Follow-up: Are Your Sales Tools a One-Way Street?

I've been thinking about a post I made 2 weeks ago on the failure of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SFA (Sales Force Automation) tools.  The post talked about how focusing on the corporate need for more data and providing nothing for the sales force is a common reason for why these systems so often fail.

What's been bouncing around in my head is part of a comment that Kent Blumberg made on this post.  You can read the full comment on the post but some of the key phrases include:

• "The right place to start is with the customer.

• Start by thinking about how to add value to the customer. How can you make it better, faster and easier to deal with your company? . . .  Next, focus on your sales force.

• If you can't see how CRM will add value for which your customers will pay, or at least help your folks close more sales more profitably and more quickly, I'd say, "Don't do it!"

• If you do start with adding value for the customer and for your sales force, and if you involve your sales force in designing and implementing the system, I'll bet your implementation will go well."

Kent is right!  Looking back at that post I find it interesting that the first 3 sentences of the post are:

"It's all about your customers.  Sales drive the company's profitability and growth.  We have to get closer to our customers. "

I then went on to focus the rest of the post internally to the company - in effect saying "it really is all about us".  Oops! I blew that one.

I talked about a diagnostic approach to looking at these tools to look at who saw the benefits and who provided all the input.  If the information flow was all one way I said it was a good indication of a potential problem.  This technique is still valid but in thinking about Kent's comments it should also included a customer component.

Any time we look at a system such as this we have to ask,

"What's in it for the customer?"

If the answer is "nothing" you may want to take a good look at why you are doing the project.  Yes, it is possible to have a worthwhile CRM or SFA project that does nothing for the customer.  Just be careful you haven't inadvertently made it more difficult for them to do business with you rather than easier.  At the end of the day it is more important to make it easier for the customer than it is to make it easy for yourself.  If you can do both you've got a winner of a project but don't forget who the most important one is though if you have only one choice.

What are some ways that you've developed to remind yourself to focus on the customer?

If this topic was of interest, you might also like these:

• Customer Service - A Real Life Example
• 'Sup Chumps and Why IT Sucks
• Social Bookmarking and Making It Easier For Customers To Do Business With Us
• When Efficiency Runs Amok (It can ruin breakfast - and more)
• Or the posts in the "Customer Service" category