Introduction to

CRM
Intended as a short introduction to what CRM is
aimed at users who are not technical
SalesAgility.com Fundamentals of CRM
FUNDAMENTALS ...................................................................................................... 3
WHAT IS CRM? ............................................................................................................ 3
YOUR CRM .................................................................................................................. 5
ISSUES OF IMPORTANCE .................................................................................................... 5
DISCIPLINE 1 - INFORMATION STORAGE .............................................................................. 5
DISCIPLINE 2 - THE RIGHT INFORMATION ........................................................................... 7
DISCIPLINE 3 - CRM IS A HABIT ...................................................................................... 8
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SalesAgility.com Fundamentals of CRM
Fundamentals
What is CRM?
CRM is short for Customer Relationship Management. There are hundreds
of books, thousands of learned academic papers and scores of Websites
dedicated to the subject of CRM.
Essentiall, CRM aims to put our customers at the centre of the information
flow of our compan.
In a tpical compan, it is not unusual to ha!e to followin" scenario#
In short, the compan or or"anisation is !er rich in information about
customers. It knows lots about them. $ut the information is not shared. It%s
onl a!ailable to specific job functions.
If a sales person wants to know about what issues are outstandin" with
customer ser!ice for a particular customer, then the ha!e to make contact
with the holders of that information and wait for a response. If the
salesperson is chasin" the information in response to a &uestion from the
customer, then the customer also has to wait.
'o, althou"h man companies are information rich, the information is
compartmentalised. It is not corporate knowled"e and the abilit to access
information and to deli!er it rapidl to customers is low ( )i"h &ualit
customer ser!ice is compromised.
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SalesAgility.com Fundamentals of CRM
In a customer focused compan, the information flow and the abilit to access
information is !er different#
CRM is an application that enables companies to make the mo!e towards
bein" a customer centred or"anisation b puttin" the customer at the centre of
all the information that relates to them and allowin" authorised people within
the or"anisation to access the information.
In a customer centred or"anisation, salespeople would ha!e access to all the
information that affects their relationship with their customer. The
con!ersations, the emails, the complaints, the complaint resolutions, all the
information that had been sent to the customer, who else in the compan the
customer had spoken to ** e!erthin" that affects their abilit to ser!ice the
customer and sell more product or ser!ices to them.
Customers of a customer centred or"anisation feel more !alued. Their
re&uests are dealt with more rapidl and accuratel because all the
information re&uired to ser!ice the re&uest is in one place. Customer centred
or"anisations ma ha!e a hi"her customer retention rates than competitors
or"anised alon" traditional lines because of this.
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SalesAgility.com Fundamentals of CRM
Your CRM
+our CRM application is called 'u"arCRM. It is written usin" Internet
computer technolo"ies. This means that to use it, ou enter a Website address
into our browser in the same wa that ou would if ou were accessin"
,oo"le, +ahoo or an other Website.
The address that ou enter to access our CRM is www.-.wid"ets.com.
Issues of Importance
There are a number of issues of fundamental importance to the success of a
CRM application. We will e-plore all of these in the followin" pa"es. In no
particular order, the primar issues are#
/. 0iscipline
1. 0iscipline
2. 0iscipline
Discipline 1 - Information Storage
3ll the information on our CRM sstem is contained in one bi" store called a
database. The CRM database is capable of storin" details of emails,
con!ersations, &uotations, customer names, addresses, telephone numbers
and contact personnel for all our customers.
It is like ha!in" a "i"antic filin" cabinet.
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SalesAgility.com Fundamentals of CRM
A database is like a filing cabinet
Easy to find information Hard to find information
If ou store information in a
structured and orderl wa, then
retrie!in" information will be
relati!el eas.
If ou don%t put the information
where it belon"s, it will become
increasin"l hard to find.
Discipline 1
Put information in the right place ALWAYS.
ALWAYS put the information in the ri"ht place. If ou deal with one
hundred people at 4+5 Wid"ets and ou stored all the information about all
the &uotations for each person under the "eneral headin" of 4+5 Wid"ets,
findin" an information would become !er difficult.
If howe!er ou created a main file for 4+5 Wid"ets, and a subsidiar folder
for each person at 4+5 Wid"ets and ou stored &uotations in the separate file
for each person at 4+5 Wid"ets, findin" &uotations would be much easier.
That means if ou did a &uotation for 6ohn 'mithers of 4+5 Wid"ets, ou can
file the information in one of two places#
In the Y! Wi"gets file #. or

In the $ohn Smithers fol"er of the Y! Wi"gets file

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SalesAgility.com Fundamentals of CRM
Discipline 2 - The Right Information
+our CRM sstem is a place for storin" all the customer related information.
There will be a temptation to record e!erthin" customer related in the
database. Resist the temptation.
If ou ha!e recei!ed an email from a customer with 7The /88 best blonde
jokes9 PL%AS% D&'() store it in the CRM s*stem.
There is no hard and fast rule. )owe!er, common sense ou"ht to tell ou that
anthin" of commercial rele!ance to our compan should be stored. This
includes emails with re"ard to purchases, contracts, ne"otiations, commercial
information should be stored. :uotations should be stored. 0etails of rele!ant
con!ersations should be stored. ;etters to customers should be stored.
3nthin" that adds !alue to the customer relationship.
Legal 'otice
D& '&) record information that is of dubious le"alit about our customer
or competitor. There ha!e been cases in the recent past where or"anisations
ha!e been successfull sued for sendin" internal emails that contained
&uestionable information about a competitor. There is little reason to belie!e
that this could not be e-tended to the CRM sstem.
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SalesAgility.com Fundamentals of CRM
Discipline 3 - CRM is a hait
Make our CRM sstem a central part of our workin" life and ou will "et
tremendous !alue from it.
Make our CRM sstem an incidental part of our workin" life and watch
our CRM(friendl collea"ues make more sales, earn more commission and
"et faster promotion. <nowled"e is power and CRM is a hu"el powerful
corporate knowled"e sstem *. =se it or lose it.
Si+ goo" ha,its of effecti-e CRM users
1
When ou are at our desk, or are otherwise connected to the Internet,
ALWAYS ha!e the CRM application open.
.
Record information when it happens or as soon as possible
afterwards. D& '&) write e!erthin" down on bits of paper and tr
to update the sstem at the end of the week.
/
=se the CRM sstem to record all our planned acti!ities if ou just
told 6ohn 'mithers that ou would call him at three(o(clock in three
weeks time record it on the CRM sstem it, in turn, will remind
ou to call 6ohn 'mithers on the ri"ht da at the ri"ht time.
0
=se the CRM to plan our acti!ities at the start of the workin" da
and the workin" week, look throu"h the CRM sstem for all our
meetin"s, for all the calls ou ha!e to make, for all the reports ou
ha!e to prepare. +ou%ll be impressed b how much more or"anised
and focused ou can become.
1
If ou are in sales pa particular attention to the pipeline *. It will
alwas tell ou where to focus for "ain.
2
There is no such thin" as too much detail i.e. when ou enter a sales
lead record as much rele!ant information as possible. Where did the
sales lead come from> If ou learn to record the smaller items such as
this, ou will build up a picture about how and where ou "et our
best business from. Is it from e-hibitions, cold calls, customer
referrals> * absolutel !ital information that will help ou sell more.
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