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By Merging Marketing, Sales and CRM into a LEAN PROCESS called OCI (Optimal Customer Interface) you effectively put all of your "Non-Sales" people into your "Sales" force; you will then dramatically increase revenues and margins without adding a single person. See also: Free Papers Marketing: When a few people in your company OFFER a Product or Service to a Prospect. Sales: What a few people in your company do AFTER the prospect says "No". CRM: Customer Relationship Management. This is nothing more than a glorified database managed by a few people in your company. At best, it merely maximizes the milking of the same old cows. At worst, it alienates your sales force and your profitable customers. LEAN PROCESS OCI - An Optimized Customer Interface based on the people concepts of LEAN. It makes it possible to inexpensively educate every person in your company in the science and art of Nurturing Profitable Customers. See also: e-Handbook Free Answers to your questions: Contact: mail@johncschuler.com Home Page: www.johncschuler.com
In the world of LEAN, QUALITY and THE TOYOTA WAY, Traditional CRM (Customer Resources Management using databases and your existing sales force) can be classified as a "big leap" that is often wrong - as opposed to inexpensive, positive, profitable, iterative improvements. You can use the People Aspects of LEAN To Dramatically Lift Margins at Zero Net Cost). In fact, it is better than FREE - it is a net postive gain. Spend a $ and earn $10.
Most CRM Monies are spent to "micro-manage" perhaps 5% of your work force (Sales & Marketing). Your money is better spent by implementing a higher-profit process that involves every person in your company. It is inexpensive up front, self-sustaining and generates new profits within days and weeks. Across your company, during every customer interaction, your profits are on the line. Profitable prosects and customers are either nurtured or lost every day - by your "Non-Sales" people. Feel-Good Software vs Accomplishment: CRM is feel-good software. It measures and reports and gives everyone a lovely chart they can get their arms around. Eye Candy: But a colorful chart is really nothing more than a snapshot of what your Sales People are "trying to do". It says nothing about the quality -positive or negative -of their efforts. It is also not a good predictor of profit over time. It also does nothing to improve the other 95% of your company - the people on the Customer-Centric front lines CRM IS LIKE PAIN MEDICINE: It makes you feel better in the short term, but it does absolutely nothing to improve the undelying aspects of your actual health: To make money now and over the long haul, you need more than just the typical ad-hoc customer acqusition and retention process left to the devices and actions of that 5% of our company typically in Marketing and Sales. As Yoda Might Say, Measuring & Documenting is NOT Succeeding: Using CRM to track sales activity is a bit like measuring teachers on how many students they graduate - as opposed to what those students contribute to society later in life. The teachers with "Teach the Test" instead of preparing your children for success later in life. And using CRM reports to gauge effectivity is a bit like looking at a financial report for one month to try to predict the revenues, margins and profits for the coming year. Measure The Money: If our job is to find, collect and keep gold coins, it does not help to measure the number of rocks turned over and examined by our search and acquistion (Sales and Marketing) force. The only viable measurement is the predictable income from repeat Profitable Clients - Over Time. Profits vs Asses & Elbows Syndrome: Profits Hinge On Acquiring & Keeping Profitable Customers. You can parse and measure and examine "Sales Activity" all day long, but it won't really help over the long haul. In fact it often lowers Margins and Profits because of things like Make-Work Projects and CYA (Cover Your Ass) Activities - which take the place of truly effective actions or profitable accomplishments. Go for Mind-Share and Competence - Not Volumetrics: CRM strives to systematize the sales process, automate and generate activity reports. It's a bit like meeting ISO-9000; you can report and document all day long and still lose money - daily, monthly and yearly - and still be certified, but perhaps not profitable - today or tomorrow. Implementation of LEAN OCI: Optimizing the Quality of the Customer Interface Process is the key to ongoing positive change and, sustainable profit over time. And the Motivation of your "Non-Sales" employees is the Key to Optimized Performance: Using CRM or any other tool for Measuring and documenting the performance of 5% of your work force does not help much. But motivating the other 95% - that is, all your "Non-Sales" people - to do the right thing - willingly - proactively - optimally - every time - accomplishes a great deal.
