It's a CRM time!

Those great solutions already available since more than a decade has been extensively implemented in many countries (I have personally experienced that several years ago in England and have been seen that also in U.S. companies increasing during the last years) but have not had the expected entry into the Latin American market. Then many of us wonder why?

These solutions, which are part of everyday life in other countries, have failed in massive market penetration in our region for various reasons, which mainly are: 

1 .- Unknown: It's simple, if you ask (to any kind of manager) what is a CRM?, you'll get a high percentage of "I don't know" (It already makes you wonder). But it's really our responsibility, the I.T. people, to educate and train users and companies in such knowledge, and it's a daily task that starts in our knowledge of such tools.  Yes, it's our duty to know about those topics in order to talk about these solutions and their benefits. Indeed, the I.T. people who really knows about CRM are actually just a few. Moreover, I have encountered many times with companies that require a solution like this and they start to develop from scratch, because they don't know that there are already many solutions of this kind and more than one of them properly fits their business.

2 .- Unnecessary: In some cases we know about the concept, but still it's believed that this is not necessary in the company. If so, I will say just one thing: every company sells and the CRM has become today a fundamental tool in sales, which delivers many benefits to this process. In fact many times when I explain the CRM concept, I give it a kind of AFS (Automated Sales Force System) orientation to my explanation, because the fund has plenty of that. For example, if you want a better relationship with your customer, you'll want to be close to him, in order to know their needs and eventually translates this knowledge into a sale. 

Well, as I said, every company must sell, but in some company and in very special cases, the sales process is so particular that does not need a CRM, such as a company with just a couple of customers, serving a particular project and not looking forward for more projects because, at the end of the day, the same customer will call to give them another project ... ok, may be such company doesn't need a CRM, because in short "you don't prospect", then we can conclude that any company who "prospects" is a candidate to implement a CRM solution. 

Now, "a candidate for", is different to "they need it", certainly it's not the same. The real need is reflected in the everyday details, so in order to know if a company really needs a CRM, we must take a look in their daily needs, like if you want to know in which stage are your selling process (prospecting, qualification, analysis of perception, value proposition, negotiating, etc.). Knowing the customers who are highly likely to close this month or this quarter, and focus on closing them and so generate profits in the short and/or medium term, are indicators that make us conclude that we need such solutions. Moreover, just the need to don't be in a crisis if a vendor no longer works for you, is more than one reason to make necessary the adoption of these technologies. These types of activities and problems of everyday life, make from a CRM, an absolutely necessary tool for the company. 

3 .- Costs: Sometimes we don't have the problems raised above; we know what is a CRM and we are aware we need it, but the costs…  costs makes us doubt, eliminating any possibility of implementation of our head. At this point there is much to say, on one hand the ROI and on the other side is the fact that more than a decade of development of those solutions has made this kind of technology of a totally affordable cost. As for the ROI analysis, only one example should be enough, such as: How much will we could lose when a sales man leave us? taking with him contacts, opportunities, progress of business cycles and many other invaluable information in the sales process. And even more, how many time will take us to restore or generate this information again? Just this item justified in most cases the implementation of a solution of this type. Other reasons amply justify the ROI, such as shortening the sales cycle and thus optimize the sales process, allowing our sales people to have more opportunities finish the sales cycle, therefore we increase sales.

In short, it's time to clean the paradigms of knowledge, needs and costs. It is time for the companies to know about the benefits of these fascinating applications. It is time we leave the old practices and take advantage of the technological benefits available to us since more than a decade. It's a CRM time!

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