7 simple steps for successful CRM implementation

Hi, Habrahabr! Today we want to share with you a step by step guide to the transition to CRM. Here are practical tips and important recommendations. For those planning or starting this wonderful process, this information will be useful. It may even save time, nerves and other easily lost resources.

So, let's begin.

CRM-system - a tool or a way of thinking?

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The concept of CRM refers to the approach to business management. It focuses on the quality of customer relationships: attracting new ones and increasing the loyalty of existing customers.

A CRM system is a tool, software for implementing such an approach. CRM systems save resources, reduce customer churn and lead to repeat sales.

But this will only work if automation occurs along with a change in the thinking of all participants in the process. In order for the implementation of CRM to produce the desired result, it must be used as a weapon for winning a competitive war. And not just as another requirement of the leadership.

Therefore, we must learn not only how to use the technology itself, but also how to change the thinking of employees, how to bridge the gap between the strategic vision of business leaders and the implementation of this strategy in the daily work of the company team. After all, this is what ultimately ensures success or failure in the implementation of any strategy.

So, along with the deployment of a CRM system, it is necessary to introduce a new approach to business efficiency to the company's team.

Let's talk about how to do it simply, productively and avoid possible pitfalls and currents.

Why do businesses need a CRM system?

In 2017, Gartner predicts that the global market for automation systems will grow to $ 36.5 billion, and the average annual growth rate will be close to 15.1%. Owners of companies and top managers sooner or later realize the value of automating business processes.

CRM systems in 2017 improve not only customer service, but also internal processes: task management, work control. Automate routine tasks: billing, sending notifications and documents, generating reports and other tasks. They help standardize and accelerate business processes, as well as reduce the cost of performing typical tasks.

CRM-systems collect all the data on the work, help to effectively manage processes and increase profits. To manage the result, you need to learn how to manage the process. You control only what you can measure.

A business can be effectively managed only when all business processes and results are reflected in a single system. Then the director sees the full picture - the causal relationship of actions and results expressed in numbers - and can plan the future development of the company. Ideally, with the help of a CRM system, the manager finds and eliminates the problematic stages of the processes, and develops effective ones.

Do you want it to be so with you? Here is the promised walkthrough.

Step 1. Define the goal and develop an implementation plan.

Sounds good, let's have a little more detail:

Mark the focus and determine the goal.
Of course, you want to improve your business quickly and completely. But there is a danger: a sharp transition to the implementation of CRM can often do more harm than good.

Instead of hasty actions, it will be much more useful to focus on achieving one goal. Gradual, purposeful, effective solution of the problem, then move on to the next goal. A lightning and chaotic approach can lead to failure in such situations. We will not risk.

Assess the effect of the goal on your profit, express it in specific numbers.
Before moving on, consider the following question: will this goal of introducing CRM have a positive effect on the outcome of your business? Can you reflect on specific indicators you want to achieve?

If so, you can move on. If not, go back to the starting point to determine another, more fruitful idea. This is important not only at the beginning of your planning, but throughout the entire process of implementing a CRM strategy - every time you analyze the results and adjust your plan.

Make an effective plan
Okay, you already have goals, and you know that this is how it will affect your performance. You are almost ready. But before you begin, answer a few more important questions:

• What problems will be solved by this implementation?
  (Confirm twice that it is worth your time)
  
  
• Who will implement this plan?
  (Make sure you have a team you can rely on)
  
  
• How long will it take? When will the results be visible?
  (Give yourself a realistic timeline)

Be sure to get answers to these questions before you press the gas pedal or you will be knocked down by the composition of these problems with your intended path.

And all these answers to the questions “who, what, where, when, why, how” in your CRM implementation plan greatly increase the chances of success from the first attempt. They will not only help you adjust the smooth operation and smooth sharp corners, but will also contribute to calm inside your team.

Buy opportunity, not technology.
CRM technology is developing at a rapid pace. SaaS solutions, neural networks and other innovations are abrupt changes in CRM technologies inherited from the general development of this sphere in recent years. By investing your time not only in identifying the needs of your business, but also in exploring the market to compare opportunities, you can often find a more powerful and inexpensive solution. Especially for such rapidly developing options as analytics. Suppliers also use new platforms and technologies to create powerful, revolutionary approaches in building CRM systems.

