Introducing CRM – with all its relationships and structure – into an environment (mostly) dominated by unstructured data 
communication is an extremely tough job. Some companies mistakenly assume the automation and sophisticated features within CRM software will miraculously provide the most efficient sales performance right off the bat.
Without having structured and well-defined procedures in place before implementing CRM software, more technology and automation will only speed up an ineffective process!
Different companies have different methods and conditions of selling, each with unique steps in their sales process. By the same token, various departments within a business have different procedures to follow, each interacting with the customer or client a little differently.
Take Sales, for example. A Sales team gets much more done by following a process as opposed to “winging it” – no matter how many sales stars there are within the company. Sales is full of gray areas of course, but within it there are lots of black-and-white processes that must be adhered to. In many ways Sales today is more process-centered than ever before – even when using mobile and social media.
On the other hand, email and mobile communications really don’t follow a baseline process or guide. Yes, there are templates used at times, but mostly it’s unstructured:
Once the ‘Send’ button is clicked, then what? It’s gone – “it’s no longer my problem!”
What if the message contains something critically important? If that employee were to drop the ball (which never happens) suddenly resign, or become ill for a few days, then what? If there is no process to document the exchange, the email communication is floating out in limbo-land … and the lead, opportunity and/or customer could be lost forever.
CRM brings many departments – as well as internal and external interactions together – into one huge central venue. Using CRM software to identify improvements to existing processes saves time and money.If structure and procedure are absent, no CRM system alone can deliver improvements to the bottom line.
Underlying all of this is (yes, you guessed it!) Process. A company can only gain the insight and achieve desired results when the CRM system is used to identify improvements to existing processes, driving change in behavior that streamlines operations, promotes efficiency and saves time (and money.)