2. Traditionally, salespeople have not welcomed CRM software
with open arms. They perceive CRM tools as a way for manage-
ment to ride herd on their workflow, monitor their every move,
and establish management as “compliance police.”
But it doesn’t have to be that way any more.
FOREWORD
2
3. CRM is changing and salespeople are seeing the wisdom (and the
results) in those changes. A CRM product that works WITH the sales-
person instead of causing them to take time away from selling can be a
real game changer.
Why use “brute force” CRM solutions, when you can
win the hearts and minds of salespeople with the
right system - one that helps them sell better.”
- Nikolaus Kimla, CEO, Pipeliner CRM
Imagine if your sales managers and teams actually used their CRM
system, found it of value, and were able to trust it and embrace it! Sales
pipelines would be smoother, forecasts more accurate, and teams
happier and more successful. What if you could prove the value of
such a system?
There is hope for this outcome.
There are vendors who have undertaken development of their CRM
solutions with this philosophy and consider it a worthy mission. There are
startups, SaaS solutions, CEOs, and even huge companies passionate
about helping salespeople use software to handle their most precious
asset -- their book of business.
This guide is designed to raise your odds of a successful changeover to
modern CRM. We’ll walk you through all the moving parts of making a
good decision for your organization.
Bob Sullivan of Infogrow, a CRM consultancy, is a wise man. He says,
“Companies are most successful when they recognize that CRM is not
so much a destination as a journey.”
Let’s get started!
Foreword
3
4. TABLE OF CONTENTS
What to Look for in a CRM........................................................................5
The Benefits of a Good CRM System.......................................................8
How to Avoid............................................................................................10
Costly Mistakes.......................................................................................10
Hidden Costs...........................................................................................13
Managing Change: How to Get Buy-In
from Your Team and Upper Management................................................15
You Can Do It!.........................................................................................17
Resources to Help You Choose the Right CRM......................................19
Choose Your CRM: the Worksheet..........................................................21
Table of Contents
4
5. WHAT TO LOOK FOR
IN A CRM
Raise your odds of success by meeting eight goals.
6. INTUITIVE AND SIMPLE BY DESIGN
Don’t undervalue the importance of a tool that salespeople find easy to
use. A tool’s true power isn’t in flashy bells and whistles. It is in empow-
ering the people using the tool to do the best job they can do. The best
tools institutionalize efficiency, and become part of the daily workflow of
your team. The best tools make it easier to do take actions that pay off!
EASY IN AND EASY OUT
Some CRMs make it hard to get started and hard to get out. Look for a
vendor focused on ease of importing and one that will help you migrate
data without hassle if you decide to move to another system.
INSIGHTFUL
A lot of CRMs put a tremendous focus on data and numbers -- crucial,
of course -- but it’s all in the execution. Look for a solution that provides
not just dense tabular data, but insights that will help salespeople under-
stand their prospects and demonstrate value. Look for social features
(today it’s all about social selling). Salespeople understand that there are
tremendous benefits from monitoring and interacting on social streams to
develop relevant, genuine relationships with prospects. Social channels
also provide points of commonality, need, or interest.
VISUAL
Today’s tools should be suited to the needs of many stakeholders --
with different uses for data, different skill levels, and different ways of
absorbing information. Visualization is increasingly understood as crucial
to adoption and efficiency. The brain perceives information visually much
more easily than in plain data. In short, a picture is worth a thousand
spreadsheets!
What to Look for
in a CRM
6
7. AFFORDABLE
There are plenty of choices to meet frugal budgets. Not every company
needs a $200,000 system with a 6-month implementation plan and
long training ramps. There are solutions that provide speedy Return on
Investment, and which can prove low Total Cost of Ownership even after
a few weeks.
DESIGNED TO GROW WITH THE TIMES
You’ll want to dive deep into the history and strategy of any company you
look at. You’re placing your trust in that company’s management -- their
vision, execution, and engineering expertise. Examine where they’ve
been, and how they articulate the way they’ll go forward.
SAFE
Look for vendors that take the safety and security of your data seriously
and have posted policies about technology issues.
RELIABLE
Service interruptions are expensive, inconvenient, and disruptive. Any
vendor should be able to tell you how much service interruption has
occurred due to system outages, what the root causes were, and show
how they were corrected.
