Winds of change?

Quite a nice video interview on the SearchCRM site with Gartner analyst Scott Nelson at the recent Gartner CRM Summit entitled ‘CRM’s Not Dead’. Interesting observation that he feels there’s an awakening in the market that while technology is important, so too is a vision about what you are trying to achieve, the need to redesign processes, clean up data, and manage organisational change. He uses a nice example of the contrast in thinking and resourcing on ERP projects as opposed to CRM. To my mind the market’s still technology obsessed, but I hope he’s right that things may be changing.

Eight keys to successfully training CRM users...

One of the questions thrown up in open forum at the Sugar CRM event last week asked for recommendations on the best approach to training users. Since this didn’t garner a particularly illuminating or comprehensive response I thought I would set out a few thoughts on what I see as some of the keys to effective CRM training:

One - Do a lot of it – the amount of training required to help users change existing practices shouldn’t be underestimated. Giving users half a days training and expecting them to start using the system in consistent and structured fashion is a triumph of hope over experience.

Two - Training should reflect process – the training should be tailored to your specific processes and supporting customisations. Too often users are trained on the ‘out of the box’ software with little emphasis is how they should be using the software in context to their own organisation. This does not foster effective usage.

Three - Training should be role specific – the things you want your telemarketing team to do with the system may be very different from the pre-sales team. A one size fits approach is going to dilute training effectiveness.

Four - Don’t forget the management team – they may be busy, but if they don’t use it, the project will fail. They need to be trained as well.

Five - Don’t limit yourself to classroom training – the classroom has its place but one to one training should be proactively targeted at individuals struggling to embrace the technology.

Six – look for trouble – don’t assume that if there’s no screaming everything is alright. A user should not be considered trained until you’ve validated they are using it in a consistent and structured fashion.

Seven - Training is an ongoing programme not a one off event – the approach to training needs to recognise new staff will join the business, and new capabilities will be added to the system over time. In addition memories fade, so refresher training is also important.

Eight - Make the right decision between vendor and in-house training – there isn’t a simple answer to which is better; it will vary from organisation to organisation. In-house (i.e. you use your own staff) training is likely to be more cost effective, but is predicated on having someone that can communicate well, and the time and inclination to make it work. Vendor training is generally high quality, but tends to be expensive and many vendors struggle to customise their training approach for individual clients. Which ever choice you make, monitor the quality of what’s delivered, nothing kills a system quicker than bad training.

CRM, it’s dirty and you want it…

While on the subject of television adverts and the Sugar event, I’ve always had great respect for the way that Unilever has marketed Pot Noodle. Pot Noodle emerged in the late 70’s as a convenient instant snack. By rights the healthy eating revolution of the new millennium should perhaps have killed it off as a product. While, in common with other perhaps less healthy food options, it might have resorted to the 50% less fat, reduced salt, added vitamins and fibre, approach, Unilever were happy to call a spade a spade. There was no attempt to suggest Pot Noodle to be a healthy option; quite the reverse, the company was happy to play on it’s image and position it, through a series of largely non-PC adverts, as an illicit vice, with catch lines such as ‘it’s dirty and you want it’.

I mention this because I feel there are times that CRM vendors are best advised to position their product based on how people actually perceive it rather than what the vendor might like it to be. Sitting through a presentation by the Sugar product manager at the CRM Acceleration event I wondered why the prime positioning seemed to be around the ease of use of the product. The reasoning was: most CRM implementations fail (can’t find fault with that) because CRM software has never been easy enough to use. This incidentally is the line every non enterprise vendor has been trotting out since non enterprise CRM vendors first started launching CRM software.

This approach is flawed for two reasons. One, it’s simply wrong. CRM implementations fail, not because in the main technology is difficult to use, but because CRM vendors have largely ignored the vital process and people dimensions of implementing CRM technology. Secondly, the point of positioning should be to differentiate your product, and when everybody occupies the ‘it’s easy to use space’ it’s becomes meaningless.

