There are a lot of moving pieces to any CRM implementation. At this point, you should already have decided upon the CRM you’re looking to implement and are working towards developing the plan. A successful implementation hinges upon your comprehensive and carefully laid out plan where you’ve taken every critical piece of it into consideration.
A proper plan ensures the process is smoother, costs less, less stressful, and leaves you with systems you are happy with. A lacking plan ensures the opposite. Doing things the right way often feels like it “costs more”, but as time marches on, you realize the inverse is, in fact, true. Taking care in the early stages pays dividends in the latter portion of the process. We can be there with you from the beginning to help walk you through the process but, regardless, let’s start this off on the right foot!
Step-by-Step CRM Planning Summarized
- Steps to Create a Successful CRM Strategy:
- Auditing the Business: Evaluate current workflows and strategies to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- Defining Goals: Determine what the company wants to achieve, such as organizing and streamlining sales, automating processes, or improving close rates.
- Identifying Target Customers: Understand who the target customers are and their journey stages. This includes your actual customers as well as the people who will be using this system.
- Organizational Objectives: The CRM should work to support and fully align with any overarching corporate initiatives.
- CRM Strategy Components:
- Scenario Analysis: Assess different scenarios to plan effectively.
- Purpose and Planning: Define the purpose and plan the CRM strategy.
- Process Design: Design processes that align with the CRM strategy.
- Creating a CRM Culture: Foster a culture that supports CRM initiatives.
- Objectives and Complexities:
- Objectives: Improve customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty. Revenue growth is an organic byproduct of these improving.
- Complexities: Address challenges like product complexity, organizational complexity, lack of integration capabilities, and user adoption issues.
- CRM software helps manage client relationships by storing and organizing customer data, automating sales and marketing outreach, and generating performance reports.
- The article emphasizes that a successful CRM strategy requires careful planning and alignment with business goals to build stronger customer relationships and drive growth.
5-Step CRM Planning Strategy
Step 1
Exploration | Recognize the Need
“By changing nothing, nothing changes.” – Tony Robbins
We’re not here to bash any of your systems and processes that are in place. Heck, you, and probably folks on your team, have already done that to some extent but y’know what — we all start somewhere.
In this initial phase, you’re simply not happy. Things aren’t what you feel they should be. We are very familiar with the cocktail of mixed emotions at this stage all too well. You’ve likely recognized some inefficiencies in your operation. Probably duplicate efforts, information silos, inconsistent sales cycles or processes, spotty/inaccurate data, or maybe some excessive amounts of hardcopy paperwork floatin’ around. Perhaps communication is tough or your systems are just dated and don’t interact in a meaningful way, if at all. It might’ve been manageable at one point, but it’s quickly growing or has already become unsustainable. Yikes! Sounds oppressive right?!
Regardless of your situation, you’re presented with essentially two options: to recognize there’s room to improve, or not. But something has to change and you’ve likely accepted that. Welcome, and congratulations. The fact you’ve even gotten to this step is amazing because it’s a tough thing to recognize, let alone accept. Pride and ego and all that nonsense. It’s now time to commit to creating a monster plan that lays out what’s about to happen.
Step 1.5
Outline the Objective
“It is possible to answer every question about an implementation before you even start.” – John Boarman
This stage is critical. It establishes alignment and clarity. It can be super easy to say “we’re going to get a new CRM” or something like that and that’s considered the objective. It’s another thing, entirely, to be more specific & purposeful in the stated objective. Some may be able to think through this super quickly, but for others, it may take some moments of introspection. Even if you’re the latter, take some time to think through it before voicing it. This doesn’t have to be some inspirational hurrah statement. It’s mostly about taking emotion out of things. No blame. No nonsense. Just the facts. It just is, so let’s fix it.
