Cloud CRM Software Forum

Why aren't more CRM users part of the CRM selection process?

Once in a while you stumble across reasons that SaaS CRM is still looked at with a jaundiced eye in some corners. In nearly every such circumstance, CRM itself isn't to blame – it's the humans who use it and make decisions about it who are the problem.

Today's shocking moment came during a call with Mike Snyder, president of CRM software firm Sonoma Partners, a CRM consulting firm of great repute. He and I were talking about the CRM selection process, and what works to help buyers get the solutions (and vendors) they need. We were talking about the people in on this decision – typically, IT guys and sales and marketing executives.

I've written "how to buy" articles about CRM for a while, and the widespread consensus from the thinkers is that users of the CRM system – sales pros, people in the marketing trenches, customer service reps – should be in on the decision process for a couple of reasons. First off, these are the people who use the existing processes now, and who will be best equipped to see how well those processes map to the CRM solution. Second, from a psychological point of view, including these people in the decision process gives them the sense that they are partners in selection and thus have a stake in the success of the solution, which can help kick-start adoption.

But Mike surprised me. "We've only had one customer include these kinds of people in the decision process," he said. "It surprises me – the evaluations of what solutions to use are often based on features and tools that people don't often use. You'd think that it would be helpful to hear what Joe Sales Guy or Susie Call Center Rep has to say, since they'll be the ones who interface with CRM."

This took me aback. I assumed that organizations that had matured enough to go to CRM would realize that, in order to drive sales with CRM, the first people they would have to sell would be their own staff – the users whose participation is critical to success. Not including their participation in the selection process seems like complete folly.

But, there's the problem again: CRM is still seen not as a business transforming discipline but as just another IT buy. As a result, it gets treated like an IT buy, with little consideration for the human impact on the solution. Mike said that the initial impulse of many clients is to reduce the choice down to a "features shootout," which is usually pretty fruitless since all CRM solutions have the essentials. The real choice should in large part be based on the human aspects – support, training, interface design and on and on. These are aspects that the front-line users ought to be able to provide some insight into.

Apparently, I was wrong in my assumption about what's going on among CRM buyers. But I'm not wrong in my assertion that a panel of real users (or future real users) should be a critical part of the CRM buying team. To build relationships with customers, you have to build relationships with your employees. If the relationship you have with your employees is so tenuous that you can't include them in the decision process for a tool that will be central to their jobs, you'll never be able to build relationships with customers no matter what CRM solution you select.