Power of 3 Consulting Blog

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!