Step 2. Prepare for implementation difficulties

CRM-system immediately after the purchase does not solve all the problems of the company itself. It happens even the opposite - at the beginning of the problems is added. This can be compared with a medicine that has to be taken daily as prescribed by a specialist and strictly according to instructions, otherwise the consequences can be unpleasant.
Be prepared for the difficulties that are inevitable at the beginning of the introduction of the new system.

Here are some tips to help you enter the process painlessly:

• Make a complete picture of the required capabilities of your CRM.
  Ask all interested parties (leading specialists, department heads, etc.) to help you determine the business requirements for the system. Analyze. Highlight bottlenecks and matches.
  
  
• Use the expertise of vendors. Follow the advice of your CRM implementation expert.
  
  
• Establish a scheme of interaction with the system supplier - such that all parties are motivated, well understood their rights and obligations. Make a simple and understandable contract with the vendor. Highlight key points and bring them to your team.
  
  
• Implement your implementation plan strictly and in a disciplined manner. By itself, discipline will not ensure the success of CRM, but its absence will certainly lead to problems.
  
  
• Designate an implementation organizer — with the right level of authority and ability to solve problems and solve problems. He will need to pay attention to all interested parties (both in the team and in relations with the vendor).
  
  
• Debug staff accountability.
  To do this, you can create an expert group that will manage the implementation of the CRM strategy. Ensure unhindered participation in it of all stakeholders, departments, divisions. Then evaluate the work of all its participants - how much their projects correspond to the initial goal of CRM implementation.
  
  
• Distribute instructions on the use of CRM to employees, formalize your requirements, formulate them in the form of a simple task list. This will avoid repetitive work and misunderstandings.
  
  
• Spend your time and effort managing the process. Without active management, the introduction of CRM will result in losses - it is only a matter of time.
  
  
• We have already spoken about the need to express the goal in concrete numbers. This should be a few simple indicators. Track them to identify and fix problems early. Discussion of the dynamics of these metrics at meetings will allow discussion of the situation simply, objectively and with maximum focus on results.
  
  
• Organize periodic implementation review meetings at all levels of the company and ensure that all departments participate in them. It is better to spend some time now and prevent a crisis in the future.
  
  
• Build and maintain positive relationships in the company. If suddenly something goes wrong, constructive personal relationships in the team will quickly and effectively communicate and solve problems. This is important at all levels, including “top echelon” of managers. Sometimes the quick five-minute immersion of the boss in the current work problem “on the ground” brings good dividends in future crisis situations.
  
  This approach is based on common sense, but its implementation requires time and effort. Get ready to work hard to achieve the desired automation.

Step 3. Develop a system of standards and requirements

Which CRM system is best suited for a professional firm? The answer can be formulated as another question: “How do you run your business today, and how does your system hold your people accountable to each other?”

What is even more important: "Do you have a logical system of requirements, deadlines and rules of interaction for obtaining results?"

Preparation of standards, if they were not before the introduction of CRM, is necessary. When there is no clear rules: how to enter data into the system, how to conduct a transaction, how to reflect the results and so on, then each manager will act in his own way. Automated chaos is all the same chaos.

Don't forget the “R” in CRM (document).

One of the most important aspects of CRM is that it helps you know who to call and when. When interacting with a client, it is critical to see the entire history of communication with him. Those teams that do not thoroughly and fully document their communication with customers often fail. And those who do it well succeed. Proper documentation will help strengthen relationships with those who bring you profit.

Provide a common terminology (formalize).

Fashion trend - use beautiful terms such as "leads" or "opportunity costs". For successful deployment of a CRM strategy, it is important to make clear definitions of important terms.

The manager's responsibility is to spend time formalizing important definitions, so that it is easier to manage the results and expectations.

Clear rules of interaction (set).

Managers must have very specific, clearly defined expectations about how the entire cycle of transactions should go and what to do if the seller needs help.

The stages of the sales cycle should have a real value in terms of business. They should be linked to real results, and not just to be reporting requirements.

It is necessary to paint each process in stages and in detail. Further indicate what actions are possible at one stage or another.

For example, a manager can close a task in the “Completed” status only upon the fact of an incoming payment. If the payment is not made, the employee:
a) contacts the client by phone,
b) notify the supervisor (and so on).

When each step is registered, you can make working instructions - standards of work. There will be an understanding of the processes for which the automatic actions of the system should be configured. Employees will learn how to act correctly at each stage. A standardized process can be automated, the system will “understand” what is right and what is not. The CRM system will monitor the correct execution of tasks, fix violations and notify them.

