Audaxium Blog

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Throughout 2011 Audaxium has been working with more and more companies and we’ve seen some interesting situations. In working on NetSuite fixups, and implementing Pardot with customers with various CRM systems, both NetSuite and Salesforce, we’ve noticed companies getting into trouble in systematic ways.  Often, problems happen when the data in the system doesn’t match what’s happening in real life.

Life is complicated.  People like simplicity.  And getting people to use CRM properly can be challenging depending on your organization.  So why not just keep things simple? Doesn’t KISS apply?

Here are some examples of somewhat common decisions that cause problems later.

Custom Field for Sales Rep

The client decided, that, in order to not let sales reps think they “Own” accounts, to not put the rep in the default Sales Rep Field.  Instead they used a custom field for Sales Rep and left the main field blank.  Result?  Difficulty in using standard reports.  Difficulty in getting notifications to Reps.  Difficulty in integrating with marketing campaigns.

Duplicate Contacts on Customers

The client decided that, to make it easier on the tech support team, if a person called in to discuss an issue at a certain customer location, (which they were tracking as sub-customers), they would enter a NEW contact on that company record, with the same name, email address and phone number.  Result?  Massive contact duplication in the database, no single source of the truth with regards to communication and emails.

Manual Prices on Items

To make it “easy” on order entry, the client decided to put only a few items in the item master, and overwrite the description and price.  Result?  No ability to report on the delivery and fulfillment of particular types of services.

The above are just a couple of examples of compromises made that lead to problems later. But anecdotes are just that, there are, to my mind, 3 main reasons why you should truly map what’s going on in your business in your CRM or ERP system.

3 Reasons Why Reality is Important

Information Accuracy

There is a balance between segmenting your data for reporting purposes, and capturing every last detail. What level of accuracy do you need to both operate, and make decisions?

Take a company that sells chickens and eggs. You could weigh and measure every egg you sell, sell them by grade, sell eggs separate from chickens, or sell 1 item called “Chicken and by-products”.  In this case, the reality is that the customer buys eggs by grade, either by the flat or by the dozen.

To take an example closer to home, what about our contacts example above?  There is only one person with a particular name, email address and phone number. There should be only one contact, but that contact should be attached to multiple companies as most CRM systems allow.

Easy to Train Multiple Teams

Sometimes by oversimplifying, you’ll need to be constantly explaining how fields are to be used and how to look up certain information.  Because most people in your company will understand how you do business, it’s easier to have them understand the system if it matches real life processes.  The sales team, support team, and services teams need to think of each other when considering how data gets entered.  There’s nothing like hearing things like; “the main contact field is whoever is the decision maker, until they are closing, then it’s the buyer, until they’re a new customer, then it’s the project lead, until they renew, then it’s whoever cares about the renewal”

Your CRM system should enable your business process, not be a workaround for it.  If your processes are too hard for your team to enter into a system, consider changing your processes.

Integration with Other systems

We’re in a world of integrated applications, and when a company writes an integration with another app they make certain assumptions of how you’ll use it.  You’ll need to think long and hard about taking default functionality and using it for another purpose.  Just why are you using a custom field when there’s a similar default field available?  By getting creative with core fields, you’ll risk giving yourself more work down the road when it comes to integration. Sometimes that work can be worth the extra effort, but make sure it’s necessary.

Challenges

Often, customers do understand the above, so why do mistakes get made?  Here are some common reasons.

No system is Perfect

Sometimes they can’t represent the reality of your business because they lack the functionality. Until recently, a good example was NetSuite’s multi-currency function.  You couldn’t create transactions in multiple currencies to the same customer.  This caused un-wanted duplication of records and work-arounds needed to be found.  Fortunately this is no longer an issue. When evaluating systems, ask your implementation partner just what the ramifications of a certain functional limitation are.

Clicks and Keystrokes

Often, when selecting systems, the client, and the end user, will focus on how “easy” things look and feel on some standard screens. If they have to fill in two more fields, or wait 5 more seconds for a screen to load, they’ll be frustrated and complain about productivity.  It doesn’t matter than those 2 fields save their co-worker 10 minutes.  It won’t matter that they can see information they’ve never had access to on that new screen.

