The Golden Rule of “do unto others…”, has a lot in common with Karma in that they suggest you should give good things to get good things in return. Both of them apply to users of a CRM.
Like many business tools it takes a while for CRM to deliver positive outcomes. There’s an “aha” moment when the information in the tool becomes genuinely valuable to an individual person. Normally it’s the first time they find something surprising that matters to them. Perhaps a new name, document or a piece of correspondence from a customer that was added earlier by someone else in the business. Often it’s a group of small and separately insignificant elements that combine to be meaningful.
It’s these moments when the individual realises that everything that goes into the CRM matters. Even if it is not a critical part of the big picture right now, the fact that it’s there means it can be used to build context. Anyone starting in a new role or taking over an existing account knows the value of being able to take a big picture view of a customer that includes more than their buying history. The goal is to get to a point where the business can honestly say “if it’s not in our CRM, it didn’t happen”.
A clear view of a customer is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle. Many of the pieces look the same and on their own they mean almost nothing at all. They can seem optional, of little value and they can easily get left out. But assemble them all together in the one place and you might end up with something amazing.
From finance, to operations and of course sales, every piece of information your business adds to CRM builds context you can use to serve the customer better in the future. You have to invest a little bit of effort to contribute now, even when the little bits on their own seem meaningless. If you want something worth looking at, you have to build it piece by piece.
STRATEGY CAPABILITY COACHING 