W H I T E
P A P E R
The CRM Journey
From Productivity to Profit
Executive Summary
If there is one universal truth in business today, it’s the likelihood that customers,
prospects, and partners are shopping around—not just to get the most for their time
and money, but for a product or service provider that is easy to do business with.
The same truth applies internally. Employees want to invest their efforts with a
company that does its best to enable their personal success. When your company
makes it easier for individuals and teams to meet and exceed their quotas—of
closed sales deals, lead generation campaigns, or resolved support incidents—
your company eases the path to corporate success, en masse.
In this business paper, you will read how companies across a vast selection of indus-
tries are using customer relationship management to converge people, processes,
and products more efficiently. This convergence makes it easier and more convenient
for prospects, customers, and partners to do business. And with meaningful insight
on what these constituents want, companies make smarter business decisions that
improve the trajectory of their revenues, margins, and customer loyalty.
The Universal Paradox: The CRM Win-Win
External Challenges “We really have two drives in our
company. We want to be the best place to
Building momentum in today’s market is a matter work, and the best place to do business.
of solving this challenging paradox: companies are Our CRM solution gives our employees
tasked to reduce operational costs, yet they must also a tool to be exceptionally good with our
accommodate an increasing demand for richer, more customers—and our customers see those
personalized customer-directed interactions. Market good works. We win on both sides.”
forces are placing intense pressure on companies to Jack Webster
become more efficient, while providing higher levels of CEO, Farm Credit Services of America
value to all of their key stakeholders.
Reconciling the paradox comes down to one thing:
getting smarter when it comes to integrating business,
data, and people. And doing it now. chain; on customers, partners and all the interactions that
govern them; and on the inner workings of a company’s
administrative nerve center.
Reconciling the paradox comes down to
Information is every company’s most precious commodity.
one thing: getting smarter when it comes Employees require a faster connection to higher quality
to integrating business, data, and people. data in order to do their jobs seamlessly. Customers and
And doing it now. prospects demand faster response times, and they want
proof that a company knows them intimately and treats
them uniquely. This degree of business integration is no
Herein lies the paradox to success. We know that today’s longer an added bonus, like a turbo-charger for a car’s
business environment grows more intense, more complex engine. Today, it is as elementary as the tires. You would
and more operationally demanding with every quarter. We not be able to operate without it.
also know that providing efficient, personalized, high-value
interactions with key stakeholders is critical. So what now? However, many companies are limited by legacy
technology, or a complete lack of it. Information slips
Reconciling the paradox comes down to one thing: through cracks, and opportunities are lost. Company
getting smarter when it comes to integrating people, leaders recognize this trend, but often are at a loss to
processes, and data. And doing it now. Because for know where (or how) to begin. The last thing they want
every organization that leans, with the best of intentions, to do is disrupt the corporate ‘machine’, no matter
towards business as usual (“we just need to get better how flawed it may be. The expensive and unfortunate
at what we do”), there will be another that gets closer consequence is a gradual breakdown of revenue-
to operating at a higher, more sustainable and more dependent relationships.
profitable level (“we just need to get smarter at how we
work to achieve our objectives”). For those organizations that choose to integrate products,
people, and processes, the necessary business platform
Operational complexity is at the heart of what makes it becomes the Internet. Although paper-based processes
difficult to adopt a more streamlined, more integrated and information may still be the norm for many industries,
business model. Across many industries—from companies recognize that ‘the norm’ is the source
manufacturing and high-tech to healthcare or services— of the obstacles that jeopardize their most important
complexity is caused in part by the sheer volume of relationships. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
information that is generated. Disparate systems hold vast has emerged as the Internet-powered tool that clears
amounts of data on products, inventory, and the supply those obstacles.
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 2
The Cost of Doing Business: Perspective:
Internal Challenges Generating Leads
We’ve looked at some of the external factors impacting “Sophisticated marketing infrastructure
today’s business environment—namely the paradox of an enables us to cast the net farther,
reaching more prospects with better-
increasing demand for greater value (highly personalized
targeted messages. It also allows us to
sales, marketing and service) in conjunction with intense track the results precisely.
pressure to reduce costs. Now let’s examine the internal
limitations and challenges that impact the day-to-day Today, more than 85 percent of our
total leads are generated through
operation of a company. online offers powered by marketing
automation. We have a much more
Acquiring New Customers – Sales reps need to produce detailed understanding of our customers
more proposals faster, with 100% accuracy. It sounds and that has boosted lead generation and
like a simple enough directive, however many companies conversion rates dramatically.”
