Overcome Obstacles for Widespread Adoption

However the value of CRM applications are limited to its weakest link. Hobbled with the absence of pervasive use. What can we do to motivate widespread adoption. Avoid mistakes. And measure its value. 

CRM FAILURE -- something worth examining.

Like a traffic accident. And the curious rubber-necker stopping traffic to get a glimpse. Isn't it human to be drawn to the failures of others? We can identify with it. We can draw from lessons learned. And were more receptive to hearing the humility of personal experience versus the preaching of how-to's.

Understanding this behavior has its use for implementing change. Reverse psychology. Devil's advocate. The optimistic cynic. Whatever you call it - proactively addressing fears, uncertainties, risks, and reasons CRM fail communicates empathy and understanding at the very least with your user communities. You understand the challenges of their job. What's the old adage? Seek to understand before being understood.

In CRM, the accidents and horror stories are plentiful. And over the years, the speed at which one can make mistakes have accelerated. SaaS, Cloud Computing, and On-Demand CRM have accelerated the 'time-to-benefit' AND 'the-time-to-get-burned'.

I have witnessed three (3) sure-fire ways of failing to achieve CRM adoption. Enjoy the wreckage and hope this never happens to you.

Mistake #1: Ignore the Unique Culture of Sales 

"Automating sales is like Herding Cats"

A sales operations director of an enterprise software company once told me that their sales force did not understand process. Odd I thought that a sales organization successful at selling enterprise solutions could succeed despite lacking this important skill. After further discussion, it became clear. The director misunderstood choice with lack of knowledge. After all, we reward sales with being able to expertly circumnavigate process. Assess the shortest distance to cash. And prioritize activities that lead directly to revenue. Understand this and you'll have the keys to their hearts.

And how do we measure adoption for sales? Is it time spent in CRM or the number of logins? Don't we expect our salespeople to be visiting with customers instead of tooling around software? Or is it completing customer data profiles? Kind of an expensive data collector, don't you think?

Measuring sales adoption can be tricky. Most sales executives want less time in CRM and more time selling. A more meaningful adoption metric may be: forecasting accuracy, efficient use of resources or conversion of administrative time to selling time.

Mistake #2: Create resentment early in your CRM planning 

"If it came from anyone else other than me, it must be bad."

CRM often hatches in one department implemented with a self-centered design and exported the exported to others without ever obtaining their input. The gravity of a CRM strategy is centered on a 360 degree view of the customer-- bridging department silos of people and data. Failing to incorporate other stakeholders into the design is an excellent way to create resentment and perceptions that CRM was built for someone else. The trick lies in selecting delegates that will add value during the design effort, a topic for later discussion.

Mistake #3: Motivate your employees to input data outside of CRM 

"Pay your employees to use another system and they surely will."

A Director of IT once complained to me that the no-one in sales was using their CRM. The VP of Sales was pressuring IT to solve the problem of grossly inaccurate forecast reports. Despite attempts to mandate compliance, they still found that the transactions were not updated even after they received purchase order commitments.

In CRM (or any system), if you can't understand the outcome from data input - is it worth doing? In the above mentioned case, opportunities were only updated by sales to manipulate a forecast reports. While another system was used to fulfill sales orders and pay commission to its salesperson. Which one do you think the salesperson used? And surprising how often this happens. If decision making, recognition, or compensation is derived from every other system but your CRM, guess what? Your CRM has become irrelevant credenza-ware.

What can be learned from the above blunders? 

"Change your plan to plan for change."

Don't sweep it under the carpet. A CRM strategy usually represents significant change for an organization. With change, you can expect fear and apprehension towards the unknown. If users haven't said it. You can be sure they are thinking it. How CRM will replace them, micromanage, or add administrative burdens. Proactively addressing fears, uncertainties, risks, and reasons to not use CRM may pre-empt these objections. Make a Top 10 list. Don't take it too seriously. At the very least, you'll communicate empathy and understanding of these issues - perhaps with a little humor.

Find Out The Facts Before You Join

Coffee is more heavily sprayed with pesticides than almost any crop in agriculture. Some coffee farmers have even used harmful chemicals and pesticides in coffee trees and soil that have proven to be harmful to animals, plants, and humans. For the reasons stated above, it is safer for coffee drinkers to choose organically grown coffee. Through organic farming, consumers can assure themselves that the coffee was cultivated through environmentally safe processes and most importantly without the use of any harmful chemicals.

Organo Gold is a well known company that sells organic coffee. Their products and services are sold in 13 countries including Great Britain, United States, and Peru. The company is committed to improving the health of coffee drinkers through wellness and health product offerings that utilize the benefits of Ganoderma. Ganoderma is an ancient herb from China that is known to have the ability to enhance wellness. In addition to this, the company is also committed to improving the financial status of people by offering a cutting edge income and business opportunity.

