Brian Green Consultancy CIC

May you live in interesting times

Brian Green — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:06:59 +0000

These are certainly challenging economic times for charities, for nonprofits; indeed for-profit organisations as well. Now, more than ever, at the end of each day, you must be questioning whether your internal system are fit for purpose:

that those monthly all too critical reports are all too time consuming to produce
that essential data is still only available on paper!
that even timely metrics are taking too much time to produce! That you're unable to track even the most basic of activities
that all tasks appear to be totally dependent on a proliferation of spreadsheets, all in different folders, with nobody following a consistent naming convention ...
that the details of the last contact with that very generous donor, that's just called you for an impromptu meeting, are in the fund managers head - and they're off ill ...

Familiar experience?

You're not alone. Essentially, it's time you must consider implementing that CRM (Contact or Client Relationship Management) system you know you need; or, at the least, schedule a review of your existing CRM implementation.

Still unsure as to why you need a CRM? Well with a CRM configured to your needs you'll most certainly:

be enabled to automate a variety of processes and procedures, and in doing so become more efficiently at train new staff, or enabling existing staff to adapt
have better coordination within your organisation
have a detailed overview of communication with all your clients, and have better connect with your constituants
have a comprehensive overview of all contacts; have better contact sharing and management as all contact details (e-mail, phones, address, …, last contact details, ...) are all stored in one single place
be able to share personal calendars and tasks; monitor and forecast performance to focus efforts and work to produce reports: internal and external

But be warned:

It's never straight forward implementing a CRM system - be they peaceful times, or chaotic. But, be reassured:

there's no perfect CRM solution out there - and they'll never will be one
CRM implementations mostly fail because of lack of buy-in
the CRM itself is often a fraction of the overall total cost (for charities some CRMs subscriptions may even be free! See my earlier post about Salesforce.com’s philanthropic 1:1:1 model)
don't forget the network, and access to the web; annual ongoing support, implementation and configuring additional modules, ..., conversion costs: pooling, tidying, and re-structuring all the existing data in your unsupported database and spreadsheet ready for importing ...
that CRMs are for the long-term ... so expect that after several weeks, or months, to find that some operation, functions or processes could be addressed better, and that you would like to modify your present solution ...

Where to start?

The trick? Don't procrastinate!

start small!
you'll need a team - but don't let the techies make the decision alone
identify needs and priorities - what are the deal breakers
what do you really need? The classic: Must have, Like to have, ...
ensure that the implementation partner fits your culture, staff, and budget

Require the CRM to support:

Mass Emails & Mail Merge
Calendar, Email & Contact Management
Marketing and Campaign Management
Lead Management
Customer Service Management
Reporting and Analytics
Interactive Marketing
Document and Content Management
and,
if it's the current best of breed, as in Salesforce.com, an social media application like Chatter ...

May you live in ...

Apparently there is no Chinese language equivalent of the curse "May you live in interesting times." The nearest authentic Chinese proverb, according to Wikipedia, is "It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period." Cartoon: Non Sequitor © Wiley Ink INC

Originally published in my nonprofit blog in January 2011.

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Hubspot: 100 awesome marketing facts

Brian Green — Sat, 28 May 2011 19:53:15 +0000

I have just come across this slideshow by Hubspot (an Internet Marketing Company) - 100 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts and Graphs.

Some of the most awesome statistics, my top 10 at least, compiled by Hubspot are:

Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional, outbound marketing
Google is the new Yellow Pages:
1. 57% of Internet users search the web every day
2. 46% of daily searches are for info on products or services
3. 20% of monthly Google searches are for local businesses
60% of all organic clicks go to the top three organic search results
The average click-through rate for paid search in 2010 (worldwide) was 2%
63% of companies using social media say it has increased marketing effectiveness
LinkedIn drives the most referrals to B2B sites
2/3 of marketers say their company blog is “critical” or “important” to their business
B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not
US Twitter users are more educated than the general population
B2B companies are far more likely to use Twitter than B2C companies

100 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts and Graphs

View more presentations from HubSpot Internet Marketing

Enjoy ...

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Why CRM implementations fail

Brian Green — Fri, 06 May 2011 09:25:16 +0000

Salesforce.com is one of the great companies emerging over the last decade. It’s SaaS CRM exemplifies best current practices and creative new ideas.

But CRM implementations have suffered a spotty history since the mid 1990s. Though the frequency of these new SaaS CRM failures are significantly less than their client/server CRM predecessors. Nevertheless CRM failures are costly, disruptive, embarrassing, negative brand perception, lose market share, and can cause career setbacks.