You will also have to prepare standards for entering data into the database. Which fields are required, in what form you need to record customer contacts, and so on.

The work of employees should be viewed from the perspective of the success or failure of their actions, and not as a general stream of incoming information about income. Then you will have the opportunity to formalize as an example the successful transactions and actions that led to it. Pay attention to this in your meetings.

Step 4. “Sell” your CRM system to your company's personnel

No matter how much we focus on customization and configuration, technology does not motivate people and does not make them responsible for each other.

Creating the conditions for the adoption of CRM by your employees is a difficult test. But you will be helped by a demonstration of the value of CRM. First of all, you need to enlist the support of the sales team (since most often the introduction of CRM begins with it).

View data from a recent CSO Insights “Sales Optimization” study . The introduction of CRM has become commonplace: almost every company of significant size, seeking to increase sales efficiency, is deploying a CRM system in its sales division. But the introduction of technology does not always mean the adoption of this technology. What do we see in this study?



Only 41% of surveyed sales managers showed a CRM utilization rate in their departments of more than 90%. At the other end of this scale - 12.7% of survey respondents reported that the adoption rate of CRM is less than 25% based on the results of their unit.

The most interesting and sad thing at the same time is that, in terms of the adoption of a CRM business, over the past 10 years, the picture has not changed much.

Since 2006, the cluster of companies with a CRM adoption rate of over 90% has increased by only 1.7%. While the segment of respondents with the lowest rate (less than 25%) has more than doubled.

That is, we are clearly going the wrong way.

Over the past 10 years, CRM technologies have received many important innovations:

• cloud computing made CRM solutions available for companies of any size;
• improved and simplified user interface;
• access to CRM systems using mobile devices has become commonplace; performed a huge amount of functional and other improvements.

Nevertheless, many companies still have to struggle to ensure that their staff (and, in particular, sales managers) actively use the CRM solutions implemented in the company.

Of course, the introduction of each specific CRM-system helps its certain unique features, advantages, functionality and so on.

But any successful, full-fledged deployment of a CRM-strategy is based on an understanding of an important principle: the first sale that a company must make is an internal sale.

You need to convince your managers that they have to get on the train using CRM. It is intelligible to explain why this is important, and what is the benefit for them and for the company.

For example, how to convince sales managers? You can start by analyzing current sales processes, track performance bottlenecks. And then figure out how to use CRM to make life easier for the sales department.

And if sellers are disappointed with the large amount of time it takes to prepare the final offer to the customer, then you can enlist their support by automating and optimizing the process with the help of CPQ technology (Configure, Price, Quote).

Another good practice is the creation of a CRM end-user working group, in which representatives of sales, sales, marketing and customer support are involved. This team will allow to bring together all the data of end users from different departments and display them in terms of CRM implementation. Based on the results of the work of this group, decisions can be made about which components of CRM should be implemented (and how), and which ones can be neglected. In turn, group members can become goodwill ambassadors and missionaries who will “sell” the CRM value to their “field colleagues”.

Yes, a lot has already been said about the importance of staff training for the successful implementation of CRM. But the fact is that for the complex automation of a company, training is not just a one-time event, but an ongoing process. For each new CRM release, sales staff must be trained and familiarized with new features. We must understand that now their work will become even more productive and efficient.

Team work Another important point on which the result of your implementation depends. All participants in the process must work hard to really be a team. It is necessary to motivate people to take the initiative, to be responsible, to share tips and information that is important for work in a timely manner.

To this end, the company's management should use a new approach to CRM: instead of focusing on the structure of the system, shift the focus on CRM as an organizational attitude.

How to achieve this “shift”? You need to spend time and resources on developing instructions and explaining processes, giving clear instructions on how to use data and documentation to ensure the most transparent relationships between the participants within CRM.

The above diagrams clearly show the need for new thinking, for understanding the need for CRM as an approach, mentality in the context of a successful business. If your team does not accept the use of the technology for which you pay, you need to understand the reasons for this and deal with them.

If companies do not do this, then in 2026 the CRM adoption chart will still look like today. Only by changing the very culture of business, you can achieve automation and high performance. And only then your employees will be able to call the CRM implemented by you “our system”, and not just “system”.

Step 5. Evaluation, adaptation and repetition

Once again, be consistent.
Modern automation systems are impressive in their capabilities. But do not rush to automate everything at once. Take small steps: set up one process - go to the next, automate one department - go to another.

Good. Go ahead.

