thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

Many organisations still see CRM systems as some kind of magic bullet.

Some vendors even oversell the features of their software when everyone knows that the benefits to customers, staff and owners will only come from successful business development strategies and management to match.

It is true that implementing a CRM system will enable business development processes to become more structured and focussed but: only if the management team uses the system to support sales, marketing and service strategies already in place.

In the early days of a CRM project there is often an emphasis on system skills. That is how best can we use the new system to support the various processes that are in place.

Hopefully the new system can be used to standardise, streamline and automate existing and new processes which will make life easier for all. What is sometimes missed though, are the longer term objectives which are ultimately to support methodologies and management in developing a resilient and resourceful business culture.

Often a key driver for purchase of a CRM is to provide a platform for winning new business by adding new customers and account management by adding new business to existing customers.

The skills needed to win new business and skills needed to optimise account management are complementary but not all sales people can do both well.

This is where the CRM might need different templates for opportunity management as different tactical considerations are at work. The sales manager needs to understand those differences and be able to provide resources if opportunities get stuck at any particular stage in the sales cycle. Providing that sales progress and process is documented inside the CRM then the sales manager has some key indicators to steer the various marketing campaigns typically based around acquistion, retention and growth goals.

Sales and marketing managers need to be able to make sense of all the data that is coming from the CRM and to also be able to adjust inputs to maximise results.

For example I have experienced sales calls where it is not clear to me what the value proposition really is. A standard question to ask sales and marketing people is; How is our offering different to our competitors? and then make sure that all sales messaging and proof statements will support that positioning. Note: the very best proof statements come from customer testamonials or other reference materials.

The CRM can then provide scripting guidelines for directed conversations about areas of mutual interest, but you will only get that chance if – you can communicate key points of difference and offer benefits to your target market.

Consequently, when you start customising your CRM settings you should be asking questions like

1. Do these changes support our sales methodologies and business development strategy?
2. Will they make it easier for our customers to buy from us?
3. Will they make it easier for our staff to provde the best levels of quality, service and value to customers? 
4. What is our sales metholodogy?
5. Does the system support our marketing campaign messages?

Mike Bosworth of Customer Centric Selling (as paraphrased by me) notes that it is more successful to:

“Ask relevant questions versus rendering opinions – people like buying but not being sold too..Sales are based on conversations” not sermons…
“We should enable buyers rather than selling to them.”

We do this by focussing on needs, goals and problems and working with buyer to use your product as part of the answer.

The real work in a CRM project can often be all about the tuning and articulation of sales methologies and practice management. As Mike Bosworth also asks in this podcast

“What are you automating? Do you even have a sales process?”

This is something that we like to help with so please call us with any questions or project needs in this area. Here is a list of related features on CRM that you may also enjoy.

• CRM & Knowledge Management
• What to Look for in CRM Strategy
• CRM as a Process Platform
• What is CRM Used For?
• CRM Thinking about Strategy 1

Every so often I get calls from a supplier rep who says something like, “It says here, that I need to call you”.  And then I get some kind of half hearted pitch from them. 

More often than not, this is a cursory process that is needed so that staff member can tick the box and get on with whatever they do, the rest of the time 

Somehow, despite having account plans, a  CRM and job that is all about serving customers the people from this particular company have missed the one thing that might get my attention.  

We live in a time where most products and services are quite similar and these “moments of truth” are the times when a customer might walk because of such auto-pilot attitudes. 

Here is a very shortened version of  a true story that did the rounds a few years ago.  

In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning disabled children. A father is at a school function and he tells this story about his son Shaya

One afternoon, Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked, “Do you think they will let me play?”

Shaya’s Dad asked if his son could play.

The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said “We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning.” Shaya’s father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly.

Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field. Eventually it was Shaya’s turn.

Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?

The first pitch came and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya’s teammates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya.

As the pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung at the ball and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman.

Everyone started yelling, “Shaya, run to first. Run to first.” Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide-eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher’s intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the Third baseman’s head.

Everyone yelled, “Run to second, run to second.” Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, “Run to third.” As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, “Shaya run home.”

Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a “grand slam” and won the game for his team.

The story is by Rabbi Paysach Krohn and is based on the experience of one of his friends. It was published as “Perfection at the Plate” in a book called Echoes of the Maggid. You can read the full version at that site.