suffer from a paper-based workflow or stand-alone
Peter Tait
quoting systems which makes it almost impossible to Vice President of eBusiness Strategy,
achieve. Often, the amount of time spent just to properly Documentum
configure a complex product with an accurate quote
and delivery date results in lost business. With poor
inter-departmental communication and inefficient business
processes, reps are focused on operational tasks rather
than being focused on closing deals. Sales executives Most often, reps are alerted with the right information
need to do whatever it takes to keep sales people where too late due to inefficient, labor-intensive processes
they belong—not in the office wrapped up in details, but on the back-end. The time crunch means gaps are
in the field, selling. opened for the competition, and there is less time to
strategically craft the right mix of special rates, incentives
or bundle deals that reflect a customer’s preferred status.
Guarding the But if sales, marketing, and service teams can keep
Revenue Stream customer relationships warm and properly maintained,
the foundation is laid for more dependable, expanded
“Companies are starting to realize the
levels of customer revenue. Given the resulting faster
basic point about CRM. When you sell a
Cadillac or a Harley or a ticket on a United sales cycle, sales can focus more on the more intensive
Airlines flight, that’s just one event. But process around earning new business.
in fact, the real moneymaking is keeping
that person driving a Cadillac, or a Harley, Collaborating – When teams across an organization do
or flying United Airlines for 10 years or not access and contribute to the same information source,
more. It’s that revenue stream that you’re the entire selling, marketing, and servicing process can
trying to guard with CRM. To do that, you be sluggish to respond to natural fluctuations, customer
constantly need to know, ‘What does Jon demand, and revenue opportunities. Separate processes
Anton want? What can make him happier?
What can we do to ensure he buys a
are often in place for each line of business and market
United ticket versus American Airlines segment, making any degree of efficiency or cross-
next time?’ I think that’s the beauty of departmental communication almost impossible.
CRM. Finally at the CEO, CFO, and CIO
level, we’re not just driven for the next new The right technology tools can establish a daily and
name account. Now we are just as much constant connection across the entire front office. The
driven by how well are we doing with that impact is immediate, meaningful and measurable.
huge database of existing customers.”
Dr. Jon Anton Service reps know when a major marketing campaign
Director of Research, is launched into the customer base, and are prepared
Purdue Centre for Customer Driven Quality to encourage response. Marketers are able to track
what happens to leads after they go ‘over the fence’ to
sales—likewise, sales is able to anticipate spikes or lulls
in lead creation, and adapt their workflow, follow-up, and
prospecting strategy accordingly.
Up- and Cross-Selling to Existing Customers –
Customers are the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of revenue. A vested Marketing – The single-most critical task that keeps
interest and warm relationship makes for faster sales marketers awake at night is proving the worth of their
cycles, and a lower cost of selling. The key is for sales, teams and activities. This means drawing a quantitative
marketing, and service teams to proactively recognize line from a campaign to a group of targeted leads,
up- and cross-selling opportunities, and raise the flag then to a group of high-potential opportunities, and
early enough.
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 3
status and preferences of the individuals, segments, and
Perspective: geographies within those groups. In order to attract the
Sharing Leads with Partners highest possible response rates to a campaign, marketers
need to apply analytics to that information, crafting one-
“We are using the marketing automation tomany campaigns that appear to individual recipients as
component of CRM to differentiate
ourselves from other manufacturers in a
highly intimate, relevant, and one-to-one.
highly competitive environment.
Partner Relations – For partners, selling, marketing and
It gives us the ability to take the Sharp servicing customers and prospects can be laborious
LCD product message direct to end users and frustrating. Outdated product information, limited
and create awareness, preference, and
configuration tools (or none at all), poor access to
demand for our products throughout our
dealer network—an essential strategy to customer data, and response delays greatly limit how
building long-term relationships. quickly the partner can turn around the right offer. Since
partners are often not able to address their own needs
We began to see results within three
weeks of using the system. We generated,
and questions in a self-service manner, the customer-
qualified and distributed 96 percent of facing processes can be difficult.
the entire previous year’s leads to our top
dealers and resellers. We also achieved Different industries have vastly unique approaches to
nearly a 100 percent follow-up on those channel selling or any sort of partner relationships.
leads, compared to about a 50 percent Regardless of the type of partners a company may
rate previously. have—agents for a healthcare payer, franchisees for a
This improvement is directly attributable retail chain, or resellers for a software company—success
to the system, because it requires that comes down to the same principle that applies with
dealers take action. Now that I have it, I customers. If you want to grow revenues, lower costs, and
can’t live without it.” keep them happy, be easier to do business with. Partners
Fred Krazeise should be able to work how and when they want, with a
Director, Strategic Marketing, quick response and no barriers to access.
