First ask yourself the question - what's the goal of my company? Is it to make a profit? Yes, I'm sure that's one of your goals. But is it the true purpose of your company? Is this what your vision or mission statement says? Could the real purpose of your company be to delight your customers? (For reps - this includes both your Principals and their customers.) If that's the case, what is the real gain from a CRM system?
Return on investment (ROI), in very simple terms, can be said to be a measure of cost to gain. So what's the path to a positive ROI on CRM systems? It's reducing your costs by increasing your efficiencies, increasing your profitability by improving your productivity, both of which lead to enhancing your customers' satisfaction.
So how do you determine the costs or the gains in implementing a CRM system? There are hard and soft costs as well as hard and soft gains. I suggest that while the hard costs and gains are the easiest to calculate, it's the soft costs or gains that make the difference in evaluating the returns on the implementation of a CRM system.
Return on investment (ROI), in very simple terms, can be said to be a measure of cost to gain. So what's the path to a positive ROI on CRM systems? It's reducing your costs by increasing your efficiencies, increasing your profitability by improving your productivity, both of which lead to enhancing your customers' satisfaction.
So how do you determine the costs or the gains in implementing a CRM system? There are hard and soft costs as well as hard and soft gains. I suggest that while the hard costs and gains are the easiest to calculate, it's the soft costs or gains that make the difference in evaluating the returns on the implementation of a CRM system.
The hard costs and gains are the easiest to measure.
| Costs:
The soft costs and gains are more difficult to quantify. | Gains:
|
| Costs: 1. time to set up the system
| Gains: 1. increased efficiency
|
Obviously the soft costs of implementing a CRM system are all about time. It's the time it takes for your people to set up, adopt and learn the new system, learn new business processes, and even new skill sets. Once the time is spent to set up and learn the CRM system, all of the soft gains will come into play - improved efficiencies, increased productivity, and enhanced customer satisfaction.
As you can see the real ROI on CRM is found in the soft gains, the intangibles that will help your company achieve it's main purpose - delighting your customers.
As you can see the real ROI on CRM is found in the soft gains, the intangibles that will help your company achieve it's main purpose - delighting your customers.