Keep it simple Max Effgen, January 6, 2010 One of my rules is to always consider the front office and the back office needs and desires of any CRM project. I recently came across a service process that generate a large volume of automated tickets. The process was over-engineered. Nearly all of these automated tickets were not true…
Process Changes and the Sales Pipeline Max Effgen, December 3, 2009 In my experience, pipeline/forecast is one area of a CRM system that changes frequently. Fortunately, these changes require less coding changes through Windows Workflow Foundation (Dynamics CRM) and Workflow Automation (Salesforce). I have seen this both from the consulting side and as a user. Not going to comment on whether…
5 Questions Max Effgen, November 24, 2009 All consultants like to ask questions. Sometimes too many questions. Here are 5 that I keep on hand for initial client engagements. What do your expectations of a service provider? How do you see out team helping you address challenges and opportunities? Why are you changing providers? How do we…
Everyone’s headed to Dreamforce… Max Effgen, November 12, 2009 This year, I know a ton of people headed to Dreamforce. Sadly, I will not be among them due to scheduling. If you are going let me know and your interests and can match you with some of the people I know.
CRM implementation priorities Max Effgen, November 9, 2009 The first priority of a CRM deployment should be to learn about existing customer data within the enterprise. It is obvious, but often overlooked. I often make it the top priority when scoping CRM services. Is all that customer data in all of the right hands? 99% of the time…
Know your customer… Max Effgen, October 23, 2009 A “Know your customer” re-post. Have a great weekend. “Know your customer” is the mantra. When you know the customer, good things happen. – Example, Client A increased user adoption to 70% of total call volume. ROI increase 25% in one quarter. When you know your customer, you can spot…
The business-to-business of Gist Max Effgen, October 21, 2009December 2, 2013 Nice review of Gist on ZDNet: The business-to-business of Gist I have been a beta user of Gist for awhile and have been pleased at the improvements that they have been able to make to a very cool product. I see Gist as a great Sales CRM play in the…
Read Getting Started with Disruptive Business Design Max Effgen, October 20, 2009 Nice read on disruptive businesses by John Sviokla at Harvard Business Blog. Check HBB: Getting Started with Disruptive Business Design It made me think about the future of CRM. Salesforce.com over turned the market leaders and is now the market leader. What will disrupt Salesforce? Is it new technologies that…
The Sales Enablement Challenge Max Effgen, October 19, 2009 Sales Enablement offers some unique advantages to drive Sales user adoption. The ability to create new and custom collateral and to effectively collaborate on accounts address big pain points for sales. The CRM world has not implemented these technologies on an industry scale. Sales Enablement also addresses today’s market realities….
Social CRM Questions Max Effgen, October 15, 2009 My $0.02 on questions you need to answer in mapping out your Social CRM strategy: Where are your customers? Where do they go when they have issues with your products and services? How open is that conversation? How are you making them successful? What keeps them from flaming the CEO?…