What to Look for
in a CRM
7
8. Know exactly what will happen if you choose wisely.
THE BENEFITS OF A
GOOD CRM SYSTEM
9. • Teams have more time to learn, strategize, and sell -- and spend
less time entering data.
• Sales managers have more time for training/coaching and real
strategy, because their sales management tasks have become easier
and simpler.
• Sales management has more accurate statistics and pipeline informa-
tion to use in forecasting and reporting to upper management.
• Lead quality improves.
• Pipeline velocity improves when you can track, understand, and
customize the sales stages in your sales funnel.
• Individual salespeople have a better picture of their strengths
and weaknesses.
• Workflow improves as efficiencies in the system show results.
• It’s easier to spot misalignment between marketing and sales when
you can study pipeline metrics. How many leads are required to close
a deal? Too many means leads are not qualified well enough. Is a
particular stage taking too long overall? This signals something amiss
in the sales process planning.
• A good CRM ends “browser tab congestion” because popular work-
tools and activities are available from inside the product.
• Team workflow improvements mean you can nurture a culture-
building, collaborative team.
• A flexible CRM moves with and adapts to your organization’s
changes - making it possible to scale to success.
The Benefits of a Good CRM System
9
10. No matter the size of your organization, it’s smart to thoroughly
prepare for a purchase that will guide your entire sales strategy.
Avoid pitfalls by forethought.
HOW TO AVOID
COSTLY MISTAKES
11. • Be prepared to do your due diligence. Plan, do research, be
detailed. Talk to customers -- and ask for referrals from the vendors
you are considering.
• Use a good planning worksheet (see our Checklist at the end
of this book)
• Know your priorities. What is most important? What is expendable?
What are the tradeoffs in costs and benefits? Know what you must
have, and what would be nice to have. Be prepared to compromise to
keep focus on the most important priorities.
• Consider a small pilot program with a trusted group to surface early
issues that may cause a change in the final selection -- or cause the
implementation phase to stumble. User adoption is a crucial piece of
a new CRM system. A tool that nobody uses is a waste of money.
• Be careful to match the level of customization to the actual custom-
ization you need. Bells and whistles can be seductive, but they can
also become unwieldy and cause the software to look bloated and be
daunting for users.
• Be frank with the people who will use the CRM. Tell them why the
change is needed. Manage fear of change thoughtfully, with plenty
of participation and agreement at several stages of planning.
• Rate your vendors: Are they knowledgeable? Will they be around
for the long term? Are you treated well and are your support needs
likely to be met? Are they committed to their space? Do they have a
viable roadmap?
• Make this selection process with the sales team in mind, not to appeal
to the IT guys. Do consult IT early with specific requests about what
kinds of software are workable and what kinds are not. Their early
counsel will help you avoid painful mistakes. Once IT sets the param-
eters for software, gather people from all the stakeholder categories
(management, salespeople, marketing, support) to review choices
and make a final decision. Read more about the common mistake
How to Avoid
Costly Mistakes
11
12. of not involving all the stakeholders in Nikolaus Kimla’s book Fully
Maximizing ROI for Your CRM Solution
• Remember that no CRM system will be at full efficiency and effective-
ness without a clearly defined sales process. Each stage of your
sales pipeline will need careful development, with salespeople partici-
pating actively.
• Don’t be afraid to ask vendors hard questions: “What might I not be
considering? What questions do you think I should be asking? Do you
have any advice for me about making a wise decision? I’ve told you
what matters to me, what my pain points are -- please tell me how
your product will help me and mitigate my challenges.”
How to Avoid
Costly Mistakes
12
13. Invisible costs can derail your search for the right CRM. Some
costs are just not obvious -- or can appear as unpleasant future
surprises. Be aware and ask questions to uncover them.
HIDDEN COSTS
14. For example:
• Will you need a full-time administrator? If so, will they need to
be certified?
• Will there be additional programming required? Factor in salaries
or outsourcing costs.
• What features are not included in the core product? Are there
“modules” that need to be purchased separately?
• Does training take long? Calculate how expensive implementation
will be in workhours lost.
• How much of an interruption will implementation cause? Lengthy
installations are quite expensive and disruptive.
• Are there future conditions (e.g, company growth) that may lead to a
dramatic rise in cost?
