Does ERP apply to Sales?

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software helps closing the loop between the shop floor processes to business planning by measuring the manufacturing stages from raw material, work in process, finished goods, payment collection and service.

Does the logic of ERP apply to sales too?
From an IT perspective CRM is to sales what ERP is to production.
Unfortunately this concept usually crashes, due to the traditional perception of sales belonging to a world of reaction rather than process oriented.
CRM software implementation may be a short term success but its long term adoption fail every day due to the above "software" approach.

The driving forces of CRM adoption:

1. Sales, not IT- must own the CRM.


2. Buying Process is first, only then Selling Process: know your customers buying processes - structuring the selling and marketing processes of your organization are just an outcome of it.


3. What gets measured is what gets done: define your KPI (Key Performance Indicators) in a simple and clear way. Do not add any new graph to your CRM dashboard unless everybody knows how to take correcting actions if it turns red. F2F (face to face) time with customers is your most valuable sellings asset. Reduce the reporting time (excels, powerpoint etc)spent by your salesforce. Management reports are dead: pipeline status, forecasts and won/lost assessments - among other KPIs - should be visualized on your CRM real time dashboards.


4. Invest in your dashboard analytics - not in gathering its data (a CRM technical functionality). Automate your workflows, such as price discounts authorization, forecasting overriding, red flags emails, commissions and entertainment expenses. Flow them streamily through your organization (a CRM technical functionality too).


5. Knowledge Center - a vital part of your CRM: "give me the information I need - now!". This applies both ways: salesforce to management and vice versa. We live in a Google era...where information is an on demand commodity, chasing data is wasting resources. Clear the knowledge traffic bottlenecks across your organization, as well as between your selling partners and your organization. An open knowledge flow between the main office and the sales channels - and between themselves - enriches the corporate selling IQ.


6. Leads generation is not the exclusive responsibility of the field salesforce anymore. Use automatic marketing tools like regular emailing, webinars, webadvertising, websurveying – just to mention a few.


7. "What's in it for me?". Adopting CRM by the salesforce - direct and indirect - is your ultimate concern regarding the success of a CRM project. Sales people are individualist, optimistic and self driven personalities. Educating them on the sales processes engineering and CRM advantages is an ongoing cultural change - certainly not a singular CRM technical training. If the sales person - direct or indirect - is not clear why adopting the selling process concepts managed by a CRM tool allows him selling more and getting higher commissions - CRM is at risk of failing.

ERP and CRM are both software but still two different animals - do not confuse them.
Think again of the 3 CRM ingredients: process, culture and people – to successfully gain an additional advantage in our daily differentiating race.

"Do what you do best and outsource all the rest"
Benefit by evolving sales management from an "art" to a discipline in your organization.
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CRM - a corporate or territorial responsibility?

Customers buying processes are culture intensive differing from country to country. The same product is bought differently in the US than in Japan.Selling processes vary by type of channel.

Distributors will leverage on a wider variety of offerings, while direct sales force will focus on a deeper product knowledge. Therefore, the selling, marketing and service processes, must be designed at corporate hierarchy level, rather than at a singular territorial altitude, independently of its market size.

Forecasting, price discounts authorization and other workflows, should follow the same guidelines - their planning is a corporate responsibility, not a territorial job.KPI (Key Performance Indicators) may vary by territory: managing price discounts can be more critical in China, less decisive in Japan.

Monitoring gross margins during the selling processes of an opportunity may become vital in Shanghai, less in Tokyo. KPIs should be designed and managed at corporate level rather than at territorial rank.

Adopting CRM implicates changes in the management culture, as it drives sales from an "art" to a discipline. Overcoming obstacles to change is a territorial responsibility and should be delegated to the regional managers.

SUMMARY

• Processes, KPIs and CRM architecture - must see global differences and need to be designed at a corporate level.

• CRM adoption has to overcome local obstacles to change, and need to be a territorial owned task.