Power of 3 Consulting Blog

I’ve gotten lazy. And tired. Yes, I know from years of experience that training is likely the number one way for my clients to get the most return on investment (ROI) on their software implementation project costs. Yet it is the first thing that gets slashed from the budget, or dramatically cut, to save money. And I have been letting it happen.

Our goal with clients & projects, lately, has been to at least have *some* training survive the cash-crunch-budget-squeeze. And I have run out of ways to respond to the question, “Can’t we just have you train one person and then s/he will train the rest of us?” “Yeah, um, sure, I mean, not really. At least not in the same way…” The real answer to that question? “No. Your people are not CRM trainers. It’s not what they do for a living. It is our job and one we happen to be very good at, and, I promise you, it will be the best money you can spend with us.”

So I was sitting with my new favorite client, Nano-Tex, and the training topic came up. I suggested a half-day on-site with a two-hour online follow up session a couple of weeks later. They scowled. I braced myself for the fight over training. Imagine my surprise when they said, “That’s not enough time. Our people really need to get comfortable with this software, because we are going to expect them to really use it.”

What? Did they just ask me for MORE training? OMG! Yes, they did. Thanks to their insight and desire for the success of their CRM project, they asked for MORE training. We then had a highly productive and thoughtful conversation about the amount of training, what needed to be covered in each session, the length of sessions and location of training (on-site vs. on-line).

What we finalized was 2 half day, on-site training sessions, back-to-back over two days. They flew their sales reps into their corporate office, and at the end of day one, we gave them some homework assignments to complete before the training the next morning. Day two we reviewed the homework and explored more of their ACT! software functionality. Next we have 4 hours of on-line training with the end users scheduled, and 2 more hours of training just for the management team on running reports and queries so that they can start to use the information in their ACT! database to more effectively manage their business. Have I mentioned how much I like these people?

As I left their offices after the second day of on-site training, I felt great. I could really see the lights going off for their sales people on how to best use their new database. And I am looking forward to the on-line sessions we have scheduled, because I know that they are really using the database, so they’ll have lots of questions for me.

Since the training, we have traded several e-mails about the project, and from their side, they told me that they realized from a previous (failed) Salesforce.com implementation three important things:

1. You only get out of an application what you put into it.
2. Sales people typically reflect their management’s interest & commitment level to these initiatives.
3. The training was the key to overcoming an historical anti-CRM bias in their organization.

I just got an e-mail from Bob, their Sales SVP: “Stacy – everyone feels optimistic and excited about rolling out ACT!, you were terrific!” That e-mail made my day. Because that’s what we want to hear from every one of our clients – that their people are “optimistic and excited.” Really, it doesn’t get better than that for a CRM consultant.

So I have a renewed energy around training, thanks to Nano-Tex, and will be holding the line firm when folks try to cut training from the implementation budget. Or I will at least be more vocal about letting them know why that’s not the best plan.

I got an email from a friend who knows that I work with all the social media “stuff” asking for advice on a LinkedIn relationship. I have had similar conversations with several clients recently and thought that sharing our e-mail exchange might be helpful.

Here’s her question:

I have a contact through my alumni association….one of those young guys who amasses hundreds of contacts.  I’m always getting updates about his status and contacts.  Anyway, now there is another parent at school (another guy who is always getting new contacts and updating his status) who has asked me, if I’m comfortable, putting him in touch with my alumni contact…

Do I ask alumni guy if that’s ok before I forward the parent guy his contact info?  Do I guard my contact’s privacy (what’s the point, isn’t that why they’re on LinkedIn in the first place?) or do I get over it, and share my contacts and know that sooner or later good karma will come back to me?

I think I answered my own question by describing the situation, but I would love to hear your comments on how this gets done!  (God, I feel so old right now!)

Trish

Here is my response:

Trish – If you were in a conversation with the parent you know, and he mentioned that he was targeting Company ABC, would you say “Hey, I might have a contact for you there, let me check.” If yes, then make the connection. If no… it’s complicated.

I would reply to the parent and be totally transparent. “Hey, Parent Dude, I would love to help, but Alumni Guy & I aren’t all that close. I would be happy to send him a message with your contact info if you like.” If he says, “Yes please” then I would send Alumni Guy this message through LinkedIn “Alumni Guy, someone I know through my son’s school, Parent Dude, is interested in your company. He asked me to make an introduction, so here is his contact info. He is interested primarily in 2 things, blah and blah blah. Hope this is a helpful connection to the both of you. Love, Trish.” The key there is all you are promising is to get Parent Dude’s contact info to Alumni Guy – then the ball is in Alumni Guy’s court and if he wants to pursue the connection, he can. If not, then you have done all you can and Parent Dude is going to just have to try another avenue.

The whole point in LinkedIn is these exact kind of connections. My guiding principle on these things is that if I am fairly confident that neither party is a kook or incompetent, then I connect. If either of the desired connections is even slightly freakish or I suspect they might totally suck at their job, then I say something like “This is one of my many layers removed contacts, so I am afraid an introduction from me would be meaningless. Sorry.”

Hope that helps,

Stacy

What do you think? How do YOU handle requests for LinkedIn or other social media site introductions?

