6 Decisions Most Companies Overlook When Implementing A New CRM

Introduction

Making use of a CRM could be one of the most important decisions your company can make. With that being said, it can be quite a daunting task to do, and decisions can be overlooked when a company implements a CRM. That is why Commercient and Roycon have teamed up to make their customers aware of what can be overlooked when implementing a CRM and to ensure a successful implementation.

Here are the top 5 decisions that are overlooked when implementing a CRM.

1. A CRM Team

When implementing a CRM, companies may overlook the fact that when implementing a CRM you need a team to do so. This is to ensure that the CRM is used correctly. To avoid this happening, make sure you put together a team that includes the following:

• An Executive Sponsor: The executive sponsor is someone who strongly believes in the power of the platform, and knows the value it will bring to the organization. They should be influential and be able to champion and support the project from conception through go-live, and beyond.

• System Administrators: Your system administrators will be at the heart of your implementation. Not only will they need to have enough knowledge and understanding about Salesforce, but they’ll also need to have an in-depth understanding of your business processes, as well as the requirements from your managers and users.

• Project Manager: A project manager will be a helpful resource to make sure that your project stays on track.

• Power Users: Your power users will be helpful because they’re thinking about the end-user. They’ll make sure that the needs of the end-user, as well as management, will be met. Power users can also help with troubleshooting issues, and testing out solutions. Their feedback is very valuable in the process.

• Trainers: Whether it’s a team or a singular trainer, they’ll be responsible for documenting processes and gathering and creating the appropriate materials to distribute to end-users. They’ll want to be thinking about adoption, how they will support your users, measure adoption, and encourage adoption.

2. Ongoing Maintenance 

You will want to have a plan to handle the ongoing maintenance  of the CRM after the project has been completed. (Salesforce post-implementation plan) Who will be the internal Product Owner responsible for training new hires and existing employees, regularly answering questions, building reports, and handling ongoing administrative tasks? Business processes change, strategies evolve and companies evolve, it’s important that you and your business have the resources to ensure your CRM can evolve with them.

3. Determine Expectations 

Before implementing a CRM, you have to ask yourself and your team, what are the expectations for using a CRM? Take the time to research and discover what you want to achieve and what your end goals are. It’s also worth considering the amount of work that needs to be put into the CRM implementation to ensure all of the processes are defined. In addition to that, requirements need to be clearly and concisely outlined, and all internal team members need to be aligned on the overall goals and scope of the project.

Your goals to achieve with a CRM can also include:

– Understanding your customer’s journey, to make better decisions.

– Improve your sales process.

– Making use of analytics to help gain insights

– To improve lead management

4. Importance of Data Quality

The data quality within a CRM is underestimated by many companies because of the work it’s going to take to transform the data.  This means it is going to require time and work to import old data into the new CRM as well as, how the new data will relate to other applications (if integration is included). If you need to clean your data, take a look at this article on best practices for cleansing Salesforce data.

5. Success Criteria

Without clear success criteria, it is hard to determine the primary areas to focus on during the build phase, in the event that requirements change or budgets shift. Therefore, when you are implementing Salesforce or any CRM you will want to have a clear way to measure the impact and ROI the project will have on your business.

6. Budget

This is to ensure that there is a proper budget for both licensing and implementation costs for a proper build-out. While allocating a budget can seem like you are putting in guardrails, it is meant to keep service implementations in line for expectation setting, and for validations to meet deadlines.

If you’re ready to start your Salesforce implementation be sure to download this Salesforce implementation checklist to make sure you’re set up for success.

Commercient is a leading data integration specialist, SYNCing ERP and Salesforce data with ease, giving companies a complete picture of sales, customers, and marketing. Roycon, a Salesforce implementation, and consulting partner has teamed up with Commercient to help educate businesses on decisions that can be overlooked when implementing their CRM. 

Contact Commercient or Roycon for a consultation today!