The 9 Dirty Little Secrets of CRM

successful is a highly political act. Any time business processes, policies, and rules get changed, somebody's job, objectives, and even budget may change as well. This means politics at every level, and change management will be important for worker-bees ("will my job be automated?") and executives ("will my metrics and bonus change?") alike. If for no other reason than this, we recommend a phased, incremental approach to CRM deployment and expansion.

8. The benefits of CRM grow with the more users you have -- but you can never afford to bring everyone on the system at once. Even if system extension, integration, and data quality issues weren't relevant, even if you had perfect execution of a "big bang" system deployment, and even if you had the budget for all the user licenses on day one, you shouldn't do things that way. There are too many process issues to discover, too many political speed-bumps. Since leveraging CRM is a multi-year process, you need to plan for it that way.

9. Ironically, the design life of a CRM system is probably 5 years. Unlike most enterprise applications, CRM systems face the marketplace. And the rules of the marketplace can change severely in five years. Who are your competitors? What is your channel? How do you offer customers a distinct advantage? Look back to 2004, or to 1999. How many of the answers are even close to the same as they are today?

There's another twist: CRM systems are more affected by VP opinions and preferences than any other enterprise application. The half-life of a VP of Sales or Marketing in some industries is 18 months. With every new VP, you'll see changes in priority and policy that can require extensive CRM system modifications. Look at a 5-year-old CRM system, and you'll find shards of policy that negatively effect data quality and meaning. Eventually, these start to limit the effectiveness of the CRM system and need to be rooted out -- either by a system overhaul or outright replacement.

David Taber is the author of the new Prentice Hall book, " Salesforce.com Secrets of Success" and is the CEO of SalesLogistix, a certified Salesforce.com consultancy focused on business process improvement through use of CRM systems. SalesLogistix clients are in North America, Europe, Israel, and India, and David has over 25 years experience in high tech, including 10 years at the VP level or above.

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