by doing what you are already great at
By reading this post, you will find out how you can create a practical vision for CRM, that will add value and return your investment in both time and money. In it I describe an approach which is based on the latest thinking about how to make a success of adopting new tools.
Why do you need a vision for CRM
It is tempting to think that when you are implementing a piece of software, you are investing your time and money in software. But think about that. Is it software you want, or what the software is going to do for you? And what that software is doing for you, is to support you and your people doing something different. Losing sight of this, is the cause of most CRM projects failing to deliver, becoming over blown and over complicated, and ends in 70% of businesses saying that their CRM project is disappointing.
So CRM projects are really about CHANGE rather than about software. And there are eight factors which make change effective (even where this is changing what you do, as a micro business). There needs to be; a sense of urgency from those involved, a vision that people can imagine, constant communication of that vision, involvement from your people, generating short term wins and a momentum for success, consolidate the gains you have made in these wins, and anchoring these changes in your culture.
So you need a powerful vision that inspires you and your people, and can be implemented in small steps, to generate confidence and create permanent change in the business. Our practical implementation approach – Fast to Live – follows this plan. We help you visualise what your business would be like once your CRM has been fully implemented, and then support you in planning how to get the biggest wins fast, so you can start getting a return on your investment in days.
How do you build a vision
For a vision to be effective and lead to short term wins that build confidence in success, they need to be not only inspiring, but practical, achievable and shared by others. And your vision will be much easier and certain to succeed, when it is based on doing more of what you are already great at, rather than trying to do something you and your people have never done before. So our approach (which is based on Appreciative Inquiry) first seeks to discover how you deploy these strengths when things go as well as they can, imagine what your business would look like if this happened all the time and use this vision to help design your CRM system to support you.
To help you do this, I have developed this questionnaire which I hope you will find useful