The Organo Gold opportunity allows it's distributors to be treated as equal business partners with the company. The company estimates that it will have 1 million distributors by 2015 with an estimated revenue of more than 800 million dollars. An Organo Gold distributor is given the opportunity to buy coffee at wholesale price and generate profits through retail sales and referring new distributors into the Organo Gold opportunity. Becoming a distributor with this company only requires five simple steps which are selecting the chosen country, filling out a membership application form, and choosing the information that the distributor wants to put in the website provided by the company. The company pays up to 50% of commissions back to distributors through the Organo Gold compensation plan.

The Organo Gold opportunity offers one of the best compensation plans in network marketing. Each segment of it's compensation plan is designed to improve and encourage activity that will affect other segments of the plan. The company offers 7 ways to earn money. It offers benefits, and incentives that include retail profit, uni-level bonus, and global pool. The amount of money you can generate within the compensation plan is determined through individual rankings which include representatives, consultant, and black diamond.

One last thing you may want to research before you make a decision to join this company. There have been some complaints and allegations made about the Organo Gold opportunity. These complaints address trade practices, and health benefits of its coffee. Contrary to the claims of the company which state that their products are 100% made from organic ingredients. There are allegations that their products are actually made of alternative ingredients that may be harmful to consumers.

How Questions to Create A Successful Business?

Usually, I stroll the company floor, speak to my worker, direct the supervisors, and also surf the internet to discover "the ins and outs" on the changing customs and also evaluate new and old working policies. It takes a lot of diligence and plenty of time spent in conferences to get to the high caliber grade my business is at now. However, today's technique in company upkeep has been reinvented with the innovation services of online survey software and online survey. I fully take advantage of these new methods of target marketing because it assists on knowing what my consumers want and that's done by basic questions and answers. However asking the right question is key to increase the possibility of respondents giving vital feedback. So below are some factors to consider when developing your questions:

Avoid leading words

Just little phrases can change the question and result in a total different kind of feedback. Could, Should, Might, all sound almost the same, but have different meaning to the respondent.

Keep order in questions

Make sure you questions have a planned structure. Try to start with easy questions first to warm up the responder.

Be specific

How do you feel about cooking? The problem here is there is no detail. How about the baking, frying, boiling, etc?

Avoid confusing words

If the respondent doesn't understand the word in your then 99% of the time, they would answer incorrectly.

Be direct with your questions

Your answer will be very broad in regards to responses if you lack being direct and straightforward.

Don't force answers

Respondents don't want to be forced to answer questions. When using these online survey software and online survey, try making these sessions confidential for sincere answers.

Keep it simple

Longer questions would exhaust respondents. It is important to keep questions easy yet engaging to attract the answering capacities of individuals.

So now that you know what it takes to create effective questions for your online survey software and online survey, take the initiative in conducting it. Once you've have collected your relevant information, use them to develop a marketing strategy in customer or workplace satisfaction, which ties into a healthy business. Once you've have followed through with the solving and making the proper changes within the company, then you will definitely see the progress and prosperity in becoming a successful business, like mine.

Five Tips for a Start-Up Marketing Plan

Investors aren't impressed by concepts such as viral marketing or premier branding. What they want to see his how they are going to get a return on their investment. Because of this they are some points you need to include in your start up marketing plan. Here are five suggestions to include and get the investors' money out of their pockets and into your business.

A professional website and blog is a necessity for any business. It is one part of your start up marketing plan you can't live without. The internet is the great leveler. Small businesses can compete with the big dogs with a professional website that is stylish and functional. Functionality is important so that visitors can find what they need and navigate your website easily. You can use Adobe Dreamweaver, or other low cost tools to create a website. You can also hire a website designer. A budget of $10,000 is a good place to start. A blog creates community and makes you an expert in your field. You can write it, or hire a professional writer. There are also plenty of free or low cost platforms on the web you can use.

Take advantage of social media. Social media gives you exposure for your business and is another way to set yourself up as an expert in your field. Content that engages your readers and helps to spread the word about your business is an important part of your start up marketing plan. Also use webinars, whitepapers, blogs, and press releases. Another way to create a buzz about your business is to convince radio, television, and newspaper reporters to cover your business as part of a local story.

Get your customer's attention. In your start up marketing plan you need to have ways to get your customer's attention by offering them something unique. Free give-aways, promotions, discounts, and coupons are all great ideas. This step will require you to put some thought into your business and start up marketing plan to identify what sets you apart from your competitors and who your target market is.

How will you generate leads? Include how you plan on generating leads in your start up marketing plan. This can include mining leads from your website, contacts, trade show connections, and lead generation services. This doesn't have to be an expensive part of your start up marketing plan, but it does need to be creative.

Make connections with partners and referrals. Happy customers spread the word, and if you can include marketing opportunities in your start up marketing plan. Be sure your partners and referrals aren't direct competitors.

A well thought out start up marketing plan is one of the things that separate a successful new business from a failure. Marketing is crucial to startups and established businesses. If you can show investors you have put thought into how to spread the word about your business, they will be more likely to help fund your start up business.