• Are there features that are more “expensive” than they first
appear? For example, a capability (e.g., integrated phone system)
that, while available and sounding really useful, is prohibitively expen-
sive in practice.
• Another thing to look for is a price break that may occur when you
want to add capability. For instance, if you want the ability to configure
permissions, will you be required to move to an enterprise version of
the product -- a move that takes the price into the stratosphere?
Hidden Costs
14
15. You know you need an effective CRM -- and your team under-
stands that reality, too. You also know the changes it will
cause may be substantial. To you, it’s a no-brainer -- but for
other stakeholders, the choice might not be so obvious. This
is the time to build your case, and gain consensus to make a
good choice.
MANAGING CHANGE:
HOW TO GET BUY-IN
FROM YOUR TEAM AND
UPPER MANAGEMENT
16. There’s no harm in trying to create an airtight case for the product
you want. Make your case compelling -- even build out a persua-
sive presentation for your final recommendations:
• Use metrics to build a stronger case -- make them graphic
and compelling.
• Ask for help and support from people you know are already in favor
of a change. Ask them to share their viewpoints with others.
• Minimize concerns about change through transparency about what
will happen.
• Chart the costs (including hidden tripwires!) and lay out the ROI
and Total Cost of Ownership -- show it clearly in visuals so people can
see the big picture.
• Ask vendors to support you with marketing materials and other
assets to help you make your case persuasively.
• Track usage and then tie rewards to using the CRM system
(best practices).
• Take some of the sting out of change. This is called “change
management” and it’s not to be underestimated!
And perhaps most important are activities that demonstrate the
CRM system itself. Hold walkthrough meetings and review the
features and system benefits, with a particular eye to ease of
use. Discuss features in the context of the value to the individual
salespeople and the team. Discuss useful reporting capabilities,
features that increase their chances of making a sale, and those
that will help with crucial follow-up activities.
Managing Change: How to Get Buy-In from Your Team and Upper Management
16
17. Salespeople want an easy way of managing their book of
business. This is why many have used their own personal
spreadsheets even when the company has deployed a CRM.
Why? Because they perceive CRM to be difficult to use and of no
value to them. But you can change their mind.
YOU CAN DO IT!
18. Salespeople want to focus on selling and developing their opportu-
nities -- they know that CRM systems are here to stay. When you
involve them in the process, they will likely see the benefits that you
have so carefully researched and will be less resistant. If they then
see during training and implementation that a CRM solution will
keep them in compliance while actually helping them manage their
opportunities proactively -- they will adopt it.
You may be surprised that your efforts in the selection process pay
off in a happier, more focused, and successful team.
You Can Do It!
18
19. A little help from your friends...
RESOURCES TO HELP
YOU CHOOSE THE
RIGHT CRM
21. First, identify the challenges and pains with your existing
customer relationship management software. If you check
more than 3 of these statements, it’s time to consider a new
approach to CRM.
CHOOSE YOUR CRM:
THE WORKSHEET
22. CHALLENGES/PAINS
□□ Information is scattered in different software and within depart-
mental silos.
□□ No clear, complete view of a contact; info is out of date.
□□ Admin is time-consuming and takes away time away from sales.
□□ Basic reports are useless; custom reports are useful but hard to build.
□□ When a sale is lost, there’s no easy way to gather insights in order to
correct course.
□□ My salespeople won’t use CRM -- they don’t find any value in
it for them.
□□ Our CRM doesn’t fit with our existing systems and future needs.
□□ We’re missing out on our prospects’ and customers’ social footprint
and don’t interact with them on social channels.
□□ There are too many bells and whistles -- nobody can use the
system easily.
FEATURES AND FUNCTION CHECKLIST
Contact, Account, and Relationship Management.
