Richard Bashore
Reading Electric

Background
In early 2002, my company em­barked upon a program of business development tactics to increase sales & profitability in our core businesses, and to assist our team in investigating new markets. This program formed the basis of our Customer Relationship Manage­ment (CRM) process.  By definition, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the strategic and tactical processes of proactive management of customer relationships. 

I felt it was necessary to take a dif­ferent approach for several reasons. One of our major business segments (Telecom) was contracting. Our current approach to developing new sales op­portunities had become too reactivate and passive; relying too much on past successes which was translating into “waiting for the phone to ring.” Couple this with a declining customer base due to our area’s manufacturing base relocating out of the region, and our sales growth was stagnating.  

Our CRM process needed to con­sider the limited resources of the Sales Department to achieve a level of CRM implementation progress which was aligned with our current operations requirements.  Our sales team consisted of an outside sales rep­resentative, two inside sales representatives, and our management team who were responsible for operations. It was all too easy for our sales team to become internally focused on operations, leaving very limited energy to find new business to grow the top line.  It was necessary to bring on the team a consultant/implementer (Linear Market Technical Services Corporation) to help lead this new CRM process.

Executive summary
We combined the disciplines of CRM with a business development strategy (referred to as Market En­gineering), which focused on the technical education of our customers. The CRM process, installed in 2002, centered on tactics that reached out to our key and target customers through a series of monthly educational publica­tions. These publications took the form of Technical Bulletins, Product Profiles and Technical Workshops.

The centerpiece of this CRM strat­egy was the Technical Workshop Program (see Figure 1) that brought qualified customers into our confer­ence room to listen to our technical personnel speak about specific topics addressing our customers’ operational problems. These four-hour Techni­cal Workshops were chronologically sequenced with Technical Bulletins and Product Profiles to help generate customer interest. The attendees at each workshop averaged 15 and most represented highly qualified business opportunities. 

We also incorporated current events such as the Northeast electrical power outage of 2003 and severe local flood­ing in 2006 in our communication releases as means to prepare our cus­tomers for emergencies. 

A significant challenge was (and remains) to follow through on the re­sulting customer discussions. Without thorough follow-up with the custom­ers, the new business opportunities would not be realized.

Within a few months, it was obvi­ous that the CRM strategy was being successful. As the number of potential opportunities increased, it also became obvious that a method of tracking our CRM process was necessary to auto­mate the work of documenting and tracking our customer sales pursuits. We chose the commercially available software system from FrontRange Solutions called Goldmine. The instal­lation and personnel training of Gold­mine required approximately one year.  

The CRM software system is a flex­ible database management system, but it required our team to develop a CRM communication flowchart, develop the templates, and discipline to make the software effective.

CRM process breakdown and implementation
Our CRM process consists of three basic CRM training modules:

• Starter
• Advanced
• Sustainability

These CRM training modules are designed to increase sales revenue and profitability. Each CRM module includes aspects of Market Engineering Tactics (customer technical education strategies), and has three basic phases of personnel training.  These phases are:

Discovery Training and Assessment

• Our Current CRM Process & Procedure Assessment

Planning

• CRM Training Outline and Plan
• CRM Field Activities Outline and Plan

Training Execution

• CRM Process & Procedure Tools Development
• CRM Process & Procedure Tools Training

It is critical that the CRM training is designed not only for our sales person­nel, but also for non-sales personnel engaged in customer sales activities. The CRM training modules are true hands-on teaming and coaching with our staff to increase knowledge and capability. Sales revenue growth and sales transformation are achieved by implementing the following CRM training modules depending upon the team’s ability to digest the process. Pro­gram flexibility is key. The sequencing of the CRM modules is dependent on the current demands of the company’s business. While many times this may inject a delay, more than likely it causes an acceleration of a module.

CRM training modules – description and objective

 CRM Training Module – Starter

1. Customer Out-Reach – Sales Opportunity Growth
   Trains on finding and increas­ing sales opportunities through the customer out-reach tactics of product cross-selling and Techni­cal Workshops.
2. Customer Out-Reach – Technical Communication
   Trains the CRM out-reach tactic on finding and increasing sales opportunities through educa­tional based Technical Bulletins.
3. Sales Opportunity Pursuits
   Trains personnel on customer selling process focusing on managing the sales process from initial preparation through order closing tactics.
4. Customer Sales Site Visit Atten­dance – Coaching and Support
   Provides coaching and support of our personnel during sales visits to customers’ site.

CRM Training Module – Advanced

1. Sales Forecasting
   Develops and implements a sales forecasting process and proce­dures to accurately predict sales order probability and timing.
2. Sales Proposal Process
   Develops a process for the pro­posal value statement message and templates for solution-ori­ented proposals.
3. Sales Staff Meeting Structure
   Trains and coaches on effective sales meeting organization and structure for our internal staff.
4. CRM Information System
   Provides training and instal­lation of the selected CRM information system (in our case - Goldmine), and development of CRM communication flow chart and document template develop­ment.
5. CRM Web site pages
   Provides coaching and devel­opment of Web site pages to improve 
   Web site out-reach performance and trains on Web site perfor­mance analysis / tracking.
6. CRM Based Product Develop­ment Program
   Trains on the process to deter­mine market demand, product development and introduction through CRM tactics.

CRM Training Module – Sustainability

1. CRM Process Sustainability Training and Coaching
   Provides evaluation, support, and coaching on three critical CRM activities

• Customer out-reach and follow-up
• Sales proposal development and pursuit strategy
• Sales forecasting 

CRM sustainability and expansion
In addition to working through the Sustainability module, we continue to expand and perfect the CRM process. This includes customer proposals to invoices, and sales pursuit communica­tions to sales forecasting. Refinement of our CRM process is constant as our team adapts to new and changing busi­ness opportunities.

It was necessary to incorporate the CRM process into the company’s standards, policies, procedures, and methods. This documentation took on the format of a manufacturing Qual­ity ISO process. This was mandatory as the team organization continues to change over time with personnel additions, promotions, and attrition. Without this documentation, the suc­cess of the CRM Program will be lost over a period of a few months as the team moves back to the old ways of doing things. 

Constant vigilance of the CRM process is the direct responsibility of the sales manager and the operations manager. The operations manager is included because of his organization’s role in sales and maintaining customer relationships. Above all, a successful CRM Program is a “team play,” espe­cially requiring commitment from top management. Everyone who commu­nicates with the customer is part of the CRM process.

We have found that without con­stant vigilance on the CRM processes, any team will over time digress into the mode of waiting for the phones to ring. There are real reasons for this. The Number 1 reason is that the phones are ringing more because of increased business. The “Catch 22” is that with­out continual CRM, the phone ringing will begin to slow in a few months. To maintain steady growth, management of your customer relations becomes a way of life for the management team.

To help with CRM Sustainability, we are finding that the focus on sales forecasting is keeping our attention on CRM.  Briefly, our ability to ac­curately predict our sales is the leading indicator of how well we understand our customers and their requirements.  Therefore, better understanding re­quires continual CRM, and results in improved sales forecasting and busi­ness growth. We have instituted the process of having a weekly Execu­tive Forecast Summary reviewed by the sales and operations teams in the Monday morning Ops meeting. The forecast is prepared and distributed in a Microsoft Word document for ease of review, discussion and real time editing by the team.

The implementation of a com­prehensive CRM Program is not complex, but it requires commit­ment to improving your company’s understanding of your customers’ needs.  Achieving a sustainable CRM Program does require a culture/be­havioral change. CRM is 90% about doing what we know we should do. The behavioral change is required to ensure CRM becomes a standard practice.

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