LCD Products Group, Sharp
In addition, companies need to know how partners are
performing. Which ones are pulling in the best deals?
Which ones are especially strong in one product area?
Which ones need training?
finally, to closed sales deals. Most companies have
disparate systems and methods for lead tracking, each
of which provides an incomplete (and often inaccurate) The Power of Visibility
perspective into success. In this case, the time required
to bring multiple sources of data together for analysis “If you look at sales, marketing, and
service as the three major buckets
is prohibitive.
of CRM, they comprise acquisition,
penetration, and retention of customers.
Many companies also lack a precise understanding of
what customers and prospects want and need, and how You want to be able to line those up
they prefer to interact with the company. Without this and draw conclusions like, ‘Customer
segment A needs to be larger. Segment
understanding, it is a challenge for marketing to identify
B is doing well and we don’t need more
the right mix of offers, products, and target segments. there. Segment C doesn’t need more
And with a lack of visibility into how many times a product customers, but we need to penetrate
was quoted or sold and by whom, marketing cannot them better.’ Companies definitely
formulate a win-loss ratio by campaign, by region, or need to figure out how to gain that kind
against a specific competitor’s product line. of visibility.”
Jeff Halden
In order to produce campaigns that are relevant and Vice President,
compelling to the right audiences, marketing needs a Cap Gemini Ernst and Young
clear ‘macro’ view of the market, the competition, and
the company’s customers and prospect base. However it
also needs a highly analytical, ‘micro’ view of the needs,
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 4
The Solution: Customer The Power of Trust
Relationship Management “I believe CRM is a way to address
trust. This means making promises and
CRM: What it Does keeping them for your customers, and
doing that consistently over time. CRM is
Companies who aspire to operate at a higher, more a key enabler to do that. It allows you to
sustainable and more profitable level are those who say, remember your promises, act on them,
“We need to get smarter at how we work to achieve our and keep them.”
objectives.” Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Bo Manning
a suite of software applications for integrated sales, CEO, Pivotal Corporation
marketing and service that sits on top of an Internet
business platform, is the necessary ‘get smarter’ tool.
CRM reconciles the paradox of increased demand for
smarter selling, marketing and service, and increased
pressure to reduce costs. CRM: What It Is
Customer Relationship Management, or ‘CRM’, is a
category of software applications used by companies
Customer Relationship Management to connect data, people and processes across the
(CRM) … is the necessary ‘get smarter’ customer-facing front-office (sales, marketing, service and
partner management). The simplest essence of CRM’s
tool that reconciles the paradox of
mission is to help companies know how their customers
increased demand for smarter selling, like to do business, so that customers keep coming back
marketing and service, and increased to buy more.
pressure to reduce costs.
Not all CRM is equal—when qualifying vendors, make
sure the suite of software applications has good breadth
of capabilities across all customer-facing functions of your
Where processes are weak, laborious or roundabout, company. It should be capable of delivering everything
CRM streamlines. Where the wires of important from assisted selling of complex solutions to online
relationships are crossed, CRM reconnects the right catalogs, self-service websites, unified knowledge bases,
people sensibly. And where visibility is lacking, CRM marketing ROI calculation, and more.
brings clarity into the market, sales channel performance,
key stakeholder activity, history and preferences, and To learn more about what Customer Relationship
overall business trajectory. Management looks like in action, keep reading. This
paper will provide specific examples of CRM at work in
the areas of sales, marketing, and service.
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 5
Improvement Points in Today’s Enterprise
When CRM is embraced by front-line employees, the operational impact is dramatic. Redundant, laborious processes
that once jeopardized the integrity of key relationships are redesigned. Let’s consider some of the most common
barriers to efficiency, and look at a CRM-driven approach to smooth the path to a more profitable model of business.
RED LIGHT OBSTACLES GREEN LIGHT ACTION
Sales force is not focused on selling. Automate sales cycle friction points. Enable online quoting, which allows reps to do
Reps process quotes via fax and e-mail, most of the initial data entry. Allow internal sales to access a single, unified system so
and spend time re-keying information. that all sales activity ‘lives’ in one place.