Saving someone a few seconds at the price of a messy database is a bad trade-off.

Implementation by Department

I’ve seen NetSuite implemented a few times for a particular department and only later does the client discover that they’ve painted other departments in to a corner.  Both Sales and Finance are equally notorious for doing this with NetSuite.  Unless both groups are considered during an implementation, the easy options will be chosen that don’t let the system represent what really happens for the other team. Even if you’re just implementing for one group, work with an implementation partner who understands the bigger picture.

Lead Source: Marketing’s most coveted, and most loathed, data field in a CRM system.

The Importance of Measuring ROMI

It’s stating the obvious to say that B2B marketing teams are being held accountable for a direct relationship between marketing spend and revenue generation. With limited budgets and resources, measuring ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment) is critical for determining the best marketing channels to generate quality sales leads that convert to revenue.

Since there’s no “silver bullet” for reaching everyone in a target market, marketers are using multi-channel marketing approaches to build their brands and generate sales leads. SEO, PPC, webinars, whitepapers, eBooks, video, tradeshows, print ads, direct mail, social media… you name it. The question is: How best to divide up your limited marketing budget and overworked resources among all these channels?

The Challenge in Measuring ROMI

The challenge is that rarely will a prospect buy from you because of a single marketing touch, such as a webinar. How did they end up registering for your webinar? Perhaps by clicking on your PPC ad after searching online for something you sell. Then, maybe they read a few pages of a whitepaper you paid a copywriter to write, or watched a short online video you hired a production company to develop. They may even have picked up one of your fancy pens at your tradeshow booth in the past. Read More »

Recently I’ve spoken with a number of companies who’ve been getting decent traffic to their websites, but haven’t been getting as many leads as they feel they should.  This seems to be a fairly common complaint, but the good news is that there’s a few simple steps you can take to improve the number of conversions you get.

Put another way, there’s a few simple steps you can take to make it more valuable, and less painful, for your prospects.

Step 1 – Simplify your Forms

Use conditional fields to keep things short and sweet.With landing pages, less is often more. Nothing frustrates a visitor more than arriving at a landing page, seeing a compelling white paper offer, but then realizing she will have to fill out a long and complicated looking form before receiving anything of value. Companies who ask for more than a handful of data points in the first interaction with a visitor are encouraging form abandonment.

Step 2 – Track User Behavior, not just field data

Track implicit data in addition to explicit data held in your CRM system. Your prospects are telling you a lot more than it seems.You can gain valuable data from prospects on forms, but often even more telling is the implicit information that can be gleaned without your visitors even telling you. Read More »

User adoption is key to ROI

CRM vendors all promise fantastic ROI by helping your company increase sales productivity, improve customer satisfaction, and enable marketing effectiveness.  However, those benefits only come to life if your employees actually use the system.

WII-FM:  What’s In It – For Me?

To maximize user adoption, you need to figure out the answer to this question: “How can we make them WANT to use, or even depend on, CRM, even though it might require more discipline on their part?”

Generally speaking, people resist change, they already have too much on their plate, and some even struggle to learn new software.  The last thing you want to do is give them a system that gets in their way, rather than making their life easier and more productive.

WII-FM:  Questions to ask yourself

• What dashboards will help my employees make better decisions with their time?
• What reports do they need quick access to?
• What information are they searching for frequently?
• What tools will help them get more work done in the same amount of time?
• What reminders will help them get better organized?
• What real-time performance metrics will help keep themselves on track?
• How do I make it easy and fast for salespeople to keep their forecast up-to-date?

How to answer the Questions

Many people make the mistake of simply asking a few trusted people in each functional area what they want/need, and then turn that into a requirements list.  Observation and measurement are better tools.  Talking to existing CRM reference customers about these questions is another way to find out what works, and what doesn’t.  Watch how your most effective employees get things done.  Replicate some of their methods, and remove obstacles from their path.

What to expect if you don’t consider user needs

There’s no question that a modern CRM system is a wonderful tool for managers and executives.  You get better visibility into the key metrics in your business, you get real-time reports that allow you to make quicker decisions, and you get tools to manage employee performance.