What has all this to do with CRM and customer service? Well as Gary Bencivenga puts it:

“It’s vital for all of us to understand that our prospects and customers are people, too . . . and people like to connect with others who are unafraid of showing a little humanity, of taking some time now and then to share a laugh, feel some warmth, express some sympathy, do a favor, help a charity, be a friend.

Whatever your product, however impressive your expertise, people will never care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Every now and then, toss a few pebbles of caring into your pond of contacts. Those ripples of friendship will spread and unfailingly return to you in waves of appreciation and loyalty.” Gary B

A certain level of empathy and caring is needed in customers services – some companies even call this their customer care team.

I wonder what would happen if the company which prescribes account calls for their staff got them to place a little card on their computer screen with comments like the one Gary mentions above.

It is not about the tasklist or the computer system – it is all about caring for people and letting your customers know that you care about their business as well.  

The key to really great CRM is in the way that businesses can leverage what is known about a customer’s needs, goals and desires; (knowledge management or KM) by translating tacit (and essentially unstructured) knowledge into customer insights.

The difficulty with customer interactions is that much of the really useful information needs to be collected in a structured way before it can become a business asset. A CRM is the ideal platform to capture such knowledge.  

Those tacit insights can then be used to better serve those customers in a more defined way. Therefore the CRM is contributes mostly to what becomes the Relationship capital of the business within the definition of capital as used by the KM model.

The other two types of generally acknowledged Knowledge management are Human Capital and Structural Capital.  The model comes from Sveiby and is a convenient way of understanding the different ways in which intellectual capital might apply to business.

Relationship Capital includes brands, reputation, customers and suppliers. Where it fits in a CRM is that it is often the ‘tacit’ knowledge that we gather via the process of engaging in multiple roles and processes with our customers.

Nonaka and Takeuchi described the difference between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge as a vital concept. They also credited Japanese business success to being better able to socialize and translate that tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.  

Long ago I worked in a large consulting firm where the best currency was what we called “war stories”.  These anecdotes were a form of experience and knowledge transfer from the senior staff to juniors and were based on actual projects and invaluable in developing the tacit knowledge needed for real success in that business.

Years later when computers and intranets and the actual knowledge management concept was popularised I worked for another large management practice which had a vast KM resource. Technology had arrived in a big way but ironically much of the knowledge asset that was documented was of the lowest value to staff. This was partly because of the culture of that business and partly because explicit knowledge is easier to document.

Explicit knowledge is the type of material that can be kept in a library for collaboration such as templates and other structured process formats that can enable reuse and leverage by staff. We missed much of the wisdom of tacit knowledge that might have been in a CRM if we had used one.

Tacit knowledge by contrast, is often unstructured knowledge for example about what  customers might like or not like. When your business has a “moment of truth” which is often when a customer asks a question that is outside the normal script - will your staff know where to look for answers?

Thomas A Stewart has a useful list on the essential tasks for managing explicit knowledge. From “The Wealth of Knowledge” ISBN 0-385-50071-8 published in 2001.

assemble it, validate it; as much as possible, standardize and simplify it;
keep it up to date, leverage it;
make sure that everyone who needs it knows that it exists, where to get it, and how to use it; automate and accelerate the processes of retrieving and applying it;
add to it,
sue any bastard who steals it.

Tacit knowledge is not so easy to frame, however a smart FAQ (frequently asked questions) list distilled from customer interactions and available to staff in service, development, marketing and sales teams from alternate angles might do the job.

Knowledge Management often exists as an overlap zone between the frontline functions of sales, services and marketing delivery. In the early days of computers we dreamed that expert systems might be able to build on a platform of business rules and processes but for many businesses a more creative outcome is required.

This is where a CRM system can help. A CRM is the best place for tacit knowledge as it can provide a non-linear format for structuring some of the common memes and recurring patterns in customer engagement. 

Here are 5 practical ways I believe a CRM can help with knowledge management

1.  Provide tools for collaboration and leverage of common goals needs a framework anchored in behaviour
2. Capture the practice DNA and cultural differentiation of an organisation / customer
3.  Provide information architecture for significant and relevant practice standards within the organisation.
4.  Provide a platform to replicate and enhance key moments of truth in a business on a sustainable basis.
5. Build corporate memory and customer values into outcomes according to a defined methodology or customer service approach.

If you liked this post, please check for related posts in the crmthinking category.