Sales reps are slow to respond to Automate basic, labor-intensive tasks. Move paper-intensive processes and records
opportunities. Significant delays exist to online, with anytime, anywhere access. Automate lead qualification and delivery.
generate proposals, configure products,
and verify and deliver quotes.
Leads are not strategically managed, and
many fall through the cracks.
Data exists across multiple fragmented Unify data to a single platform. Create a single view of all customer-facing data,
‘islands’. Management is unable to report including product data, into a complete view accessed by all sales reps, marketers,
on business performance, analyze team and service reps in an easy-to-use, integrated format.
activities, and proactively react to trends
and performance patterns.
No integration between co-dependent Integrate all processes to a single system. Recognize dependencies between
sales, marketing, and service teams, and verify offers or quotes in real-time. Make all product and configuration
processes. data dynamic, so that everything customers or prospects see is always optimized,
Employees spend time on duplicate consistent, and accurate.
data entry, resulting in significant errors.
Quotes go stale and delivery promises
are broken due to a lack of connection
to the supply chain.
Poor customer and partner loyalty. Increase agent ease-of-business. Offer instant, 24x7 rates, easy-to-use rapid proposal
Slow response time for lead follow-up, creation tool, and enable convenient self-service.
proposals, support assistance, or product
information gives the competition a
chance to gain ground.
Reactive approach to up- and cross- Proactively keep customer relationships ‘warm’. Automate the flagging of potential
selling. Potential customer opportunities opportunities, and alert the right sales rep. Give service reps the ability to cross-sell
are not recognized early enough (or not at on the spot in multi-function contact centers that engage in outbound marketing
all), and are often lost. This results in high and selling.
rates of customer attrition.
High demand for partner support. Increase partner self-sufficiency. Provide partners with online access to all front-office
Partners are unable to access the systems, such as knowledge bases, marketing collateral, lead management, customer
latest information and tools for selling, history, and status.
marketing, and servicing, and have a lack
of visibility into accurate customer and
product data.
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 6
Mapping the Results of CRM: Strategic
The Spillover Effect Strategic
Decision-Making
Impact
I M PA C T
CRM
Ease-of-Business
Impact
Strategic
Strategic Productivity Impact
Decision-Making Tactical
Impact
I M PA C T
Level One Results: Productivity Impact
CRM
Ease-of-Business
Impact Improve the speed, accuracy and efficiency
of internal processes
Productivity Impact At the most elementary level, CRM automates the front
Tactical office processes that span sales, marketing, and service.
Employees spend more time servicing, selling, and
interacting with customers and prospects, and less time
CRM delivers a great deal of functional, process-based shuffling paper.
tools to help employees and partners be more
productive in selling, marketing, and servicing customers
and prospects. When users embrace an easy-to-use,
In the next section, we’ll examine how tactical productivity
tailored system, companies get
improvements map to increasingly profound impact at measurably better at the front-office
higher, more strategic levels of business. The first level tactics that help to market, grow, and
of CRM impact is the improved speed, accuracy, and service customers effectively.
efficiency of internal processes—or improved productivity of
individuals—in which labor and paper-intensive processes
are streamlined. The second level of impact is measured With an easy-to-use, tailored system, companies get
when the company becomes easier to do business with, measurably better at the front-office tactics that help to
both from an customer and partner perspective. grow, market, and service customers effectively. The right
kind of CRM is invaluable to all people and processes
The third and most profound level of impact is when the who interact with customers and prospects on the front
‘sweet spot’ of optimal business profitability is revealed. line—and the impact of those productivity improvements
When the right mix of products, markets, sales models, make a difference to the bottom line.
channels, and partners is identified, you have all the
elements required to make smarter and more strategic Some of the most apparent bottom-line results include
business decisions. Let’s examine these three levels of the reduction of administrative overhead through
CRM impact. automation, shortened sales cycles, and easier
collaboration and sharing of data. All lead the push
towards greater profitability.
Increase Responsiveness – One of the most dramatic
results from CRM is the improved speed and efficiency
of internal processes. When front-office activities are
unified into a single, centralized system, information is
immediately available, and the paper-chase is eliminated.
Employee focus moves to having higher quality
interactions with customers and prospects, rather than on
limited-value details.
