December 28, 2016 at 16:09About CRM shortly. Heading “I can’t be silent”
In a previous post, we said goodbye to readers until the new year, but no matter how! One of the employees found on the Internet an interesting question posed to forum users for salespeople. And he, or rather, her, was born indignation post. It seems to us that emotions are clearly not in vain, since the girl has been walking hand in hand for the eighth year (head about code?) With various types of corporate software and knows what she is talking about. In general, we give her a New Year’s microphone.
Hello, Habr! Thank you, RegionSoft, for letting me dig at least once to the blog. I will try briefly and on business. The essence of the comment was this: I will
analyze this statement in parts.
Any automation is good not so much for the manager as for the business as a whole. Because a properly organized project to implement CRM, ERP, PM or just electronic document management is a foundation for the growth of team productivity. The business of the leader (and line managers) is as follows: to regulate business processes before implementation and motivate employees to use software that is installed in the company. This is a serious preparatory stage, where you need to disassemble the entire company management system in detail, highlight problem areas, get rid of unnecessary processes (For example, in the early 2010s, when examining one mobile operator, it was revealed that the logistics department was engaged in repackaging SIM cards manually. This the process was automated on the supplier side by signing an agreement with him.
After the CRM-system is implemented, the leader must remember that he is not a celestial, but a member of the team, which means that he must not only collect reports, but also actively participate in automated work: include himself in the chain of business processes, manage tasks , set reminders and even replenish the knowledge base. In this case, employees will be able to evaluate the chief’s expertise, to feel that CRM is not set for check and for control, but for coordinated teamwork.
I repeat, CRM is not a control tool, not a manager’s fetish, and not a place to drain the corporate budget. It is a tool like MS Office, Internet browser or phone. And it should be used by the whole team with the greatest effect - then such software pays off in a very short time.
Take the RegionSoft team example . All of us, from secretaries and sales people to programmers and CEOs, are ordinary users of RegionSoft CRM. None of us have a magic button “Make a dash” and “Demonstrate how cool I work.” Each begins his day precisely with the launch of the system (some do not turn it off in principle and climb into it even from a mobile phone via the remote desktop), because:
This is a very general to-do list, since each employee still has a lot of his tasks that the system solves: these are the needs of salespeople for documentation, integration with 1C, technical support with recording incidents, and so on. CRM systems are good in that they are universal, you do not need to produce several types of software on your PC, all the important information is at hand.
It works conveniently and quickly - this is the main thing. Personally, I changed several CRMs, including the legendary Siebel, epic SAP, Bitrix24 corporate portal. These are very, VERY, different solutions, but the scheme is always the same: get used to the interface ——> understand the settings ——> master the rules for data unification ——> work calmly. Of course, systems differ in a set of features, but it depends on the profile of the company and the tasks of a particular manager.
Ruchechki, material, flat, dashboards do not solve anything at all, only functionality, only the reliability of data storage. And yes, I almost forgot, speed is very important - if CRM thinks for a long time, this is a tool with poor architecture. The interface should be not so much beautiful as responsive and efficient.
Real examples are real stories of implementation, with terms, observations, reviews. Any vendor has hundreds of them, there are successful ones, there are protracted ones. At the first request, they will tell you about implementations in companies close to your industry. But believe me, no implementation history will be repeated in your business - because it is unique, with its own specifics. It can be said whether users liked the interface or not, they mastered the designer of business processes or got confused, but they won’t be able to scratch everyone under one comb.
I can’t speak for advertisers; we don’t have one in our company. Developers, sales people, implementers are closer. Again, I’ll voice my position: a sober-minded employee of the vendor will never start talking about “an intuitive, pleasant interface, open design, personal settings”. So you can’t sell software. Software can only be sold when you “walked” it from the bottom and you can perfectly compare the client’s problems with what your software can solve.
The vendors' employees, as already mentioned above, concurrently with ordinary CRM users, have formed excellent expertise just from the user's point of view. And they can be trusted. It's stupid to say that software can solve problems that it cannot actually solve. For example, RegionSoft CRMdoes not work with social networks - simply because demand is inflated by some market players, but in fact it is practically nonexistent. Of course, if a start-up calls us and asks if he will be able to receive orders for the delivery of his innovative nano-smoothies directly from VKontakte, we will answer “no” and offer a revision. To say “yes” and hope that the client changes his mind to use this feature is very strange, although this approach is sometimes found among business consultants.
We, employees, as well as the vendor as a whole, are interested in our software working and helping the client solve problems for which automation was started. If this does not happen, this is also our flaw.
In general, write, call, contact the vendor, watch his presentations and ask tricky questions - then it will not be rumors from “ordinary people”, but professional information. Without it, it is not possible to start successfully with new software.
Taking this opportunity, I congratulate my colleagues and all my beloved and read by me many years Habr Happy New Year! The right questions, competent answers, and cool results to everyone.
Ufff, I'll go put a link to this answer on the forum - let the questioner be happy.
And if you need a CRM system , then we still have a discount - however, it is already only 5%.
Thesis 1. "This is good for the leader."
