User Review
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Global CRM- FOR GLOBAL businesses, having a global CRM system is critical for getting far-flung sales and support teams on the same page and driving efficiency. But for such systems to be successful, they need to overcome three big challenges: (1) achieving uniform business processes; (2) securing user adoption; and (3) establishing a monitoring system.
Challenge No. 1, achieving uniform processes in areas such as sales forecasting, customer support, and marketing automation, and configuring global CRM to support these processes, too often comes down to a company’s subsidiaries and offices in one region feeling that their accounts differ meaningfully from those of other regions and therefore standardizing processes is a bad idea. Nothing can be further from the truth. Best-in-class companies have demonstrated that 70 percent to 80 percent of all global processes can and should be uniform, with the remaining 20 percent to 30 percent tweaked to meet a region’s unique needs.
Likewise, the challenge of securing user adoption of global business processes and global CRM can be overcome via extensive communications and training. It is not enough that top management insists on using global CRM or adopting global processes. Through an effective communications and training program, users can be shown that the what’s-in-it-for-me far outweighs the inconvenience of learning new processes and supporting CRM technology.
Finally, global companies must embrace analytics to measure the impact of uniform global business processes supported by a global CRM system. Best-in-class global CRM systems now contain needed monitoring and measurement tools to create desired executive dashboards and analytics reports.
COMPANY X TAKES GLOBAL CRM TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Let’s examine how one international firm, Company X, has put global CRM to work in support of its global account management (GAM) process. Company X is a global leader in producing, selling, and servicing fruit plants to farmers. Over the past five years, it has witnessed rapid growth in global accounts that now make up more than 40 percent of the company’s global sales, with the forecast calling for an even higher percentage by 2025.
A few months ago, Company X’s executive team met with their counterparts from their top 10 global accounts, during which time the light bulb went off: Unless Company X harmonized its sales and support processes globally and drove efficiency into these processes with an enhanced global CRM, it risked losing significant business to competitors. Yet Company X faced a dilemma: Rapid growth in global sales over the past decade had meant global business processes and support technology differed across its subsidiaries in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
