What does it mean to align your Sales Strategy with the Organizational Strategy? How does one make this discussion real ? And what relevance does it have to Salesforce CRM implementations and vice versa - what relevance can your CRM have to this alignment?
Use data collected at granular levels from credible sources, when estimating intangible benefits from CRM initiatives. Alongside, the article provides some prompters for factoring in intangible costs.
A CRM Business Analyst’s activities include relating the project to the company strategy, managing stakeholders, preparing business case & project scope, driving user adoption.
The article lists activities that go into preparing a business case – analyzing high level requirements, assessing costs and benefits, risks, solution options and then selling the case.
Cross reference observations from your workshops and interviews analyzing current state and cross reference them against best practices to arrive at strategic themes
How effectively you drive adoption among your customer facing staff to bring enduring changes in business processes and behavior will define the success of your Salesforce initiatives.
Cause & Effect Analysis for studying CRM failures is illustrated using a real life example of analyzing declining sales by diving deeper into Processes, People, Structure, Planning.
Does the business case have relevance beyond the early stages of the project?
Yes it does. A useful business case is one that you evolve as you complete key milestones during the life cycle.
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are good resources to tap into for new ideas and trends. Companies may have Enterprise Architecture Teams or Advisory Boards or a network of experts to tap into.
Look across internal and external users for identifying stakeholders for your project. Regulators, partners, suppliers and even competitors are candidate stakeholder groups.
A range of stakeholders exercise influence, positive or negative over the project and its results. Having a close relationship with and understanding their motivations is critical.
Rely on the techniques of Root cause Analysis and ask ‘why’ enough number of times to arrive at the real reasons for failures of CRM issues. Do not take hunches and hypotheses at face value.
Business Analysis identifies what it takes the business to evolve from its current state to an aspired one. Systems Analysis on the other hand, directly addresses the requirements of systems being developed.
Your CRM project is conceptualized in the context of your organization’s customer strategy. It is important for the implementers to grasp and fully appreciate this context