Any automation is good not so much for the manager as for the business as a whole. Because a properly organized project to implement CRM, ERP, PM or just electronic document management is a foundation for the growth of team productivity. The business of the leader (and line managers) is as follows: to regulate business processes before implementation and motivate employees to use software that is installed in the company. This is a serious preparatory stage, where you need to disassemble the entire company management system in detail, highlight problem areas, get rid of unnecessary processes (For example, in the early 2010s, when examining one mobile operator, it was revealed that the logistics department was engaged in repackaging SIM cards manually. This the process was automated on the supplier side by signing an agreement with him.
After the CRM-system is implemented, the leader must remember that he is not a celestial, but a member of the team, which means that he must not only collect reports, but also actively participate in automated work: include himself in the chain of business processes, manage tasks , set reminders and even replenish the knowledge base. In this case, employees will be able to evaluate the chief’s expertise, to feel that CRM is not set for check and for control, but for coordinated teamwork.
I repeat, CRM is not a control tool, not a manager’s fetish, and not a place to drain the corporate budget. It is a tool like MS Office, Internet browser or phone. And it should be used by the whole team with the greatest effect - then such software pays off in a very short time.
Thesis 2. "How does it work in CRM?"
Take the RegionSoft team example . All of us, from secretaries and sales people to programmers and CEOs, are ordinary users of RegionSoft CRM. None of us have a magic button “Make a dash” and “Demonstrate how cool I work.” Each begins his day precisely with the launch of the system (some do not turn it off in principle and climb into it even from a mobile phone via the remote desktop), because:
- in CRM we plan our work (sometimes personal) affairs, we get reminders from her about them, as well as about meetings, calls and other events;
- in CRM, we call via SIPphone and Skype to see the subscriber’s profile and save the call record (in order to remember what we talked about there for two hours with the client - a great alternative to frantically write the whole conversation on paper);
- we are planning meetings in it;
- in CRM we see all of our KPIs, in time we resolve what we did not have, and we receive well-deserved bonuses;
- we also have mail in CRM - it’s very convenient to see correspondence for each client;
- in customer cards - our alpha and omega: all neatly collected contacts, details and documents;
- finally, we work and thereby become the best beta testers of our own RegionSoft CRM.
This is a very general to-do list, since each employee still has a lot of his tasks that the system solves: these are the needs of salespeople for documentation, integration with 1C, technical support with recording incidents, and so on. CRM systems are good in that they are universal, you do not need to produce several types of software on your PC, all the important information is at hand.
It works conveniently and quickly - this is the main thing. Personally, I changed several CRMs, including the legendary Siebel, epic SAP, Bitrix24 corporate portal. These are very, VERY, different solutions, but the scheme is always the same: get used to the interface ——> understand the settings ——> master the rules for data unification ——> work calmly. Of course, systems differ in a set of features, but it depends on the profile of the company and the tasks of a particular manager.
Ruchechki, material, flat, dashboards do not solve anything at all, only functionality, only the reliability of data storage. And yes, I almost forgot, speed is very important - if CRM thinks for a long time, this is a tool with poor architecture. The interface should be not so much beautiful as responsive and efficient.
Thesis 3. "We need specifics, real examples, not general words."
Real examples are real stories of implementation, with terms, observations, reviews. Any vendor has hundreds of them, there are successful ones, there are protracted ones. At the first request, they will tell you about implementations in companies close to your industry. But believe me, no implementation history will be repeated in your business - because it is unique, with its own specifics. It can be said whether users liked the interface or not, they mastered the designer of business processes or got confused, but they won’t be able to scratch everyone under one comb.
Thesis 4. "The opinion of ordinary people, not developers or advertisers, is interesting."
I can’t speak for advertisers; we don’t have one in our company. Developers, sales people, implementers are closer. Again, I’ll voice my position: a sober-minded employee of the vendor will never start talking about “an intuitive, pleasant interface, open design, personal settings”. So you can’t sell software. Software can only be sold when you “walked” it from the bottom and you can perfectly compare the client’s problems with what your software can solve.
The vendors' employees, as already mentioned above, concurrently with ordinary CRM users, have formed excellent expertise just from the user's point of view. And they can be trusted. It's stupid to say that software can solve problems that it cannot actually solve. For example, RegionSoft CRMdoes not work with social networks - simply because demand is inflated by some market players, but in fact it is practically nonexistent. Of course, if a start-up calls us and asks if he will be able to receive orders for the delivery of his innovative nano-smoothies directly from VKontakte, we will answer “no” and offer a revision. To say “yes” and hope that the client changes his mind to use this feature is very strange, although this approach is sometimes found among business consultants.
We, employees, as well as the vendor as a whole, are interested in our software working and helping the client solve problems for which automation was started. If this does not happen, this is also our flaw.
In general, write, call, contact the vendor, watch his presentations and ask tricky questions - then it will not be rumors from “ordinary people”, but professional information. Without it, it is not possible to start successfully with new software.
Taking this opportunity, I congratulate my colleagues and all my beloved and read by me many years Habr Happy New Year! The right questions, competent answers, and cool results to everyone.
Ufff, I'll go put a link to this answer on the forum - let the questioner be happy.
And if you need a CRM system , then we still have a discount - however, it is already only 5%.