MikeMuhney.com

Social Media - CRM’s Waterloo or its’ Phoenix?

Is this about to be the end of an era? An era never settled, surely never fully realized, and now on the precipice of possible irrevocable uselessness to salespeople? Yes, I am talking about CRM. Not that there hasn’t been much said about it over these last 15 years or so of its’ existence following on the pioneered pathway of CM’s (Contact Managers). Sadly, today, in Gartner and/or Forrester reports, the statistics of failed CRM implementations rank near 50%. Think about it - 15+ years of CRM investments with only a 50% success rate - and that’s just addressing the internal success of its’ being adopted and embraced, not at all a commentary on the actual cost that it has brought to the companies employing CRM technology through misuse or no use by salespeople. But now, a watershed moment has arrived upon the scene of the CRM landscape in the form of Social Media. Both proponents, and opponents, of CRM systems are to be forever affected as a result. It is both a scary, and exciting, prospect.

I believe that one of the fundamental elements of CRM’s dismal performance amongst users these many years is that there was little effort applied to what I will call the emotional element of CRM itself. Unlike ERP and BPM-type products that are transaction-and-procedurally based, CRM is as much about the subjective as it is the objective. After all, we are talking about getting into the hearts, mind, and souls of both the users of CRM products as well as those they target who are members of their CRM databases. The failure to have done so that has resulted in this 50-50 chance of success can be attributed to the many groups with vested interests in these CRM systems, and not salespeople alone. This list includes, but is not limited to, CRM vendors, CRM consultants (experts, as some describe themselves) who along with internal project leaders who design less-than-practical navigation within the CRM solution, corporate management, sales management, IT, marketing departments, and customer service departments. And who do these people blame, ultimately, for these unsatisfactory results? Why, usually sales people of course. And now, with the unmistakeable momentum, and emerging value, of Social Media, this condition can only get worse…..or better.

Let’s first begin to explore the potential “Waterloo” element of social media’s impact on the present CRM environment. Let’s also set the stage by proclaiming that if one of every two CRM projects fail, then social media’s impact could tip that to way north of 50%. Why? Because it represents more data in the CRM food chains insatiable demand for more information and how to assimilate it into the company CRM database. Apart from the strategic decision as to how to do so and what the expectations are, invariably this risks falling, again, on the salespeople’s shoulders to make something with, and of, this free-flowing information. And what is to prevent this risk of failure? One key way will need to be by not adding it as another piece of patchwork on an already poorly designed system, that’s for sure. Since salespeople are usually not included in any of the design effort, instead being left to IT techies, consultants, and project managers, this has further failure written all over it. The dynamic nature of free-flowing information departs from the procedural and rigid approach of data input provided by the CRM user and now must include the chaotic and temperamental commentaries being made from others outside of the company via social media who are members of the CRM database of the company who has created a record of them. This unsolicited information, while potentially extremely useful, nonetheless simply adds more weight to an already-burdened CRM system and design - of which many flaws themselves still exist.

Conversely, it is conceivable that social media can relieve, perhaps even eliminate, much of the burden that CRM users presently feel they are obliged (dare I say some even forced?) to provide accessory groups who want to mine the data for their own particular use. The complete turnaround of data capture from the “selling” side of the market to one of the “buying” side of the market through voluntary submission of information is unprecedented. It can possibly be described as an oasis finally found in the harsh desert by salespeople. Data entry by CRM users is one of the hardest parts of their usage and affects the quality as well as quantity of information captured by them, and this removes a huge resistance factor from them.

But before anyone starts to dismiss the value of the entire social media tsunami, let’s consider some things that all of this information can provide that could help overcome some of the natural obstacles that exist in virtually all selling environments.

I would not be too quick to dismiss the “personal” elements of social media that on the surface may be thought of as nothing more than spam. Part of selling is to get to understand what makes a person tick, and part of what that is is what people say, and/or display, about themselves. Handled properly, it helps erode the natural barriers that exist in the beginning stages of a prospective relationship, and which should continue throughout the relationship as diamonds are surely found in the rough. The challenge, I know, will be to separate the wheat from the chaff. But who is capable of determining which is which?

I started my career with IBM in the mainframe era and had to successfully complete an MBA-like intensive 6-month Sales School course, which I did. Many valuable things were learned there that have kept me well in my career and also contributed to how I designed ACT!. IBM taught us a concept called “What’s On The Walls?”. This concept was directed to help us look for, understand, and use those bits of information superfluous to our reason for cold-calling, but which could speak volumes about the individual with whom we were attempting to make contact with. For example, while waiting in the lobby of the prospects office, there are magazines, pictures, etc. that most likely reflect the interests of the top executives, or at least the company in general. More specifically, when in the office of the prospect, the pictures, items, etc. that are scattered about reveal even more of the interests of the person. People like to talk about what interests them, and getting people to open up can be difficult so this technique proved immensely helpful. It “personalized” the very beginning of the effort to establish trust and simply “likeableness” as we were also taught that people do business with people they like.

Today’s social media, and these are still its’ early days, represents that “virtual lobby or executive office” displaying artifacts of those things of interest to the person that can be gleaned from. Although much of it is seemingly meaningless, it can describe a lot about a person and thus get them to open up. It can be a penetration point handed to you on a silver platter. Common interests are often revealed, further helping the buyer-seller relationship. Therefore, and although I have already encountered CRM “experts” who have been dismissive of what they consider to be the superfluous nature of tweeting, I would not be so quick to dismiss all tweets altogether from the appropriate and pertinent people that you as a CRM user may be following.

Fundamentally, I see more upside than downside on the impact of social media as it relates to both CRM usage and value for both the individual CRM users themselves and their company’s as well. Now is the time, more than ever, to engage the actual users themselves to not only hear what it is that they may find useful and want out of this new component of unsolicited information about their customers and prospects as it relates to improving penetration of access to their target’s heart, mind, and soul, but to also be very careful as to how the UI is designed taking into account complete seamless integration, navigation, search, and triggers that can alert the user to be even more proactive than ever before. To those who would argue that CRM needs more metrics, yet have been frustrated by salespeople’s lack of cooperation in this regard, they too may finally feel some relief and reward.

Now as to filtering all that info, inter-company collaboration, and creating an effective strategy to accomplish all of this to provide better “Useful Use” to the CRM end-users…..ah, that is for another discussion.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Streetwise Views. The entry is tagged under You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.