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 7
Create a Unified ‘Corporate Memory’ – One of the Intensify the Selling Focus – CRM makes the process
most valuable corporate assets is data. This includes of closing business easier. For instance, it accelerates
customer history, preferences, and status, sales channel the issuing of quotes, giving the sales team the ability to
performance, quote status, market trends, product produce a complete proposal package with the click of
knowledge bases, and more. Unifying this data to create a a button. Sales reps spend less time on administrative
cohesive corporate memory is vital to demonstrating trust tasks, and more time working with the prospects and
and credibility to all stakeholders, from customers and customers. Clearly, the customer-facing teams of sales,
prospects to partners. CRM grants instant access to data, marketing and service see dramatic impact from CRM
providing revenue-critical people with the tools necessary at the tactical level. The productivity of individuals will
to access the data they need to succeed. increase, and labor and paper-intensive processes will
be streamlined. Let’s look at the next level of impact, and
Resolve Customer Incidents Faster – A call center is a see what happens when these operational improvements
necessary but expensive requirement. The faster a service become apparent to customers, prospects and partners.
rep can provide a resolution to an issue, the more issues
can be resolved in a day. A CRM system puts everything
a service rep needs in one unified place, with easily Perspective:
searchable knowledge bases, chats, and self-service A Smarter Sales Cycle
options that ease the burden of customer support and
“We chose to implement CRM to allow
increases satisfaction.
us to get closer to our customers—so we
could respond to them in a more intimate
Increase Face Time with Customers and Prospects
and knowledgeable manner. We are now
– Increasing face time is always an effective sales tactic, able to capture all the many interactions
whether it’s building new relationships or strengthening we have with our customers into a single
existing ones. As the CRM system eliminates inefficient database, which enables us to take
processes, employees can re-allocate time and resources a more personalized approach to our
towards managing key relationships more proactively and sales cycle.
more profitably. “Through our implementation of CRM,
our sales cycle is more structured and
Find Out Why Your Sales Team Wins and Loses Deals standardized. For instance, opportunity
– CRM precisely tracks the sales pipeline and win-loss management capabilities give our sales
ratios. Analyze why some deals are more consistently managers much greater control over the
won, and why others are more likely to stall or be lost, sales cycle. Specifically, it provides much
improved visibility of the sales funnel, and
and capture detailed competitive information for each
provides a way for our reps to manage
proposal. Leverage this insight to focus on the areas that that opportunity throughout all stages of
need improvement, and share the best practices of top the lifecycle.
performers with others who need the encouragement and
“We are now in the process of leveraging
wisdom the most.
our CRM system to map our customers’
buying trends, so that we can position
Make it Easier to Replicate Successful Marketing ourselves proactively, anticipating and
Campaigns – Every marketing campaign consists of meeting their needs on a ‘just-in-time’
the same series of steps that pull from an array of data basis. This is just one example of how
sources, content sources, and delivery vehicles. Through CRM enables us to capture and act
automation, CRM makes it very easy for resource- upon much more customer information
strapped teams to repeat a successful campaign, or than previously possible. For us, it’s
simply a more customer-centric way
hold back a poorly performing campaign mid-stream and
of doing business.”
improve it.
Cliff Wilcox
Director, IT Applications,
Somera Communications
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 8
Partner Productivity Increases – Online portals extend
Strategic streamlined processes to partners, giving them open
Strategic
Decision-Making access what they need to close business. Quotes created
Impact
by channel reps are immediately fed into the unified
I M PA C T
‘home’ system, and automatically trigger downstream
CRM
Ease-of-Business
Impact
processes such as lead distribution or inventory validation.
Productivity Impact
Internal staff communicate with partners through more
Tactical
trackable methods than via phone. From the initial quote
to order processing, every partner activity is tracked in a
unified, automated environment.
Level Two Results: Ease-of-Business Impact
Customer Interactions are Simplified – A unified
Improve the customer experience and the customer database that stretches across sales,
likelihood of partner success marketing, and service eliminates errors and streamlines
The productivity improvements described previously every interaction. For instance, if a customer calls a
manifest themselves powerfully from the customer, support center, that customer’s history is onscreen before
prospect, and partner perspective. Although it’s one of the rep even answers the call. Rather than answering a
the more qualitative of results from CRM, the smooth, call with, “You have reached the Acme Support Center.
high-level convergence of people and processes is one of Please have your receipts and customer number ready,”
the most meaningful. When this convergence occurs, the your reps greet customers with, “Hello, John—glad to
company demonstrates a new level of efficiency outside hear from you again. Tell me, how did that adjustment we
the walls of the organization. made last week work for you?”
