april 2016

The selection criteria, the range of solutions made possible by technology and know-how, discourage even the most motivated. And yet, if you have the right guide, you can find your way through this jungle.

Choosing a CRM solution means first and foremost addressing three key issues:

- Firstly, to meet business challenges, i.e. to support the roll-out of sales policy, improve customer knowledge, develop new processes to support customer relations, effectively integrate customer data, etc.

- Then integrate historical data and anticipate future developments, i.e. be sustainable and compatible with the existing information system,

- Finally, respect the budget and schedule, in other words, stay consistent with your real needs.

So how can you meet this challenge and choose the best solution while respecting your constraints?

Best practice suggests organizing a call for tenders on the basis of a complete set of specifications. However, this is already an investment in time (and therefore money), which will mobilize resources for drafting, distributing, evaluating and selecting candidates. This is not always compatible with cost and deadline constraints.

What's more, the number of solutions available on the market makes things even more complex (220 solutions listed in 2013). Between generalist solutions that are more or less open, innovative challengers, cutting-edge specialists, or even safe bet solutions that aren't necessarily finely tuned to your specific needs, you may be forced to make a very broad call for tenders, or make choices that limit the relevance of the responses.

In our opinion,there are solutions that meet your specific needs (functional and technical), your context (knowledge of the business, size of the company) and with which you'll want to move forward.

The best solution on the market in terms ofexisting comparative analysesis not necessarily the most effective for you. The best solution doesn't exist in absolute terms: it's relative to your own situation.

That's why we've built the Quick Choice © CRM approach, based on a benchmark of the 20 most relevant CRM solutions on the market , and a database updated every year. It meets two objectives:

- Formalize a CRM requirements expression based on our 300-item functional map,

- Automatically filter your best short list from all existing solutions.

Over a period of 2 to 5 days, and based on workshops with business teams, we gather your expectations and needs (from the most common to the most specific), using our exclusive "CRM Functional Map" tool, reviewing over 300 functional items.
These workshops are also opportunities for discussion, during which we show you the possibilities offered by CRM solutions, challenge your needs, and help to develop your vision of CRM usage.
To identify the most suitable CRM solutions, we use our knowledge base, which is updated every year and includes more than 20 tools. So, by comparing our ratings with the levels of expectation expressed in the workshops, you can be sure of having a shortlist of relevant solutions.
The final choice is always made on the basis of suitability for the project team, budget and ergonomics, which results in more than convincing feedback: 100% of our short-list candidates propose a suitable solution!

To find out more about CRM and to help you with your projects, find all our methods and tools here :

It's an indispensable and solid foundation on which to build your action. The hardest part, however, remains to be done: ensuring that this strategy is deployed as effectively as possible in the field, so that it bears fruit and achieves your results objectives. There are 3 major levers available to you in this area: the commitment of your teams, the translation of your strategy into operational action plans, and the implementation of effective management. What are they?

Guarantee a high level of commitment from your teams

Engaging means getting your teams to decide to take concrete, effective and measurable operational action. The level of commitment of your management and sales teams depends on a number of non-exclusive factors. How can you positively influence this commitment?

First of all, by sharing the defined strategy : present this strategy to your teams, clearly explaining the why, the what and the areas of work defined to involve them in its implementation.

But commitment also meanslistening to your teams about their motivations and obstacles, in order to deal with the latter, and involving them closely in the development of the actions to be taken.

Finally, don't lose sight of the fact that you also need to "make people want to do it", beyond the constraints, by proposing an exciting ambition ! Annual seminars, in particular, are key moments for effectively engaging sales teams (we have devoted an article to best practices for successful seminars and team engagement).

Translate sales strategy into operational action plans

Sales action plans are your staff's "roadmap": they determine the year's major highlights (sales seasonality, trade shows, contract renewals, etc.) and the precise planning of actions, resources and tools to be implemented on a weekly, or at least monthly, basis.

They are the operational relay for the sales strategy defined upstream: number of opportunities to be identified, frequency of visits by customer or prospect segment, type of visit to be carried out (discovery of needs, identification of decision-makers, closing, etc.).

They ensure that the level of effort, coverage and sales pressure expected of their portfolio is translated into concrete action in the field.

To guarantee the implementation and scope of these action plans, however, one final point is crucial: their management.

Deploying effective sales management

What are the components of sales management to ensure effective deployment of your strategy and implementation of action plans?

- Action monitoring and support for sales staff: segmentation of accounts in the CRM, action planning, creation of reports and monitoring of coverage and sales pressure dashboards, combined with regular one-to-one interviews and co-construction of progress plans to improve results.
- Analysis of results: monitoring and management of KPIs. For example, during sales pipeline reviews, monitoring and analysis of volume, value and time spent on opportunities to optimize allocation of sales effort.
- Coaching and regular training of sales staff: developing sales performance by acting on skills and competencies. Field accompaniment and coaching sessions, in particular, deliver convincing results. (See our article on field coaching).

It is necessary to act on all these levers to ensure effective deployment of the sales strategy you have defined, and to secure the achievement of your objectives. In some cases, however, it can be complex for Sales Managers to act on all these factors in a coordinated way, for example in a context of strong market pressure. That's why we offer support programs that enable you to act successively or globally on each of these levers, with a view to accelerating the implementation of actions and optimizing their results.

Adopt a tool adapted to your business and your expectations: choose a CRM... To better understand the usefulness of CRM and choose the right tool, watch this webinar: