The Emperor has no clothes
The decision to buy big ticket items like software similar to SalesForce.com or ERP software from Epicor or Infor SXe or SAP , can be a mind numbing experience for many. And usually it is because there are too many chefs involved in the implementation process or the wrong chefs.
And once decisions are made, the financial clock is ticking … IT consultants are getting paid so let’s get it done and “we know what sales needs and they can just input data.” There is the rush to get the installation over with.
But in the background, the way it is installed can kill profit. If Finance or Operations or IT drives the process and doesn’t involve sales or marketing leadership, you are guaranteed a dud. If you want sales to use the system, you need to involve them. But if you don’t, what do you do?
The Boss is explosive
The decision to buy is usually made by corporate level personnel and sometimes the people who actually use the software to make money for the company are never actually consulted (think salespeople). Think about that for a moment. The people who make sales calls or enter orders in a lot of cases are not consulted about what they need to generate profit and new customers. In many cases the company doesn’t have a vision of what it wants to achieve. It just knows that it needs a CRM system (because everyone is talking that they need one!). A business case is rarely done.
Nothing happens in wholesale distribution unless someone sells product. That is true with other companies as well. So if the sales side of the company was denied critical information about customers or prospects (demographic information, knowing their key contacts, looking at sales information) and they couldn’t update the information (or add new information), how can the system be effectively used, or leveraged?
It’s a given that you’ll load product and pricing information. But what if you didn’t load sales history because you were concerned your salespeople may see it! Maybe the sales people are blocked out of seeing critical information.
The sales person complains to their sales manager they don’t sales history, customer information or information about a company. The sales manager responds that he had no say in the set up of the system or security levels and that the decision has been made by the Boss or Finance. And if the decision maker (senior management / owner) is a really good friend of the software salesperson and no one is willing to say anything for fear of disturbing the friendship with the Software Sales person….who tells the Emperor that he has no clothes?
And while he may be the Emperor, that doesn’t mean he has the knowledge base for effectively launching, and using, a CRM system. If he only wanted a contact management system, ACT or MS Outlook can work at a lower price. Salesforce.com and the coming CRM packages in Eclipse and Infor are designed to interact, and leverage, with demographic information and sales information so that salespeople (and others) have knowledge, can share information and the company can conduct campaigns designed to grow sales.
So, rather than the Emperor, or finance / operational sidekicks, running a business development initiative, they should empower their sales leadership to run with business development / revenue generation initiatives. The Emperor can still make his friend happy with a large order, but once the deal is signed … get out of the way!
But why write about this (and we’ve heard this story from a few distributors and others)? We’re hearing from a number of distributors that they are looking at CRM or marketing automation systems. They know they need to aggregate their customer information (we’ve heard “too many different people have email lists and we can’t get one and can’t manage them”) but the power of CRM is the ability to implement a vision that drives enhanced service and generates increased revenues.
Are you looking at a CRM system? If so, which ones? Do you have one? If so, which one?
And, perhaps most importantly, other than IT being involved for implementation and technical evaluation, who is driving the initiative?