Time to lay out a clear and concise objective: “Our operation is showing signs of stagnation — likely due to things like our aging on-premesis systems, unreliable data, metrics, and reporting, misaligned departments, non-integrated systems, muddy insight into current sales pipelines, and consistently inconsistent customer experiences. It takes an enormous amount of time to manually process quotes, orders, invoices, and fulfillment which takes away from our ability to provide proactive and value-add activities that can help improve our customers’ satisfaction and retention while presenting opportunities to grow the business proactively, and exponentially.”
Aside from being a big, fat pill that’s difficult to stomach, this is simply an example of a very specific objective that lays everything out in the open and avoids blaming or personal jabs– both of which are unhelpful and irrelevant. It’s about looking forward, not back. Envisioning what can be. You’ve effectively and clearly laid out the problem areas that require focused attention to solve while also providing some operational changes you’d like to see happen. This statement can vary, of course, because there are infinite reasons you’re looking to pursue a new CRM system. Could be as simple as you’re switching from Gsuite to Microsoft 365 or vice versa. Doesn’t really matter what the reason is at this point, the fact is you know change is needed. Now you’ve committed by laying out exactly what the focused objective is of said change — the MISSION, if you will.
An added benefit, aside from aligning everyone involved, is you’ve also answered most every question that could come up throughout this implementation. Someone thinks of a shiny thing to pursue? Does it align with the stated objective? No? Then, no. Kinda? Let’s discuss. Yes? Let’s confirm and consider.
A successful implementation of your Sales CRM hinges upon a successfully laid out plan.
Step 2
Planning | Analyzing & Understanding Your Operation
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle
It’s tough to really know where to “steer the ship” if you’re unsure where you are in the now. We’d all love to think that everything runs in reality how it does in our head. And you might have 100%, total, and complete insight into every aspect of how your business operates but, more likely, there are some gaps in the nitty-gritty details in your mind. Now, mind you, this has zero to do with your own abilities or talent and has everything to do with the scope in which your team operates. There’s a point in which it’s impractical to be involved in every detail. No one can be expected to know everything, about everything. With that said, this is a perfect opportunity to really explore exactly how your team operates and how viable your current systems are (and whether or not they can be integrated with other systems). Taking time to do this, by itself, is really a great exercise in and of itself, system implementation or not.
You’re going to go pretty deep into the details here. Throughout this step, you will discover how efficient (or inefficient) your processes, tools, systems, and people are in this moment. Again, to reiterate, this is not a moment to pass blame. It doesn’t matter who or why. Recognize, analyze, discuss, and document. This is most directly relevent to every aspect of the business that will interact with the CRM you are pushing to introduce. In this case, more than likely, you’re looking to create an environment for your inside & outside sales teams and, likely, at least one or more of your customer service team members. This means going through the entire sales process — starting at the moment a cold call is made to the moment a second order is placed. As you can imagine, a lot happens between those two pieces of the process. That’s what we mean by “going pretty deep” here.
The reason for going as deep into the weeds as we are here is to make certain your teams’s processes and procedures are appropriate and what you want them to be. Skipping this deep dive means you’ll simply mirror bad habits, digitally, that may have formed over the years without your knowledge. We’re going to digitize your processes and automate the parts of it that can be so taking the time to analyze, understand, and rewrite your processes, where appropriate, has a multitude of long-lasting benefits that can have a major impact on your personnel and your operation. Increased clarity, transparency, accountability, efficiency, communication, freedom, and, ultimately, revenues.
As you’re working through your processes, be sure to document what they are to be moving forward. Even if they’re not changing, it’s a huge competetive advantage when you explore creating CoPilot AI Agents for your teams — but that’s a discussion we can have at a later time. For now, we’re simply creating the framework for your business. If you’ve already done this sort of thing, just as part of running your business — you’re way ahead of most and that’s going to benefit you big time.