This only works if your whole team uses the system. For example, if only 60% of your salespeople enter their leads, log their phone calls, and manage their sales pipeline, your dashboard is only 60% accurate, at best. Your visibility becomes more than a little foggy.

The Bottom Line

When planning an implementation of a CRM system, put yourself in your employees’ shoes and you’ll make better decisions that will maximize user adoption and accelerate your ROI.

Questions?

Audaxium consultants are former employees of companies who have implemented new CRM systems.  We’ve been through the learning curve and can provide you with some ideas to accelerate user adoption and reduce the impact of change.  Contact us for more ideas.

Often, while discussing systems, implementation, timing, scope of work, and integration, one often forgets to ask the simple questions.  Sometimes, taking a quick step back to think, will help guide the more complicated discussions later.

Here’s where we’ve taken the discussion recently:

How will this add value to the end user?

End user adoption is critical, in the fullest sense, to the success of a CRM implementation.  If you’re not adding value to the end users life, making them better and faster at their job, then you’re failing at building a framework for success.

Of course not every decision will revolve around this.  You may need the users to do more work to capture useful information for you to use to make decisions, but, the end result must be that there is a significant end benefit to the person keying in the information.  This principle will drive everything from your selection of the system, to how you deploy forms and searches.

How will I measure success?

You’ll need to show, in the short, medium, and long term, just how the project is going.  And, if you’re going to do that you’ll need to measure stuff.

Likely, you are not measuring, systematically, the thing that you want to improve.  Number of new leads by rep by product category for example.  I’d encourage you to take some time and measure that KPI prior to starting your implementation.   Doing so will help guide your thinking, and will ensure that the CRM system is effectively capturing the data you want.

What is the vision for the organisation?

Simply rephrased; Begin with the end in mind.  What does life look like at the end of go live?  At the end of Phase II?  Just what kind of information will the CEO be looking at on a day to day basis?  What will the front line team be doing as they fulfill service requests?

You won’t get the vision perfect, and it’ll always surprise you what the CEO wants on her dashboard in 12 months, but the exercise will help you figure out what’s critical, and what’s simply nice to have.

I hope these questions help at least one person get started on the right foot.

Customer Relationship Management.  Perhaps the worst descriptor ever used to describe a class of products.

Why?  Because a CRM application does so much more than simply manage lists of companies and contacts, opportunities and orders.  It’s a business management platform that can manage any kind of information you want.  Well, almost any.

It’s also a bad description because CRM should, in the best implementations, be used to manage performance.  And the best way to manage performance is to set goals and targets for yourself and your business.

If you’re looking at CRM for the first time, here are three things to ask yourself as you examine your different options.

What are the 3 most important goals for my business, or my different business areas, this year?

Can a measurement and reporting system help me meet and exceed those targets?

What is the financial impact of exceeding those targets?

If you can answer those questions you’re on your way to figuring out the financial justification of a CRM system.  The important thing to keep in mind is that there are many systems that can measure results.  ERP systems are great at measuring.  But does yours allow you to put in targets and report against them?  Can it measure non-financial data, such as the number of new leads?  The percentage of RFP’s won or lost?  Because a (good) CRM system is so flexible you can measure much much more.

So as you consider either if you need a system, or, which CRM to implement, perhaps take the time to ask how your important goals and targets would be tracked, compared, and presented, and, how doing so would impact your business.

If you’d like to see a demonstration of this, please feel free to contact us.

The team at Audaxium has a long history with manufacturing companies.  We’ve spent more than our fair share of time working with Engineering departments talking about design.  We’ve taken over whiteboards during ERP integration planning sessions.  And we’ve helped companies improve their document control systems.

But some of the most intriguing discussions take place when we sit down with owners and managers who are responsible for sales, and growing the business at smaller companies.  Sales is about Customer Relationship Management no?

“We don’t have sales people.  We don’t need CRM.”
“Our sales reps are fine, they know their customers and they use Outlook for contact management.”
“We really only sell to existing customers.”

