Featured Article - Implementing CRM: Who is Driving
the Ship?
By Doc Pratt
If you go on a trip to get from point A to point B, there are
certain things you need. You need to know where your starting and
ending points are and a map for getting to your destination. You also
need a vehicle or other mechanism to get there and someone to
interpret the map to make certain you go in the right direction.
This has a direct correlation to a business initiative such as a
CRM strategy or a Guerrilla Marketing Plan. You need to have a
fairly good idea where your starting point is and a very good idea of
where your destination is. Your map is your written strategy, your
marketing plan or strategic plan. It defines the steps that outline
your course of action to get to the destination. Your vehicle is
the technology and applications you will use to get you there. Your
vehicle is your Computer, PDA, Notebook, Blackberry, CRM and other
office applications that help you be more efficient. The person
to interpret the map and lead in the right direction is you, if you
are a one-man army. If you are more then one person, then the person
who leads could be someone else; and the larger your group, the easier
it is to overlook this task. In the Guerrilla Marketing series
of books, Jay Conrad Levinson writes about the need to have someone to
be the “Resident Guerrilla.” This person needs to understand
Guerrilla Marketing so they can oversee the Guerrilla Strategies of
the business and make sure that everything stays on track. This person
has the energy to make it happen and the time to follow-up on
everything.
There is no difference with CRM. You may have absolutely the best
strategic plan with a flawless customer service strategy; but with no
one driving it, it won’t go anywhere. If you are rolling out a new
CRM initiative, such as an e-mail campaign, then you need someone to
oversee it so that it doesn’t fall through the cracks. This
person needs to apply the first attribute of a Guerrilla Marketing:
they need to have Time, Energy, Imagination and Knowledge. They
need the time and energy to make sure the initiative happens,
imagination so they can be creative, and knowledge of the business,
customers and CRM in general. I have seen perfectly good CRM
strategies get bogged down since either no one was making sure they
were being carried out or the person assigned to the task was a
technical person with no clue about CRM.
So when it comes to CRM strategies and making sure they are carried
out, before you implement it, see who’s driving the ship.
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 Doc Pratt
Founder, Editor & Chief
Fortune 100 CRM Consultant
Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach
25 + year Software Developer
20 + years as President of Pratt Computing Technologies,
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
email: doc @ theCRMdoctor.com
*remove spaces beside the @
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