Step 2.5
Establishing Key Stakeholders & Responsibilities
“You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn
Here’s where we get the right people in the room and nail down responsibilities. Here are the key roles that are typical in any CRM implementation:
- Implementation Partner
- This is a critical piece! Ideally, we’re your partner of choice, but we get it. Sometimes things do and don’t make sense. It’s cool either way but, regardless, be sure to vet this partner out because they’re going to be a close friend for a while and the backbone of getting this thing across the finish line in the condition you expect. I only stress this because I’ve been exposed to third party sales nonsense that promised the world and said anything to close the deal — only to discover later that the software wasn’t even close to being a good fit for the organization. No one should have to deal with that nonsense. Alpyne makes it a point to only recommend things that work and that make sense for you — because that’s kinda the whole point.
- Executive Leader
- The executive leader is typically someone high up in the org chart. They are who is championing this project. They’re responsible for providing their project manager, and really the entire development team here, with the vision and key needs to ensure the entirety of this initiative continues to align with the organization’s needs, objectives, and goals. This person will also receive regular, high-level progress reports as the project progresses in order to ensure all is on-task, on-schedule, and on-budget.
- Project Manager
- The Project Manager is who owns the CRM implementation and who reports to the executive leader. This role facilitates the strategic planning process, team coordination, communication, development, progress monitoring, reporting, and quality assurance. It’s arguably the most important role because this person has the greatest impact on the overall success of the implementation.
- Department Team Leaders
- Department team leaders are key personnel from each of the departments that will be directly impacted by a CRM. By its very nature, the sales department is, of course, first and foremost but often Customer Service, Managers, and Executives are also have a stake in operating within the upcoming CRM. Whoever falls in this realm of responsibility will also be responsible for ensuring the CRM meets their teams’ needs. Just as important, promoting it to their teams prior to and, especially, after launch day is critical to achieving the level of user satisfaction and adoption that you expect. Change management is a huge piece of these people.
- Champions
- Your champions (or pilot users) get early access to the CRM as you develop it. These folks are the ones who will be instrumental in testing the practicality of your theory. They provide profoundly valuable real-world-application feedback. For example, if your lead-management process becomes an overbearing chore, you decrease the liklihood of your team embracing the tool. This is where you learn what does and doesn’t work, practically, and your champions also have the added benefit of being able to peak behind the curtain before everyone else!
- Backend Support
- Backend support really just references the folks who are responsible for the technical pieces of your organization. Folks in IT or an Admin user that can access, pull, and prepare data and also who may manage your current systems. Could be in-house, or outsourced, no problem, just needs to be a specific person or group that can ensure data integrity is maintained while integrating these new tools.
Step 3
Development
“First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.” – John Johnson
And here.. we… go. The development stage involves a lot of heavy lifting. No more theory, this is where things are brought into reality. System design, integration, function, code, security, automation, and documentation are all worked through at this point. It’s got a lot of moving pieces but this team you’ve compiled is ready and able to stay on task and on schedule.
Your careful organizational consideration, comprehensive planning, goals, budgets, and roles & responsibilities have been nailed down. Each piece is integrated into the development process. Contact, account, asset, lead, and opportunity management and processes are all worked out here along with access security roles, data structures, customizations, tools, and special features that are part of the budgeted plan. Nothing here should be a surprise. As mentioned previously, your champions will gain access to features and tools as they are made available and ready to test. Same goes for everyone you have determined should have access to the CRM during this stage.
In particular, the implementation partner, project manager, and backend support are at full-tilt in this stage. Each stakeholder relies on each other here. The dev team can only move as fast as the project manager’s ability to facilitate and communicate. Likewise, the project manager can only move as fast as the backend support folks do. And the same is true in reverse. A well-prepared team with effective communication turns the development stage into a freight train of progress that’s right on track.
Data. Data. Datadatadatadata. This is also the time where your data should be getting scrubbed clean. Contacts’ data and contact information should be reviewed and/or fixed. Same goes for accounts and every other piece that needs to be imported and synced with your upcoming CRM. If there are to be leads or current opportunities that your reps need to have available in said CRM, we’ll need to be sure we provide a template for the reps to enter each one into so they’re ready to be picked up and worked on day one in the new system.