I want to be able to:
□□ Efficient centralized client interactions
□□ 360 degree view of customer, consolidating contact informa-
tion and history
□□ Can create business connections org charts across CRM contacts,
leads, and accounts to define buyer’s organization hierarchy and
relationships (including multiple relationships among contacts and
accounts and opportunities)
□□ Capture multiple addresses and contacts at each organization
□□ Categorize organizations (customer, prospect, partner, supplier)
□□ Define account manager and team responsibilities
□□ Connect people to multiple accounts; multiple accounts to people; des-
ignate Primary contact on people and accounts
□□ Assign contact strategies and account management plans
□□ Store enhanced profile information (future requirements, history)
Choose Your CRM: the Worksheet
22
23. □□ View all interaction with the organization, address and contact
□□ Create a consolidated view with information from external systems
□□ Capture requests for information and inquiries
□□ Powerful, natural, and intuitive Search functions
SOCIAL MEDIA
I want to be able to:
□□ Connect with contact and account social channels
□□ Interact with customers on their social channels within the CRM
□□ Gather social media insights
□□ See updates in near real time
LEAD AND OPPORTUNITY MANAGEMENT
I want to be able to:
□□ Receive frequent real-time updates
□□ Sort, filter and group data
□□ Track competitors
□□ Track sales opportunities
□□ See a comprehensive view of sales activities
□□ Track and archive both wins and losses for insights
□□ Synchronize data across multiple users
□□ Segment and manage lists
□□ Spot weaknesses in pipeline
□□ Monitor my contacts’ social interactions
□□ Track post-sales activities
□□ Track velocity and drop-off rates
□□ Rapidly set up recurring opportunities
□□ Customize lead process to align sales/marketing to better qualify leads
□□ Help salespeople manage and prioritize opportunities
□□ Understand prospects’ internal “org chart” for their selling journey
Choose Your CRM: the Worksheet
23
24. □□ Easily copy opportunities to speed up your data entry
□□ Turn sales managers from enforcers into sales coaches
□□ Help salespeople engage and have the information they need
(sales playbook)
COSTS AND BUDGET
My wishlist:
□□ Affordable
□□ Low onboarding costs and rapid demonstration of ROI
□□ Core product features included in price
□□ No hidden future costs
□□ Low administrative complexity
□□ No need for additional personnel or programmers
ACCESSIBILITY AND INTEGRATION
I want a CRM that:
□□ Integrates with popular email systems
□□ Offers calendar synchronization - Google & Outlook
□□ Offers contact synchronization - Google & Outlook
□□ Integrates with popular worktools and apps
CUSTOMIZATION, CONFIGURATION, AND
EXTENSIBILITY
My wishlist:
□□ API and developer support
□□ Support for integration of additional features and functions
□□ Ability to build views, reports
□□ Fully customizable dashboards
□□ Customize screens, fields, lists
□□ Template, workflow, and document library
Choose Your CRM: the Worksheet
24
25. □□ Selection of currencies
□□ Lead/opportunity scoring with customizable rules engine (auto-calcu-
lated fields)
ANALYTICS AND REPORTING
My wishlist:
□□ Flexible, customizable reports
□□ Slice-and-dice style analytics
□□ Set up common reports for one-click access
□□ Report on all record types and fields (plus custom fields)
□□ Filter, group, and sort data
□□ Extract management information in real time
□□ Visual presentation of key insights
□□ Measure performance of organizations, business units, teams, indi-
viduals, and geographical locations
□□ Forecasting support
GENERAL
My wishlist:
□□ Mobile app on smartphone and tablet devices
□□ Security of private information, data encryption, stringent password
management rules
□□ Generous data caps per user
□□ Disaster recovery/business continuity support
□□ Ability to work offline on full system
□□ Seamless multi-user data synchronization
□□ Simple user interface(s)
□□ Good design
Choose Your CRM: the Worksheet
25
26. ONBOARDING/IMPLEMENTATION/PROFESSIONAL
SERVICES/ROLLOUT
My wishlist:
□□ Training in hours/days
□□ Help from qualified support team if needed
□□ Frictionless data import in under 30 minutes
□□ Free trial with no strings
□□ SaaS / vs. on-premise
□□ High rate of user adoption
□□ Easy implementation/fast implementation
□□ Install, customize and load in under 30 minutes
ADMINISTRATION
My wishlist:
□□ No full-time Administrator
□□ Role-based access and permissions
□□ Advanced user permissions
□□ System Administration and Ownership
□□ Ability to amend field properties
□□ Add and customize new fields (dates, strings, integers)
□□ Set delete request and permanent deletion rules
□□ Define data security filters (restrict information available)
□□ Set report permissions and access
□□ Create new and amend existing screens (drag and drop objects)
□□ Create new and amend existing grids and searches
Choose Your CRM: the Worksheet
26
