Reduced sales cycle • Increase forecasting accuracy

• No centralized data • Excel used for reporting • No standard reporting format • Complete lack of visibility • Outlook used for contact management • Limited IT Resources • Islands of Data • Corrupt customer data

• Develop central platform for detailed profiles of key accounts and prospects

• Easy to use interface for entering opportunities and projects

• 360o visibility to all Information • Dashboards that reinforce critical

processes • Integrated calendar

• Improve communication • Reinforce business process • Allow staff to focus on their job

responsibility • Limit loss of data from rep turnover • Immediate and easy access to critical

data • Easier to execute the right tasks

In short, the Business Case identifies the current situation, the ideal situation and the impact it will have on the business. It also includes a preliminary ROI estimate of the project. Assuming you have all of the right people in the room, this is an excellent time to get an eyeball check

with everyone in the meeting to make sure there is agreement on key elements of the business case. If there is not, work through the issues so clarity and consensus are in place before moving forward.

People

Process

Technology


9:15AM – Business Priorities

Priority Description

Create a forecasting system that is easy to use and accurate

Make forecasting dependent on discrete steps the sales people accomplish at each stage of the sales cycle. Set up a dashboard system for sales management to see changes made to forecasts in real time and snapshots of previous versions of each rep’s forecast for more control and more relevant coaching opportunities.

Offer Customers an Integrated Online Quote Tool

Make it easier for the customer to do research and get quotes on the ACME Products website through the development of a single‐source online quote tool. The new quote will be able to handle simple orders by offering the customer intelligent guidance via wizards and context‐sensitive help. The single‐source quote will be powerful enough to handle the most complicated orders by relying on a modular architecture which makes it easy to increase scale and complexity.

Build a Flexible, Powerful Pricing Engine

A common pricing engine puts all the complicated logic, business rules, and nuances of pricing into a unified system. The engine will quickly deliver prices on stock orders as well as custom jobs, reflecting the increases in price that accompanies more complex work.

Revamp Account/Customer Contact Data Model

Gain a better understanding of ACME’s market with an Account/Contact data model that more accurately reflects how the company interacts with the customer base. A ‘shared accounts’ model consolidates users from similar companies under a single Account or Customer record.

Improve Accuracy of Online Status

ACME could offer customers more information and more efficiently allocate resources to servicing customer needs if there were a clearer picture of online status. The online status should be an accurate reflection of pending stages of an order within the database.

Once you have reviewed the Business Case, it’s time to take those big picture issues and narrow them down to specific priorities. Building on the foundation of the business case, these priorities focus on specific process improvements and functionality that will create the ROI that was projected in the Business Case.


10:00AM – Aligning Processes & People

Now that you have established priorities, it’s time to identify the key processes involved and the people in the organization that the processes impact. The order management Process shown in this illustration is just one of many processes that CRM will impact. You will need to answer the questions, “Who OWNS the processes involved? and Who is impacted by them?”

Draw your org chart on the whiteboard and map the key processes on it.


1:00PM – Prioritizing Processes

Rank Process Description Pain Impact Ease Weight

1 New /Customer Order The process from when an order is placed on the Internet or through the call center to the time it is confirmed by production.

1 1 6 6

2 Order Processing The process of entering an order into the system via Internet or call center.

2 3 3 18

3 Quality/Return Authorization The process of tracking defects and problem orders, including issuing RAs.

6 4 1 24

4 Change Orders The process of changing order specifications once an order is placed.

3 4 5 30

5 Billing & Shipping The process of billing and shipping once the order is completed in production.

5 5 2 50

6 Post Order Loyalty / Marketing How our sales team and marketing programs cultivate repeat orders from customers.

4 6 4 96

You can’t fix all of your company’s problems at once. You need to eat the elephant one bite at a time. You will need to make some trade‐offs and prioritize which processes are going to get the most attention.

We recommend using a simple ranking system based on four criteria:

1. Pain – On a scale of 1 to 10, how much organizational pain and problems are caused by not fixing a particular process? Have everyone in your group vote?

2. Impact – On the same 1 to 10 scale, how big of an impact will fixing the process have on the company and its customers?

3. Ease – How easy is it going to be to fix?

4. Weight – This is a multiplier of all of the numbers for prioritization purposes.

Tally all the votes, discuss any items of contention between the team members, and you are ready to move into the next phase of your workshop.


2:00PM – Model the “IS” Process

Take one process at a time and flow chart each one on a large wall or whiteboard.

These flow charts are what we call the “IS” process. It is a complete representation of how the process works NOW, not how you want it to work.

Post‐it notes are particularly helpful in this exercise since they allow you to move elements and linkages around at will. When you are done with this exercise, take a picture of the flow charts with a digital camera for reference later. From these pictures, you build detailed drawings of these processes using Microsoft Visio or a similar charting tool.


3:30PM – Model the “SHOULD” ProcessOnce you map the “IS” process, begin to move the post‐its and the linkages around to create a “SHOULD” flow chart. In other words, “Given no technology constraints, how do you want the process to work ideally?” Once you complete the “SHOULD” diagram, take

pictures of these diagrams once again. After the meeting, have someone create detailed charts of both the “IS” and “SHOULD” flow charts. Unless you have in‐house process engineers, make sure you outsource this task to a professional. It’s money well spent.


4:30PM – Action Items & Wrap Up Once you have created flow charts for all of the key processes, it’s time to wrap up the meeting.

Make sure you are clear about what the Action items are and who is responsible.

If you are using Mind Mapping software, all of the notes you have captured should be imbedded in your map and ready to email to all of the meeting attendees.

Give your team enough time to map all of the processes in detail and schedule a follow‐up meeting with ISM to review the maps.


About Integrated Sales Management

Successful CRM implementations are rarely executed entirely in‐house so the right consulting team can make or break your substantial CRM investment. ISM’s team is comprised of some of the best talent in the CRM industry, bringing a wealth of experience and value to its clients. Today, with over 250 successfully planned and implemented CRM projects, ISM is recognized as a leading facilitator of CRM success. Together we can deliver the ultimate customer experience!

Business Consulting Effective CRM aligns People, Process and Technology to achieve measurable business results. ISM helps clients successfully leverage CRM through leadership in strategy, business process requirements, technology selection, implementation, and support. Our methodologies and expertise adhere to the best practices from the most respected minds in the CRM and business process consulting industry. Technical Consulting Our deep knowledge of leading CRM applications enables us to deliver faster, more effective and sustainable results. As an unbiased reseller of multiple CRM software solutions for the mid‐market, you can rest assured we won’t try to shove a square peg into a round hole. We will find the best possible solution for your core business processes. We represent SalesLogix from Sage Software, Salesforce.com and Microsoft CRM. If the fit is still not perfect, we will customize the technology to fit your unique needs. We also sell and support industry‐leading tools for data transformation, sales dashboards, and systems integration. The ISM Difference We are not a potluck consulting firm. Our focus is strictly on CRM. We believe in both the qualitative and quantitative benefits of a successful CRM deployment. We will partner with you to bridge the gap between IT and functional business units, and once everybody is on‐board, we will create a successful blend of business strategy and technology that will help you achieve measurable results. We are not about implementing software. Our goal is to help you pinpoint, attain and retain lasting customer relationships.


The CRM Guide Series… If you are thinking about a CRM, you need the CRM Guide Series from ISM. And it’s FREE! Call us today at 1‐877‐553‐0485 or send an email to [email protected] and we will send you the guides you don’t have.

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