Data Quality Increases – Extending self-service to
If there is one universal truth in this customers and partners allows them to enter their
own data. By removing the extra steps of writing down
industry, it’s the likelihood that prospects, information and re-keying it, the quality of data is infinitely
customers, and partners shop around improved. The cost savings of this can be staggering.
for ease-of-business. Eliminate the retouching of the same data multiple times,
and gain the capacity to process far more. Constituents
will not mind contributing the right information with an
If there is one universal truth in this industry, it’s the easy-to-use, intelligent system since they receive a better
likelihood that prospects and customers are shopping experience—reps deliver faster proposals, and customers
around—not just for cost, but for ease-of-business. A receive what they need in less time and with fewer errors.
good example of ease-of-business is when companies
provide self-service. CRM-integrated self-service results in
increased efficiency for employees, and convenience for Perspective:
prospects and customers. Where there was once friction, Anticipating Needs
sluggish response and unmet needs, there is now a “With a good system, you can avoid
sudden abundance of focus, familiarity and consideration. asking the same question twice, because
you know your customers very well. Even
Let’s apply the example of self-service to explore how with multiple locations like we have, we
CRM creates a more convenient, easier and more still know them regardless of how they
seamless customer and partner experience: engage with us. And they appreciate that.
They want us to know who they are, and
Sales Reps Issue Quotes More Easily – CRM eliminates what they expect. And they really like it
when we anticipate their needs. For us,
the delay your reps face in getting a proposal to the
the cost of not anticipating those needs is
customer. Moving the quoting system online means that to lose in the marketplace.
direct or channel reps can access a secure portion of your
website to produce proposals in minutes. This efficiency “What it comes down to is that we’re a
cooperative. We’re actually owned by our
is clearly noted by the end customer, since they receive customers, and so our whole role is to
clear, accurate answers instantly rather than having to wait serve and to serve them as best we can.”
hours or even days. Online configurators make it easier
Jack Webster
to sell the most complex products or services, even those
CEO, Farm Credit Services of America
with intricate supply chain dependencies or technical
specifications. Take away sales cycle friction, and reps
manage accounts more responsively.
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 9
We’ve seen how the second level of CRM impact is when • Why do we win more deals with Group X vs. Group Y?
productivity takes root on the receiving end. Prospects, • Should we create more variations of Product Y, or
customers, and partners, given more convenient access should we sell more of the existing configuration?
to your company, will notice an extraordinarily seamless
experience. Next, let’s examine the third and most • Should we be even trying to sell in this particular target
profound level of CRM impact in which companies begin market / competitive arena?
making high-level decisions more intelligently. • Why is Product X being sold well by our smaller
partners, and ignored by our biggest partners?
Strategic
• What tactics do our top performing reps follow, that our
Strategic lower performers do not?
Decision-Making
Impact
• We have a limited budget for training. Should we invest
I M PA C T
CRM Ease-of-Business it towards advancement of our top channels, or use it to
Impact
help our smaller channels catch-up?
Productivity Impact
Getting Ready for the Upturn
Tactical
“In a downturn, sales and marketing
Level Three Results: organizations start reducing expectations,
financial and emotionally. They start
Strategic Decision-Making Impact doing less and less of the top part of
Identify the right mix for optimal profitability the pipeline, more and more of trying
to close the closest deal. When the
At the most profound level of impact, your company will
economy comes back, they are ready to
no longer waste effort trying to squash square pegs into re-energize, but they have nothing at the
round holes in a market that is already crowded and very top of the funnel.
saturated. Instead, you will move forward based on a clear
“Sooner or later, this thing is going to
understanding of the trajectories of your corporate assets, turn around. If you don’t want to get
customer demand, and the competitive landscape. With left behind, you need to invest in new
deep insight into business performance, you will direct strategies, systems and approaches that
high-level business decisions more intelligently. are going to feed the top of the funnel.
When the upturn comes around, you’ll be
Think of your company as a collection of assets. ready to gain momentum.”
Products, services, people, processes. Data, expertise, Geoffrey Moore
relationships. The trick to maintaining momentum in a CEO, The Chasm Group
challenging business environment is figuring out the
right mix—identifying that point at which all your assets
converge ‘just so’ to result in profitability. The moment that CRM’s visibility helps a company to
answer the most fundamental ‘what next’ questions is a
breakthrough one, in which a new collective confidence
The moment that CRM’s visibility helps a is gained. It is that invigorating moment when a company
company to answer the most fundamental begins directing the strategic path of its assets—its
‘what next’ questions is a breakthrough products, services, people, processes, data, expertise,
relationships—from deep insight gained from smart,
one, in which a new collective confidence
timely analysis of business performance.
is gained.
