Got Pie?
Please pardon the analogy if it seems a bit of a stretch, but I think building CRM strategy is a lot like picking berries. Go with me a moment with this. There are actually a couple of elements that I think are particularly relevant.
What are you going to do with your berries? Are they going into a fruit salad, or are they for an ice cream garnish. Perhaps they are going into a pie, or maybe you just pop them in your mouth as you pick them. The process of berry picking needs to match the final result. If you want to make a pie, you can’t pop very many in your mouth, otherwise you will never reach your goal. On the other hand, berries for a pie don’t need to be a perfect specimen like those that need to beautify the top of a sundae, so what gets picked and when very much matters matters.
This is how I view the development of initial CRM strategy. What you do with your software and customer-facing processes need to match the outcome you want from your effort. Are you trying to grow market share rapidly or are you trying to drive efficiencies throughout maturing operations? Everything needs to be tied to the outcomes, just like picking berries.
Another element of the analogy is a bit more salient to the effectiveness of the berry gathering process. Raspberry bushes, the object of my early summer attention, have long branches, big leaves, and when healthy, tend to be full and bushy. These circumstances make for excellent conditions for berries to hide from would be harvesters. Therefore, to be a successful collector of the little red fruit, one must look at the targeted bush from many directions. One must look from above, one must look from below. Then one must look from the left and again from the right. Not finished, you then have to look from the back and circle again to the front - each change of vantage point yielding another prize.
This is exactly the way it works with CRM. There are obvious benefits and sources of reward within a CRM program. Better forecasting, more efficient issue resolution or improved lead generation are typical examples. Those berries get picked first. But there are more benefits to be gained and it is important to look from directions that you might not have initially expected or assumed.
You might believe that the important reason for your CRM investment is to improve sales effectiveness. However, you might find that you will double your ROI if you include your field service organization because of the benefit of collecting key customer information available at that touchpoint. It is really critical for success to look beyond your initial scope – don’t limit yourself to only a portion of the berries.
And to answer that other lingering question – I am going for a raspberry pie.