OK, coffee adventures, Part Deux. Back to Barefoot Coffee in San Jose Monday night with our band of coffee aficionados and foodies. This time to be schooled in latte art by Marie. So why am I, a CRM consultant, writing about coffee, again? I think it’s because these little field trips are shaking up my business brain, and being around these folks at Barefoot who are beyond passionate about coffee, is such a buzz. Get it? Buzz, coffee, caffeine, buzz??? I am so funny.

So latte art is pretty cool, and like a lot things in my life, I had been trying to teach it to myself by reading the internets and practicing at home. Guess what? I had it all WRONG! So when I put myself, for just a few  minutes,  in the very patient, knowledgeable and supremely capable hands of Marie, I made a heart! OK, maybe it looks diseased, but it’s a heart!  Really, if you squint at the pic and tilt your head to the left, there, don’t you see it?

My latte heART

Marie's latte heART...something to aspire to.

So where is the CRM tie-in, you might be wondering… me too. No, just kidding. Here it is – in the past 2 weeks I have talked to at least 5 prospects, and not one of them have ever received formal, custom training on their CRM application. Not one. No surprise, they are calling a consultant because they just aren’t getting what they had hoped for out of their CRM system. So they start by asking me about custom reports, custom database fields, custom integration with a back-end system, etc. And I can’t help but wonder, if they just set aside some time (and money) how much more they could be getting out of their current system, just the way it is, with some training.

The two biggest tips on getting the most ROI (return on investment) out of your CRM application are:

1. Have a road map going into the implementation, so that you have a clear picture of where you are going, what success will look like once you get there and what return you are expecting.
2. Invest in training. Not online, self-paced, generic training, but training with a professional who can customize the training session(s) to your road map. (See # 1)

I promise you, just a few hours with a qualified CRM trainer, like me, and I’ll have you making hearts out of your contact data. OK, not really, but I had to go for the latte art tie-in. Here’s what you will get – a much deeper knowledge of the very powerful tool you probably already own, and how to make that knowledge work for you and your business. Next week’s coffee adventure: cupping. No, really. Stay tuned.

This past Monday night I had a fantastic evening with four great friends. We are all coffee aficionados and confirmed foodies. One of us is actually in the coffee biz, but I would dare say that the enthusiasm of the rest of the group matched or exceeded hers.

We made a pilgrimage to Barefoot Coffee in San Jose, where they offer free coffee “workshops” Monday evenings. Jared was our barista expert and instructor for the evening and the class was how to pull a great shot of espresso. There were a lot of shots pulled, and thank goodness, it was all decaf. (Hey, it was 7 pm on a Monday night; no way I could drink that much full-test coffee and have ANY hope of sleeping.) Here’s the interesting thing – every shot tasted different. Same coffee, same grinder, same machine, same water – different tastes every time. Even two shots pulled by Jared tasted differently.

After the class...

So what does that have to do with ACT! or CRM? Why is Stacy writing about coffee? Well, I love coffee, and hanging out with the folks at Barefoot was so fun because these people are Passionate with a capital P about good coffee. I mean, really good coffee. And being around people who are passionate about what they do is just so cool.

But I got to thinking about why each shot tasted differently, even though many of the variables were the same. One big variable – people. Who was pulling the shot? Kyra muscled the tamping down seriously hard, Carol tried to get the coffee spread evenly in the filter (where is the coffee level please?), Joyce tried the knocking technique (don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it, lol), John stopped the shot short, pulling a ristretto (real thing, who knew?).

That got me thinking about our customers and how two different customers can take the same CRM product and have such different results. One customer can dive in, embrace the technology, merge it into their business process and then reap the rewards of the investment in time and money. While another customer might go through the same motions – requirements, customization, implementation, training – but they never really get the bang for the buck.   Their CRM tool is more of a hindrance than a help.

And as I thought about all those different shots on Monday night, it hit me. They all tasted different but none of them tasted really bad. Not even the over-pull that Jared showed us as an example. And here is where I think the difference lies – commitment. The five of us gave up personal time, on a Monday night no less, to drive 85 miles, round-trip, to spend an hour with Jared learning about pulling espresso shots. Remember, only one of us is in the coffee biz.

If you can truly make a commitment to embrace CRM for your business, and then follow through with the necessary steps to make CRM really work FOR your people, then it will. But don’t just buy some software, have your IT people install it and expect to get any appreciable ROI. Really getting the most from your investment means careful and thoughtful planning, allocating appropriate resources and then following through. Honestly, if you’re not really committed to a CRM solution, you are probably better off using your cobbled-together solution of Outlook/Excel for contact management. If you are ready and want some help with the process, we would love to chat with you. We are Passionate with a capital P about helping our customers really leverage CRM. I know, we are also Geeks with a capital G…

As for coffee, here is what I am now saving for -a Dalla Corte Mini Espresso Machine and a Baratza Vario Grinder. Because, although I still love my Superautomatic, the quality of the coffee is just average, at best. And I am defintely committed to getting the best coffee I can reasonably afford at home. It might take a while to get there, but I have a goal. Next Monday, Latte Art at Barefoot. Big fun!