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CRM Best Practice: Why should you pay attention to this series?

By Stuart McLaren on Thu 12 April 2012 in CRM

How many times have we all heard about failed CRM projects? How many times in fact have we heard about failed, over-budget or under-performing IT Projects? Plenty I am sure! 

But for every failure there are tens or even hundreds of successful projects – whether we are talking CRM or anything else. So, as a potential CRM buyer or user, what is it that differentiates success from failure and how can we ensure that our CRM project delivers real, tangible business success?


So what goes wrong?

The reality is that very few companies actually select poor software. Most software on the market is pretty good at what it is intended to do – the real question is whether the buyer is selecting the right tools for the right job. The likely causes of dissatisfaction with a CRM purchase are:

  1. Choosing perfectly good software (perfectly good, that is, for someone else’s business) but one that is wrong for your business.
  2. Setting your sights too low – looking only at tactical issues and failing to see CRM as a strategic tool to deliver business advantage.
  3. Failing to plan, implement and use new systems effectively and simply not being in a position to take advantage of what has been purchased.

There are clearly some poor software packages on the market, but in reality most businesses don’t actually buy poor software, they just buy the wrong software, perhaps for the wrong reasons, or are simply implementing their systems inadequately.


 Why does this not need to happen?

The right way to begin a CRM project is to forget about the detail for a while (don’t worry we will come back to this) and concentrate on the bigger picture… The really important questions are what are you trying to achieve and why are you looking to spend money and expend effort?

So, what can you do to ensure you implement the right CRM for your business and avoid becoming just another statistic?

This series is based on over 15 years experience in selling, implementing and maintaining successful CRM Software. We will reveal what we have found to be the best practice for selecting and implementing successful CRM, and take the first step to unlocking the potential lifetime value of your CRM investment.

For the next few weeks we will be looking at…

  •  What can you actually achieve from implementing a CRM System?
  • Is your valuable data locked away in your back-office accounts system?
  • Are your staff working as hard as you think they are?

Next Best Practice: What can you actually achieve from implementing a CRM system?