If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it fall, does it make a sound? If you measure your CRM program and analyze the results, will you be more successful? We say yes to both which is why Value Focused is one of Silverline’s 10 Keys to Successful Digital Transformation.

Need more convincing? Let’s say you’ve just started a Weight Loss Program. You’ll begin by measuring your current state, defining what your goals are, and how you’re going to get there. When you gain or lose weight, your motivation is to keep going. You’re constantly measuring and monitoring your body to achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself. If you aren’t measuring, you’re going to have a hard time staying motivated because you’re lacking the awareness of your progress. Measuring results is a key success factor for weight loss. Your CRM program is no different.

Most organizations believe that an investment in technology is a fundamental factor for successful digital transformation. Adopting a CRM platform is highly beneficial to remain competitive, and can generate a significant return on investment when driving sales, service, operations, and marketing. Measuring effectiveness post-implementation is critical, however, most organizations fall short of this success driver just because it’s hard to do.

Don’t Leave Your Business Case Behind

When it comes to adopting new technology, the majority of companies require some form of business case to gain budget approval and move forward. You’ve created a business case, received approval, and begin your implementation, often times, your business case is now collecting dust on a shelf in your office. A business case is too often seen as a hurdle for funding and approval which leads to a failure in follow-through. It serves no purpose in achieving any business value following that initial step.

Silverline prioritizes the Value Focused Key as a top factor for success because we believe focusing on value realization is crucial for actually getting back a reasonable return on the investment. If you aren’t performing basic monitoring of what you’re spending, you are probably wasting money, but would never know it.

• Client A has heavily invested in implementing a CRM platform; however, no one believes it has done anything to benefit their organization because it was developed based on a single use case.
• Client B purchased its CRM platform licenses over a year prior and proceeded to implement a very robust solution. They are currently utilizing only 20% of the licenses they invested in due to the length of time getting their solution deployed.
• Client C is budget-constrained and doesn’t want to spend too much; so in turn, they do the bare minimum over a long period of time. Feedback is shared that the final result doesn’t provide value because the solution isn’t extensive enough to handle end users’ needs.

Without tracking results and measuring to your goals, you can quickly overspend or underspend and miss the value in your investment. Measuring the impact of the platform has a strong, positive influence on how active your CRM program is in the long run. This is why it is important to focus on value within your business case and use your business case as a launching point for measurement and ongoing analysis.

Defining Your Sources of Value

To determine where your value comes from, we suggest creating a map to visualize your hierarchy of value. Start by taking your high-level strategy and working down from the top.

Value Driver

What’s the big payoff you’re looking to achieve with your CRM investment? It could be to grow, develop efficiencies, or transform the customer experience.

Goals

Focusing on your key value driver, define your goals to achieve that success. It could be to increase the speed of performance, improve engagement, or to become more intelligent as a business.

The value you obtain comes directly from monitoring your success. Ensure you are measuring a baseline over time to see how you improve or where you need to pivot. Set clear targets such as enhancing a close rate from 25% to 35%, this will help you define what the value is from where you are to what you want to achieve.

Once you’ve identified the sources of your value, you can begin to prioritize their importance. The most important sources of value will be critical to prioritize what should be built and deployed sooner and affect the timeline of your digital transformation roadmap.

Measuring Success

Organizations that are measuring what they’re spending will be able to identify the value of their investment and have the ability to justify costs to improve their plan for digital transformation continually. If you don’t measure, you will be left in the dark, and you won’t be able to justify your original business plan. Be clear about the sources of value and showcase benefits back to your company.

Measuring your success from the time of your original business plan has clear benefits, it increases your ability to monitor your investment over time and grow what you’re measuring. Most organizations would prefer to do a root canal than a business case. But it’s not just the business case, it’s the follow through. Our advice is to identify the sources of value within your business case and identify the wins that can be achieved through your goals to ease the feeling of a root canal. If you see improvement, it’s easy to move forward. Additionally, if you aren’t finding success from what you’re measuring, you can address those areas of improvement by analyzing your measurements and taking corrective action.

Build a strong business case, define your value and how you’ll achieve it, and maintain follow through to measure and assess your goals. Ensure accountability by continuous measurement, if your organization doesn’t know if something is working, they are less likely to take it seriously. Capture the most important information to obtain value.

Being Value Focused is a driver for Digital Transformation because when you realize the importance of your CRM, you are ensuring a sound and solid investment. Read more about the 10 Keys to Successful Digital Transformation and subscribe to our blog.