Step 3.5
Launch Day Prep Points
“The average user doesn’t give a d*mn what happens, as long as (1) it works and (2) it’s fast.” Daniel J. Bernstein
While keeping your nose to the grindstone is paramount during the development stage, it’s also really key to also keep your eye on the horizon and what’s coming. Launch day. Users interacting with your CRM. Users embracing your CRM and engaging in its continued evolution.
Here are some key first-impression pieces to keep in front of you as the dev stage is in full swing:
- User Interface and Experience (UI & UX)
- Your team’s first impression of the system is crucial. You should almost be able to hear their eyeballs dilate as they dart across the screen and see all the exact tools they have been pining after for so long. The trick is to display what’s necessary, nest or move the rest. Too much information and it becomes noise. Too little, and it becomes a waste of time. There’s a balance to strike while designing your CRM’s many pages and fields. Both in terms of its function as well as its form. It has to look nice, but also be simple and clean. It needs to be easy and simple to use, but it also has to ensure key pieces of information that the company needs is captured. That’s where your champions’ invaluable feedback comes into play — they keep us all grounded.
- Training Materials
- Launch day is exciting. It creates an air of anticipation, anxiety, energy, frustration — just all of it. It’s a big day. Depending on where your organization is, in terms of technology, this could be a revolutionary tool you’re introducing. It’s a lot for the dev team to process in their mind, but it’s arguably a bigger deal for the sales and support teams that will be using this thing. They’re worried they won’t be able to understand how to use it. They won’t understand it. They’ll be judged. It’s going to take away time they can be working on what they think matters. It’s a lot! Often, launch day includes a gathering of teams where they are briefed on the journey and the vision, get introduced to the CRM and how it works, then there’s a Q&A session.
- In the moment, things will make sense to the team. Then they begin to practically use it in the field only to realize they don’t know how to move forward or do certain things. Since you do things the right way, training materials are readily available. This can range from custom help bars, training PDF’s or slides, and your very own CoPilot AI Agent who can answer any question for your folks. The idea is to provide the tools your people need to be self-sufficient and empowered. No one person should be a barrier to our teams being able to effectively do their job!
- Be Prepared for Feedback
- You’re going to get feedback. Maybe not the kind you were expecting, but it’ll happen. Make it clear you’re looking for feedback and have a system in place to collect it from your users. Sure, you might get lucky with some unsolicited positive feedback, but it’s super rare so please do not expect that shower of praise. I mean, think about when folks are most likely to leave a review online. You’re more likely to get an unsolicited review if your product is trash or if it is unbelievably good.
- Positive feedback is awesome, don’t get me wrong, when it happens it’s a real treat. But the temptation is to leave it at the compliment and ignore the value a quick conversation with probing questions can have on providing actionable changes and/or suggestions.
- Negative feedback is pretty obvious. The trick is figuring out the motivator of such feedback. Sometimes, it’s legitimate. Could be an oversight on a function, missed security role permission, or just some kind of inefficiency — all of which are awesome and easy fixes, so thank them for saying something. Some “missing” features folks will ask for will be ridiculous and impractical, but then again, they might not be. I’ve seen sales folks come up with brilliant ideas and features, and I LOVE seeing that happen so I really can’t make a sweeping statement here. Negative feedback can’t be discussed without at least mentioning the other side of the negative feedback. The unhelpful “I like excuses” feedback. This thing is too confusing, this isn’t working, that doesn’t make sense, etc. These folks will usually be pretty obvious about their affection for complaining and being the victim, so deal with that as you see fit. Just know it happens, and.. well, I get it.
- No feedback is also telling, in its own way. It can mean a few things. One, your people didn’t know you wanted feedback (Fix — automated email collecting feedback after x-months and a scheduled follow-up to review). Two- your CRM is bog-standard and doesn’t necessarily do anything particularly well (Fix- work with Alpyne). Three- No one is using the CRM (Fix- perform a deep dive into user adoption and enforcement of its use — be sure to foce the halting of continuing to accept the old ways of doing things). All three have varying degrees of bummer-feelings associated with it but none moreso than two & three. A proactive mindset that considers them can make them a non-issue, however.