Would I consider Sugar as an option for a client? Yes, absolutely. Would I do it because it’s easy to use? No. Sugar’s a great option, because in our credit crunched world you get a heck of a lot of CRM functionality at a very aggressive price point. If I was the Sugar CRM product manager I’d take a leaf from Unilever’s book and position the product based on how people really perceive it. And perhaps ‘it’s cheap and you want it’ might not be a bad tag line either.

BT and Sugar CRM...

One of my favourite TV adverts is for British Telecom (BT) and features Gordon Ramsay using a carving knife to gain access to the innards of a PC, while in the background his kitchen is rapidly descending into chaos. The voice over is something along the lines of ‘Do what you do best’, and the advert closes with a strap line of ‘IT. Communications. Support’.

OK, the communications bit I understand, but BT for IT and support? So when I received an invite from Sugar to their CRM Acceleration event in London which featured a presentation on the recently announced tie up with BT, I was interested to find out more.

Sadly the one thing I didn’t find was more. Mick Hegarty’s (Director of Marketing, BT Business) presentation was fine on the importance of CRM in a tough trading environment, but there was absolutely no detail as to what BT are/will be offering. I’d have asked of course but there was no opportunity for questions at the end of the presentation, and the BT delegation seem to absent itself rather smartly as soon as Mick left the stage. Conversations with Sugar staff were equally less than illuminating.

In principle a tie up between BT, one of the world’s largest telecoms companies, and Sugar should be big news. Sugar CRM is a relatively new arrival to the CRM market, and is starting to make itself felt. Access to BT’s small and mid-size customer base could allow it to make a big impact. IT of course is littered with high profile strategic alliances that promise much and deliver little. Yesterday didn’t give me any confidence that this one will be different, but time will tell.

CRM and 1 per cent improvements...

While I was away on holiday earlier in the summer I read Richard Moore’s book ‘Heroes, Villains, & Velodromes’ which tells the story of Chris Hoy who went on to win three gold medals in Beijing. While Chris’s achievements are not surprisingly the focus of the book, there’s some intriguing insight into the infrastructure that sits behind Chris, namely British Cycling.

Britain failed to win an Olympic cycling medal during the whole on the 1980’s. At Atlanta where Britain only won one gold medal in all events (rowing), cycling contributed two medals. Thereafter, guided initially by Peter Keen and later Dave Brailsford, a steady transformation was initiated that culminated in the team winning seven out of the ten available track cycling gold medals on offer in Beijing, and with only one of the track team – Mark Cavendish who had to console himself with his four Tour De France stage wins earlier in the summer – not winning a medal.

While British Cycling has undoubtedly benefited from an influx of lottery funding, so too have many sports which haven’t gone on to create similar results. What stands out with British Cycling is the quality of infrastructure that has been built up and the complete professionalism of the team. There’s a nice quote in Moore’s book from Dave Brailsford that summarises the whole ethos, attributing success to ‘performance by the aggregation of marginal gains. It means taking the 1 per cent from everything you do; finding a 1 per cent margin for improvement in everything you do’.

To switch this to CRM for a moment, the concept of continually improving things is something that intrigues me from a CRM standpoint. I’m convinced that the route to success with CRM technology is not just to get things right on initial implementation, but to create an environment where the system is continually tweaked and enhanced over time to maximise the value. In the coming weeks I’ll try and put down some more structured thought on the change management challenge of CRM, but suffice to say at this stage I think this is something that many organisations struggle with.

Switching back to sport again, Sunday saw the Ironman UK triathlon take place in Sherborne, in which I was privileged to be a competitor. 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles cycling, and 26.2 miles running later, I’m feeling a little sore, but fortunately I’m in one piece! I can now switch back to a rather more sedentary life style which should result in some more regular blogging. I can’t however guarantee the end of the sporting metaphors, I think there’s a lot to learn from the way professional sports teams go about their business.