I recently witnessed a colleague saying, during a meeting with a prospective customer, “Of course CRM has been dead for many years – workflow is what it’s all about today.” I was a little taken aback, especially when the strapline in my company logo reads, “The CRM experts.” So was my colleague right? Is this a valid assumption? Has the market actually moved on to that extent? These questions require some careful thought and I present my conclusions here for you to consider.
Spoiler: No – it’s not dead. But wow! it’s really changed shape. Read my top 5 tips below:
Sell, sell, sell
I will start my discussion with a little bit of history. A rummage back through many years in CRM.
Back in the mid-1990s you had to buy separate systems if you wanted to apply technology to the areas that CRM covers today. My colleagues and I had “Sell, sell, sell” as a mantra – because early CRM systems were all about sales processes. Leads, opportunities, pipeline, forecasts. And metrics like call rates, conversion rates.
Many sales professionals accused this technology of being Big Brother – something for management to use as a stick to beat the unworthy – and saw no personal benefits in its use whatsoever. But not for ever.
Data, data, data
Gradually things improved. Implementers got smarter at designing mini-workflows into sales automation. Trigger a note page from a dial-out, time stamp it, and save with just one click. Show a dialogue box to remind the user to plan the next call, the next action, a To-Do for a colleague.
CRM started showing signs of being able to answer the question “What’s in it for me?” from the sales perspective. It was starting to make life easier by offering less paperwork. And the mantra morphed into “data, data, data.” “Give me the data to make my job easier!”
Process, process, process
Fast forward to today – to the point where CRM can automate marketing activity, capture web visits, share campaign responses with sales, auto-score leads, build actions to qualify opportunities, raise quotations and invoices, allow customers to log their own support tickets, and provide insights through dashboards at every point. What a difference. So today the mantra is “process, process, process.” And that’s where CRM is today.
My email signature has changed to “CRM & Workflow Experts.” CRM is not dead, it has changed by acquiring no-code, drag-and-drop workflow tools that make life less dreary and reduce your chance of error.
Now there are a few lessons to learn about this morph from “data” to “process.” Data has a binary aspect, based on its very nature. Things are either true or false. You specify your data points and off you go. Design sorted. But working with workflow processes has a different dynamic. You are trying to take the drudgery out of life for your staff. Moreover, you are trying to make it easier for people to do business with you. As you enter the world of beneficial process automation – workflow-based CRM – here are a few guidelines to help you along the way.
5 top tips for workflow success:
- Design and deliver processes that delight customers and achieve measurable outcomes.
Articulate your plans as ‘stories’ for feedback and learning. Keep improving -it’s non-stop.
- Increase quality and reduce toil through automation.
Automate all the tiresome things. Make working a happier experience.
- Don’t over-engineer.
Don’t over-plan and don’t over-anticipate. Just do enough to deliver a meaningful outcome.
- Autonomous teams are more productive.
Deliver the tools and trust people. Give them as much autonomy as possible and as much control as necessary.
- The ‘why’ is more important than the recipe book.
Let your culture drive your practices and adjust to new situation.
Published methodologies exist for ‘design thinking’ – but there’s no need to get formal as you introduce ever more no-code workflow into your CRM world. Just think about the top 5 tips and engage your team in the process of making things a little easier.
CRM is not dead – it’s just changed shape in a good way. Long live CRM and workflow.
Want to find out more about CRM and Workflows? Get in touch with us today.