You have a CRM implementation plan. The process is running. We evaluate the results.
It is very important to follow each step of the introduction, look for opportunities for fine-tuning, adaptation.

Did any of the steps work fine? Super! Highlight it as key.
Part of the plan failed? Do not worry - cross it.
After refining and optimizing your original plan, take another CRM idea and start again from the beginning. Use everything that you have learned, and watch how the next stage of the plan comes to life.

And do not worry - even if some CRM idea is not as successful as you hoped for, this does not mean that you cannot continue optimization. Adapt, adapt, until your process is perfect.

Here are some signs that introducing CRM is stalling, and some tips for getting back on track:

1. CRM login statistics.
   There is no better indicator of a problem system. So you can see that employees don't use CRM often enough. If the negative statistics is regular - this is a reason to discuss with the team what their needs are not provided by CRM, or perhaps its configuration is too complicated or not sufficiently functional to reflect their work.
   
   
2. Incomplete data.
   Using CRM should benefit the user, not just the company that uses them. If you often find a lot of missing data, this can cause many problems at different levels of the business. One of the reasons may be that users do not see the benefits of their individual roles when entering data. Or the data points are not as valuable as originally intended. It can help both the expansion of the possibility of entering information, and clearing the system of irrelevant options - so that it fits your current business needs.
   
   
3. Bypass system.
   If the company, despite certain expectations and requirements, the same rules do not apply to all employees, CRM stops working effectively. The results of the implementation of the CRM plan are based on the correct construction of corporate discipline.
   
   
4. System design
   Starting an implementation, many firms do it quickly too quickly, without paying due attention to the specific functions that employees need to do their jobs. On the other hand, many out-of-the-box pre-installed functions that are not related to the organization’s business processes continue to be present and complicate the daily work of the staff. Work on these issues in advance with your implementation expert from a vendor to simplify your CRM solution and make it more efficient for you.
   
   
5. Lack of integration.
   Even for small companies, CRM integration with other systems is important. When users need to communicate with each other through e-mail and phone calls to obtain information that should be easily accessible, they spend less and less time in the CRM system. Most modern CRM platforms allow such integration. It is easier than you think. And when properly configured, it is suitable for everyday tasks as well as for marketing and analytics.

So, the introduction should take place in a controlled and gradual manner, like eating an elephant in pieces - the size of each of which corresponds to the capabilities of the “bite”.

A successful plan combines three main aspects:

• Technology (20% of overall strategy success)
• Processes (30%);
• People (50%).

Any other emphasis will be erroneous. No super CRM features, a new website, a social network community or a multi-channel sales system will not be able to overcome the chaos in corporate processes or by themselves motivate staff to change the way they work.

Step 6. Consider the possibility of technical support

A CRM system is a software development that is updated, changed to suit your needs, is being finalized. Sometimes you may have questions of a technical nature, to which the system developers will most likely answer you. Therefore, we advise you to entrust maintenance and technical support to specialists. The best of all is the creators of the system, and not your staff programmers or middlemen integrators.

To solve technical issues less dependent on programmers, choose a system in which the logic of work can be changed through the user interface. It will save your money to pay for the work of programmers and allow you to quickly adjust the settings yourself.

Step 7. Reasonably and carefully approach the cost issue.

Carefully review the prices for your new CRM-system. Paying for a CRM system is just the beginning. You can count on a short-term decrease in the productivity of managers who now need to add data to the system, and, as a result, on a decrease in profits. You have spent, and in front of you there may still be a fee for improvements, the monthly fee (if it is provided by the supplier of the CRM system). You can pick up the system and no monthly fee. Also ensure that your requirements are realizable on the basic functions of the system.

Determine all the costs necessary to fulfill your implementation plan, correlate them with the capabilities of your business and vendor technology.

Include the real costs to achieve the intended results in your plan and in the contract with the vendor. The idea of ​​cutting back on user support, upgrades and maintenance costs is certainly tempting - but it leads to a backlog from the implementation plan, at best, and to the failure of this implementation - at worst.

Let's sum up

• Decide why you need a CRM system, formulate a clear goal in numbers;
• Prepare for the fact that at first it will not be easy - you will have to work on the result;
• Standardize your processes first on a piece of paper, and then begin a conversation with automation experts;
• Prepare your employees, who will have to take innovations, convince them of the need for automation;
• Be consistent, move gradually: automate the process by process, not all at once;
• Solve the issue with the future maintenance of the system. Make sure the basic features are right for you. , . -, .

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