I wish everyone who is míd-then in a CRM journey much wisdom. In my daily contacts with marketers I often hear it: 'we are míd-things in our CRM trajectory'. Great, an organization that thoroughly addresses all processes around relationship management. But sometimes an apology also rings through. 'Yes sorry, we are still working on it, but it will be great, knots have been cut. It's more work than we thought, according to IT even much more. We are now a year into it ... so yes, we are in the middle ...'. Typical of one of those super-important projects that has gone from the drawing board into harsh reality. The once-clear horizon is starting to blur like a highway in the distance on a hot day.
Jamming about agreements and practical objections
And then all those sales people and marketers will soon have to learn how to work with it. Everyone dives into workflows, data models, button training and - last but not least - exceptions. At the bottom of the pipeline, C-level decision-makers are already taking their seats behind the sleekly designed dashboards. Was it worth the wait?
Then the whining about agreements and practical objections begins. "Weren't we supposed to have this and that? "Yeah, listen, then you guys should have clearly stated this and that. Oh, but that's not how it works in practice. Well, in the system it does. Okay, and can we have this and that now? No no, that is not in the basic version, but we all start at the same level and then we look further...". Recognizable? Willem Elschot connoisseurs will recognize the poem from the title of this article and the feeling - a wistfulness that no one can explain.
From CRM project to IT project
Believe me, if a CRM project turns into an IT project after a year in which you hear yourself repeatedly telling externs "we're in the middle of it" isn't going to be what you had hoped.
So marketers and sales professionals, don't sit still. Whether you work in SMEs, a national company or a multinational corporation. In B2C or B2B. Discovering markets, converting prospects and building customers does not come from IT. Stay creative, even if that means temporarily working outside systems and processes. Any movement in an organization where enterprise goals shift to support departments is a danger to progress.