So what lesson can be learnt from these CRM implementation failures:

You need a clear CRM strategy with clearly defined business practices:
- Your CRM strategy is a top level re-think of how customers are served, not merely a lower level automation step or patch
- It must acknowledge that CRM software is merely an enabler to achieve Customer Relationship Management
It's critical to include in your plan your key performance indicators - clear metrics:
- One of the benefits of a CRM implementation is that executives gain visibility and a clear understanding of the company’s actual business practices. What they also get is a real look at their customer relationships
Active project management of your CRM implementation is frequently sited as critical to its success
CRM software solution must have accurate and up-to-date data:
- The requirements gathering stage needs to be thorough - data conversion is critical
- Key data can turn up in salespeople's PDAs, spreadsheets, handwritten notes, legacy systems, …
Choose an initial project that can make a dramatic difference - good pilot results will help you avoid the next pitfall
- start out slow with a staged approach
- Customise the CRM to best fit your company specific needs:
- But don’t over customise - take it slow and add features as needed
- Similarly, be preparedness for continuous improvement. Be ready to refine strategies, revise goals, re-set metrics, and learn from feedback
- Ensure there is adequate post-implementation support
User adoption is a key:
- Employees must be educated in order to buy-in to the CRM implementation and utilisation
- Find out what users like or dislike about CRM solution and allow them to understand the benefits
- CRM implementations that do not make daily tasks more productive for individuals will not see corporate benefits
Unstable or insecure hardware and networks will challenge system integrity and can often impose political risk that kills a project
- SaaS solutions typically mitigate this risk


Top factors cited with CRM implementation success:	A methodical or system project plan and execution Active project management Frequent, visible and verbal executive sponsorship
Top factors cited with CRM implementation failure:	Absence of project management Resistance to change / change management Failure to promote executive sponsorship
Top lessons learned with CRM implementation failures:	Failed projects don't fail by small amounts Project failures occur along the way, not at the end Don't underestimate resistance to change and hidden agendas

CRM Labs Survey

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How to succeed with Salesforce CRM [video]

Brian Green — Wed, 04 May 2011 07:13:51 +0000

Planning to implement Salesforce CRM? This video by Salesforce will help. Enjoy ...

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Salesforce: what's SaaS? [video]

Brian Green — Mon, 02 May 2011 07:04:04 +0000

Still not sure about software-as-a-service (SaaS), then watch this video by Salesforce. Enjoy ...

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The problem with spreadsheets are that ...

Brian Green — Sun, 01 May 2011 17:01:20 +0000

Do you run a Spreadsheet Company?

A spreadsheet company is a company that use a spreadsheet for administrative tasks. Initially it probably started with a spreadsheet to keep track of contacts with your customers; as this seemed the most convenient and simple solution. Now you use spreadsheets to track your:

customers
leads
products
pricing
order entry
invoicing
personnel

The apparent advantages are:

flexibility - just add an extra column
spreasdheets are readily available
they are "quick and dirty" to set-up
but, essentially, it's because you're happy with it.

But your business has grown. Can you still depend on spreadsheets to support your business?

With spreadsheets:

data is never consistently entered
more data can be stored in a cell than visually presented
only one person can access it at a time
there's no undo if someone erases or changes data in a field
multiple versions of the same spreadsheet can easily exist - and when multiple versions exist duplicate records soon proliferate
the more data you store in a spreadsheet the harder it is to use
retrieving data is cumbersome and time consuming
compiling or consolidating data becomes a tedious challenge
security is very is poor as a spreadsheet can easily be emailed or copied on a memory stick

All these issues are sound business reasons for your company to implement a CRM?

So why CRM?

A CRM should provide:

a single page overview of your contacts
an option to include details notes against each contact
"tags" that allow you to filter your contacts based on various criteria such as geographical location, contract dates, products purchased, etc.
attach files to your contacts record
support workflows - where chains of actions are predefined and automatically tracked
set permissions to allow you to assign different access levels to employees limiting access to certain records or limiting the actions that this person can perform (such as mass deleting or exporting data)
allow you to easily create and track tasks relating to contacts, such as a follow up call or sending out a proposal. Tasks can be assigned to yourself or others and can be automatically synchronised with Calendars
allow you to create campaigns such as a marketing email campaign with automatic tracking of responses and results

Now, more than ever, the opportunities provided to SMEs by pay as you go SaaS applications like Salesforce CRM cannot be ignored. Start the review of your companies dependency on spreadsheets now ...

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