Those are some of the reasons given for not wanting to discuss a system for managing those relationships.  We don’t need a solution if there’s no problem right? And a small company doesn’t need more “Systems”. But there is a problem. These same managers will then begin to talk about how times are tricky and how they need to win new projects, expand into more markets, or introduce more product lines. CRM is not just for some sales people.  And it’s not just for a big company with money to spend. It’s for everyone in the company who deals with prospects and customers.  It’s for managing their experience with you and to keep track of your company’s goals. Which brings us to the 3 reasons.  3 out of 16 I’ve got written down.

Reason #1: Achieve Customer Service Excellence

How much time is spent in the office getting answers for a particular customer on fairly basic questions?  Are they getting bounced from person to person?Give your customer the confidence that you’re organized and they can get answers quickly and reliably.

The first area that comes to mind for me is post sale implementation and delivery of a project.  As a manufacturer, your CRM system will include the ability to manage this information and keep your whole team in the loop, thereby getting the job done right and keeping the customer happy.  You’ll incur less penalties and more follow on sales.

A solid CRM system will also help you keep track of any warranty, repair, or service issues.  Perhaps your ERP system keeps track of the material side of these issues, but day to day questions, inquiries, and service calls are an easy thing for a CRM system to manage and ensure that nothing gets overlooked.

Reason #2: Boost Your Sales

When it comes right down to it, everyone wants to sell more.  But how will a CRM system help that?

The first way it will help your team is when you engage a customer or prospect on a new opportunity.  Gathering the customer requirements all in one place will make sure that everyone involved has a very clear idea of what’s needed and what the difficulties might be.  You can then work with the customer to craft a solution. After some time, you’ll have a history of customer requirements that will give you insights into both specific customers, and your entire customer base.

We’ve seen many companies specifically having some challenges when it comes to responding to RFQ’s, the main issue being that the process takes too long as it’s handed off around the office, or, the configuring process, while a set of standard rules, is done manually.  There is often also very little knowledge of why business is being won, or lost.  This is incredibly valuable information that can be captured in your CRM system.

Reason #3: Expand into New Markets

It might be easy to continue to take orders from existing companies, but launching new products, moving into new territories, or targeting different industries, requires that your sales efforts are highly managed.

As you undertake these activities a CRM system will help in targeting prospects and managing those communications.  It will measure the team against the goals set for them.  Being organized and diligent, in combination with some good marketing, will mean the difference between success and failure with your new initiative.

The selling process will be different and it’s important to track that process.

Conclusion

There’s a myriad of different ways a CRM system can help a manufacturing company.  It could mean managing distributors as opposed to customers.  It may be a way to give more people access to data already in ERP.  The list is long.

Go to our landing page for an excellent whitepaper from IDC.  I encourage you to download it and give it a read.  It goes into a great deal of depth on this topic and has several different ideas on how CRM will help.  It’s 18 Pages long and concludes with a list of questions to ask for self evaluation.

Here at Audaxium, we’re happy to announce that we are adding to our product portfolio. After extensive research we will be supporting Microsoft Dynamics products, as well as NetSuite and Pardot.

Over the past two years in listening to customers, we’ve identified a segment of companies where Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Dynamics AX ERP system are a very good fit. Equipment and other manufacturers who have a deep investment into other Microsoft applications have been asking for functionality that we just couldn’t provide. Now we’ll have it.

Also, some of these companies were looking to deploy their systems on premise, as opposed to “in the cloud”, and now they have that option from Audaxium. Having the choice to migrate from on premise to hosted, or vice versa, is something many customers want.

The team members at Audaxium have a long history of working with manufacturers and helping them deploy information systems to ensure their business run smoothly. We’re happy to be able to, once more, work closely with them. We know that many of you have disconnected systems where engineering is still not integrated with operations and sales, and we aim to bridge that gap.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and AX, are both very capable systems, watch this space to learn more about them. If you’re interested in learning more about these applications via email, please subscribe here.

With the state of the economy, it’s likely that the LAST THING you want to do right now is spend money and resources on a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.  It would mean a significant investment of not only dollars but also staff resources who are already too busy.