- Remember, your amazing team’s feedback is super helpful and you likely won’t get it unless you ask. This valuable piece of the process is what can continue to allow this tool to continually evolve into something that exponentially fosters growth, collaboration, and productivity.
Step 4
Implementation | Launch Day
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
The day is here. Finally. You did it. Champagne and cigars all around. Depending on the size of your team, it might make sense to split the teams you’re introducing this to. Also consider that your sales reps’ experience will differ significantly from your managers’ and executives’ so you may wish to split those off into role-specific reviews.
At any rate, since we took the time during the dev phase, you’re prepared with all the supporting documentation and training materials for your team. Your objectives today: Introduce the new CRM and showing its proper use, get them started using it, confirming they have or can get to the supplemental training materials, and, lastly, defining next steps for follow-ups or supervisor one-on-one trainings.
Step one is to hand out any materials you have while you go over the agenda for the meeting and what the objective is here today. The trick is to keep in mind is you’re going to present this CRM to folks who haven’t seen it before. This can be trickier than it sounds because, at this point, it’ll be so second nature to you that you’ll zip back and forth across the system before people can really process what you’re doing or how you got there. Clear, concise, non-technical explanations and slower movements always win on launch days. Work to avoid over-explaining by clearly stating that this is a high-level overview on how the system works and looks. A follow-up hands-on piece of the training is forthcoming where they’ll have the CRM in front of them (ideally during the same meeting but could be on a later date).
You’re bound to get bombarded with questions, some may just require you to remind folks of the agenda, others may be a simple answer. Just do your best to stay on task. It’s tempting to get into the weeds during the main presentation but it’s a trap, don’t fall for it. One-on-one you can probably do that, but for groups of salespeople, it’s just not ideal. Remember your key objectives — those are your priority. Anything in addition to that is just gravy.
Step 5
Training, Support, & Continuous Improvement
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin
Using anything new is often a little weird at first. It’s different. There’s a lot more to consider now BUT there’s also a ton more cool tools you can use now. There’s a lot more transparency and trends, etc. It’s almost overwhelming. You might think, “I paid attention during the initial training but I don’t know how to do XYZ… dang, I’m pretty sure they went over it.” It happens. Our job (leaders) is to ensure your people have a recourse here instead of flopping around in the breeze. When they feel that moment of uncertainty, their course of action should be to refer to the training materials you provided (PDF/Slides, custom help bar, or AI chatbot). Next best would be their supervisor. Worst thing would be to just ignore the gap in their knowledge and not say anything.
Change doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time of consistently showing up and enforcing processes that are non-negotiable. That includes a culture of training and support. Book days on folks’ calendar for set days throughout the year where a refresher will take place. Screen record proper use of the system so they can reference them on-demand.
Training and support is so critical to growing your bottom line for the simple fact that your team understanding how to use the CRM and your management team leads enforcing its use ensures scalable, predictable, and sustainable growth. And that’s what we want. An empowered and supportive team. An aligned and transparent organization. A strategic leadership team. It’s win, win here, folks.
The Inspiration Loop
There are some things to consider now that you’ve got your brilliant new system in place. First is incredibly important — system maintainence. Your business evolves and it’s important your systems do along with it. Second, and even more daunting and hard to control — inspiration! It’s super common to have a ton of new ideas for additional features, changes you want made, and some important considerations you hadn’t thought of before now. You’ll likely also have plenty of feedback provided to you from your team to consider. This is especially true of things like automation and AI. Once you see it become a proven entity, it’s challenging to ignore the possibilities. Expanding upon the solid foundation you diligently laid out with this system typically follows the same phased-approach as before, just on a much more condensed scale. The reason being — it just makes sense!
Let’s get started today.