Identify the right mix of offers, products, tools, and
information, and then take a targeted approach favoring
With CRM having delivered improved productivity the most valuable employees, customers, and partners.
and ease-of-business across the front office, how do This is the ‘sweet spot’—that point at which all the right
companies figure out where to invest the additional assets intersect for maximum profitability.
resources, time, and money that’s been saved? The trick
is to quantify operational strengths and weaknesses,
so that you can make highly informed decisions that
capitalize on the good and minimize the not-so-good.
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 10
The Final Word KNOW YOUR:
In this paper, you’ve learned about CRM as a
breakthrough tool to help companies thrive despite Top Producers
the increased complexity, operational demands and
Partner Needs
competitive pressures of doing business. But this
statement... Market Trends
Customer Needs
CRM is a breakthrough tool
Employee Needs
is not complete without making an important edit: Most Important Interaction Points
CRM can be a breakthrough tool … if your company Most Revenue-Impacting Processes
chooses, designs, and implements it in a way that
makes sense for your goals and your business.
CRM is a journey, not a destination. It is not a matter of
installing software, and being ‘finished’. By its very nature, ...THEN IDENTIFY THE RIGHT MIx OF:
a CRM system should always have an open door for
continued, on-the-fly development and tweaking. Your Training
system will never be set in stone—and you shouldn’t want
Support
it to be. Through this journey, you’ll learn a great deal
about how your employees like to work, where you all Site Visits
excel, and what could be done differently. Your business Advertising
needs to keep pace with the natural evolution of your
Sales Commissions
people, processes, and products—and that includes your
CRM system. Marketing Campaigns
Process Improvements
The Importance of CRM-to-Fit
“We have a unique business model. In
every deal, we need to respond rapidly
and effectively to market change and to
changes in our customers’ circumstances.
...TO GROW YOUR:
“As we moved to automate our sales
Win Rate
process, it was paramount for us to
select a CRM system that could be easily Product Penetration
adapted to our way of doing things. For
Employee Efficiency
instance, we needed to customize the
basis on which sales territories were Customer Satisfaction
defined. And most important, we needed
Level of Responsiveness
to adapt how the system assigned leads
—since we distribute leads not only to Partner Value & Loyalty
buyers, but also to sellers.
“If we had chosen a CRM system that
would not easily customize to meet our This brings us to one simple conclusion: CRM is not a
unique business structure, it would have software purchase. If it were, it would be relatively easy.
been more an impediment to our workflow Companies who excel at CRM see it for what it is—a
than it would have been a solution.” results purchase. This means working with your CRM
Cliff Wilcox vendor to realize and report meaningful business results.
Director, IT Applications, Following are some further resources that introduce the
Somera Communications ‘making it work’ aspects of CRM, including how to stay
focused on business results, and how to navigate through
two key categories of selection criteria—system suitability,
and vendor suitability.
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 11
Further Resources
CRM Discovery Kit The CIO’s Sensible Guide
to Delivering the Right CRM
for your Company (How to
Keep your System Integrity,
Budget, Resources and
Sanity Intact Through CRM)
When it comes to CRM, today’s CIO is squarely focused
on risk mitigation, resource management and cost
At Pivotal CRM, we’ve held fast to one simple truth from the predictability. How easy is this CRM system to buy?
very beginning. There’s no such thing as ‘one-size-fits-all’ Can we deploy in a predictable timeframe? Will it fit with our
CRM. When it’s 100% designed to fit your business, CRM current and future business IT strategies? In this business
has impact where it counts. Revenues. Margins. Loyalty.” paper, you’ll gain a TCO-oriented framework for choosing
Part One: How to Choose the Right CRM the right CRM. Find out about:
Part Two: How to Build Impactful CRM Breadth, Depth and the 80/20 Rule
Part Three: How to Measure Results from CRM Customizability and the Metadata Connection
To get this paper and access further information, visit Scalability, Performance and the User Perspective
www.pivotal.com.
To get this paper and access further information, visit
www.pivotal.com.
For more information or a complete list of our worldwide offices, please visit www.pivotal.com.
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