Right now you are likely focusing all your resources on your most important goals.  Some of those may be:

• Hitting your sales and profit targets
• Exceeding your customers expectations and building their loyalty
• Delivering high quality products and services
• Keeping your best employees happy and productive
• Improving your company’s financial position (accounts receivable, cashflow, expenses, etc.)

Although implementing a CRM system can be a big job and big expense, it can help reduce the stress of a tough economy and help you achieve your most important corporate objectives.

The most obvious benefit of a CRM system in a tough economy is that it can help you sell more to your existing customers.  In tough times, many companies go into hibernation mode and tend to conserve cash “for a rainy day”.  They also become hesitant to purchase products or services from a company they have never done business with before.  However, if a company already trusts you to deliver high quality and timely products and services, they are more likely to buy from you, even during a down economy.

It is much easier, faster, and less expensive to sell up-sell or cross-sell additional products and services to an existing customer than it is to win a new customer.  A well implemented CRM system can help you mine your existing customer base more effectively and proactively find sales opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.

If you don’t already use a CRM system, you may want to read more about how it can help you achieve your goals.  If you’re warming up to the idea, maybe you should consider adding this to your budget for next year?

With the recent (re) launch of SAP’s Business ByDesign in direct competition with NetSuite, I thought that it would be useful to present some pertinent questions that should be asked if you’re investigating a new CRM/ERP application, hosted or not.

In recent years, applications have come a long way but it’s not fair to assume that some of the big names, like SAP, always have the perfect solution for your business.  And by solution I mean both the application, and the ecosystem that surrounds the app.

So lets get to some of the questions I feel are important.

What’s been the track record over the past 5 years?

Software, and especially software as a service has developed tremendously over the past few years and it’s important to understand the trajectory of the company and the application.  A series of false starts is sure to be a warning sign.  Progress need not be tremendously rapid, but always forward, and always with the needs of customers at heart.

Perhaps things were a little rough?  What steps have been taken to improve things for the now many customers the vendor has up and running.

What does an implementation look like?  How flexible is it?

Every company is different and yet, the same in many respects.   Do you have choice in how to deploy the system and who is involved in the implementation?  Can the implementation be modified to fit your needs, timing, and budget?  Are there resources readily available who can make sophisticated changes during the initial implementation, while at the same time ensuring that your company is self sufficient at running the app?

How deep is the functionality?

It’s easy these days to develop software that fulfills the check boxes required by the marketing team.  The trouble with any application is the level of sophistication the functional areas have, and how easy it is to actually use them day to day.  Perhaps the system can send email, but can it do so automatically and intelligently?  Perhaps it can track opportunities, but can it track projects, quotes, sales and tasks related to those opportunities?

If the answer to “What’s next on the product road map” contains many very simple requirements, perhaps it’s time to be cautious.

How Scalable is it?

As a customer, getting caught in a bait and switch has got to be one of the worst experiences.  It pays to avoid starting out with apps that are designed to upgrade you, at significant cost soon after you sign up.

Sometimes limits on the use or scalability of an application make sense.  If your company has 10 employees, a cap of 1000 would seem reasonable.  But a cap of 10 or 20 likely indicates that it’s an arbitrary number, defined in the marketing department and not actually a software limitation. And if the new app you’ll need to move to requires a new implementation?  You know you’re in for it.

What is the Vendor’s commitment to Accessibility?

Any SaaS vendor worth their salt can give you reasonably detailed uptime metrics on their systems.  Compare these to your own uptime metrics that, hopefully, you’re keeping in your own IT departments.  While all systems go down from time to time, including big name apps like Gmail and WordPress, having a track record, and a stated commitment to protecting your data is important.

In Closing

Hopefully these questions give you a start on asking some very reasonable questions of a potential vendor.  They’re not questions with a pre-defined acceptable answer, such as, Are you a public company? or with no good answer at all, such as What if you go out of business?

With luck these questions will get you into a dialog with your potential vendor and you can both work together to determine if their application meets your needs.

If you’d like to have that conversation with us, particularly as it pertains to NetSuite, please contact us.