It is often the case that we find our customers making the same mistakes when it comes to their CRM system – especially during implementations.  Implementations are big projects, however many organizations go into the project with a “lets get this over with” frame of mind. In our experience, this doesn’t usually go over well. With this mind set.

Did you ever play the “telephone” game when you were a child? That’s the game where one person whispers a message to a player, then in turn whispers it to another player, and so on until the last person has to state the message out loud. Hilarity often ensues when the final person repeats the message because it’s so different from the original. It always proves

Have you ever been surprised by a sale scheduled to close that got bumped into next month? How about a sales forecast for $50,000 that came in at $15,000?

If you’ve ever taken a computer science course, you have probably heard the old computer programmer’s saying “Garbage in = garbage out.’’ Meaning that if your CRM is populated with outdated information, chances are this will affect the output efficiency.

How long has it been since you implemented your CRM project? If it’s been a while, or if you’re about to switch CRM vendors, it may be time to refine or even redefine your CRM objectives.

Customer relationship management (CRM) can become all-too predictable. Sales use it to track leads and opportunities. Marketing uses it to send newsletters, updates, and promotions. But what do your customers think about all this? Can you use your CRM system in new ways that surprise, delight, and inform your customers?

Is your sales team working at optimum efficiency? Are they following up on every lead? Do they have the information they need to answer customer questions and present appropriate products and upgrades?

It’s that time of year when many companies clean their files, organize their data, and clean out the old in preparation for the new. The last fiscal quarter (if your company is on a calendar year) closes out the books in many companies and places a reference point in the year for year-to-year comparisons. This is a great time to add one simple task to your system: a CRM checkup, cleanup, and tune up.