For about $100 per person, you quickly and easily improve how a customer support engineer answers the phone and solves a problem - or how well a shipping clerk packs a critical item, or how a receptionist greets a prospect - or even how a Vice President responds to his or her counterpart at a key account. Education is the first step. And Education + Application is the Key To Sustained Motivaton: Just holding Rah-Rah sessions or bringing in witch doctors to "pump up the troops" won't cut it. We need to educate and your people and show them how to implement their new knowledge in order for them to internalize your goals and translate their new understanding into optiml performance.
You can now provide all of your "Non-Sales" people with a low-cost tool which they can use to self-improve and dramatically raise the Quality of your Customer Interface Process. Reference: CEOs Handbook
Each copy of the Higher Margins e-Handbook comes with a 15-minute phone and email consultation with the author. Now, from the front desk to the shipping dock everyone is valued and supported. This is possible because John has a background that stretches from the trenches to the boardroom. He has seen time and again the value of one-on-one counseling. And the low fee is built right into the purchase price of the eHandbook. Profitable Change Happens at the Customer Interface: Rather than purchasing expensive software that documents, parses and nitpicks sales efforts and efficiencies, you can spend a lot less of your hard-earned profit where it yields near-instantaneous results. Just give each of your people a handbook based on logic, experience and common sense Lock-Step Rote vs Internalized Understanding and Knowledge: Instead of forcing the 5% or so of your people who are in Sales or Marketing through the tedious eye of a slave-to-procedure software needle, spend a lot less money and educate 100% of your people on precisely how to work better with Prospects and Customers.
Just as the essence of LEAN Manufacturing lets customers pull the products then want, an Optimized Customer Interface is one in which your own people are helping the customers to "Pull" the products and services they want - and for which they are willing to pay. Spend a lot less to achieve a lot more: Instead of spending $1,000 plus per person on the 5% of your work force that is sales and marketing, spend $100 per person and accomplish 100 times as much in about one tenth the time. Instead of months and years and lots of frustration with CRM, you'll see positive return in days and weeks. Expand using money from the profit increases: In a few months as profits rise, you can use a very small percent of your increased revenue to expand the "Handbook and Consultation" program to everyone in your company. Applied Competence vs Scripted Reaction: Now, simple, logical and workable principals can be applied all across your company. With all your people. With your Staff, a Marketing MBA, a Sales Manager, an Account Executive, a Service Engineer, a Receptionist or a Shipping Clerk. And especially with the people who answer the phones to interface with Prospects and who solve real-world problems every day with tough customers. Only 5% of Your de-facto SALES PROcESS is actually "Sales": Because 95% of the work of getting new business is acting BEFORE the prospect or customer says "No", it can be done by regular people who don't need to "Sell", per se. They just need to know how to take good care of good people and be relaxed while doing it. Most objections are merely requests for a "Warm and Fuzzy" interface: In today's high-stress atmosphere, prospects just want to feel appreciated. By educating and appreciating (consulting with) the 95% of your people who do the customer interfacing, we can nip any feelings of neglect and apathy in the bud - to turn Prospects into Customers and Customers into Repeat Profitable Clients. Fine-Tuning the Tuners: For that 5% where the "No" is operative, we can train 30% or so of your Sales Force in how to easily cope with the real world of addressing true and difficult pre-sale objections. Fishes and Elephants: By giving everyone in the company a "Net" that can gather prospect and customer "Fish", and teaching your key players in the sales force how to entice Elephants into your camp, we have the best of both worlds. Many small Customers that gives us breadth and profit-averaging, plus solid lare and Key Accounts that give us larger orders and forecastable profits over time. Improving Customer Acquistion, Retention and Profit: CEOs can now opt to lower costs AND improve margins - with no additonal expenses - by educating all of their people to be both competent and confident in the specific aspect of the Customer Acquistion and Retention Loop for which they are best suited. Ramping Up Your People: Together, we can create a unique, focused, well-received Education, Training and Mentoring program that increases skill sets to motivate your all your people - on a timely and cost-effective basis.QCBullet points: From SalesForce.com May 9 2008
To explore and discuss these exciting possibilities, send email to: johnschuler@comcast.net |  | | |||||||||
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