Selecting a CRM suite with complex functionality combined with the wrong delivery model has also created a lot of frustration. By recognizing these common mistakes, you can understand how to avoid the common pitfalls of CRM deployment and increase your chances of getting on the winning side of CRM.

Define Your Business Objectives
Priorities and expectations of what CRM will or should deliver must align with your company's business objectives, and you need to understand how to measure the success of your implementation. One reason CRM implementations stall is that companies don't establish specific goals and metrics to measure the success of their CRM efforts. Nor do they make the goals of individuals, especially salespeople, align with the overarching company goals. Also, if you want to be successful with CRM, learn how your company defines success. Is a successful CRM project simply one that gets deployed throughout your entire organization? Will success be based on better pipeline management, tangible ROI, overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and an increase in return customers? Is responding quicker to sales leads your goal? Until you know what your business objectives are and what end results you want to achieve, you lack the appropriate measurements to gauge CRM success.

Set Realistic Goals For Individuals That Align With Your Business Objectives
Once you have established your business objectives, examine them closely and realistically, both in terms of scope of the implementation and anticipated results. CRM projects often fail when companies try to solve too many issues with one massive implementation, or when their goals are too ambitious. It's also important to create realistic goals that have a personal impact upon your salespeople. Most CRM/ Sales Force Automation (SFA) deployments stall because salespeople see no clear personal value derived from "keying in" the data. However, if you automate the right business processes, your CRM system can act as a virtual sales coach helping them manage and close more deals.

Typically, traditional CRM projects tend to grow in scope and complexity as they unfold. Companies start with little or no insight into their customers, and expect their CRM software to capture a 360-degree view, all in one leap. Or, companies start with a desire to automate sales processes, and end up automating services and marketing as well.
Other times company expectations inflate to unrealistic proportions: doubling sales, reducing support head count by 50 percent, or tripling direct mail response rates. The end result is companies spend too much money for too little ROI on a system that takes too long to implement and isn't used by the salespeople.

Instead of all-encompassing CRM projects, it's more appropriate for companies to focus on small improvements. Break your goals into manageable chunks, and implement them one at a time. In addition to increasing your chances for CRM success, you'll also reduce business disruption and increase employee buy-in. Employees will be more likely to cooperate with the implementation when they see it will provide real, personal benefits. And, if you have a track record of delivering success, it's a lot easier to ask for - and get - additional funding for your next CRM project.

Focus on the Sales Process
Currently, the number of companies who still haven't taken the time to determine their goals and objectives has grown substantially because an amazing number of companies view automation as the panacea. But automation- and data-focused approaches alone will not improve your relationship with your customers or help your sales team sell more effectively. If you want increased effectiveness in reaching your objectives, it's crucial to focus on having the right processes in place with the right infrastructure to institutionalize successful selling behaviors.

CRM projects will succeed only when companies automate the right business processes, otherwise results are random. Responding quicker to sales leads may be a definable objective, but not necessarily one that results in more sales - your sales team may be responding faster, but with varying degrees of success. It's vital to ensure that you automate your best business processes in order to ensure predictable and continuous improvement. Applying a powerful technology to flawed business processes will only succeed in ensuring that your team will make the same mistakes repeatedly. When choosing a CRM vendor, look for one that has a dedicated team to help your organization clearly define your best business practices. Or, you can hire an outside consulting team to identify your processes before applying a technology fix.

Choose The Right Technology
Once you have defined your business objectives, grounded your expectations, and at least addressed the issues of identifying your best practices, it's time to begin your due diligence process to select the right CRM application for your business needs. This phase can be difficult and confusing. CEOs tend to request new technology based on stories in computer magazines while CIOs struggle to find the time to adequately evaluate products. You'll get mixed messages from your executive team and you'll feel pressured to make a decision, especially when aggressive CRM sales reps use closing tactics aimed at having you to believe that if you don't select their CRM application your company is doomed to failure.

Companies often buy technology just because their competition has bought it. This is known as The IBM Syndrome ("No one ever got fired for buying IBM.") However, responsible companies must look beyond brand name when considering CRM vendors. It's important that a CRM vendor has strong customer testimonials and experience in deploying to companies such as yours. If you have global users, make sure that scalability and bandwidth will not be a problem. And don't overbuy on features. It's not uncommon for companies to choose CRM packages with the belief that more is better. While it's true that many packages with lots of widgets can offer long-term benefits, the time required to implement them will negate the benefits by delaying the return on investment.

There are too many complex CRM suites available today with bloated initial costs and inflated total cost of ownership (TCO), which bog down the implementation, complicate the deployment process, and often lead to low user compliance. What good will lots of features be when your CRM application can't deliver accurate pipeline forecasting and real-time pipeline analysis because your users refuse to use it? Remember, garbage in equals garbage out, and your CRM system is only beneficial if your users enjoy working and selling with it and derive personal value from it.

Choosing the right vendor means focusing on what delivery model will work best for your business. If time and money are of no concern, begin by seeking out the traditional CRM/SFA vendors. But if you need real-time data available in an intuitive and easy-to-use application, then a Web-based CRM/SFA deployment is the right way to go. A Web-based application will ensure a low TCO and easy customization to fit your unique business and selling environment without any of the burden of traditional software packages. Web-based CRM/SFA applications also offer quicker ROI. Client/server models can take anywhere from six to 18 months to fully implement, while Web-based applications offer a fast deployment to get your users up and running within weeks or a few months, depending on the size of your organization. Choosing a technology and delivery model that meets your business requirements is vital to ensuring your company's success with a CRM deployment.

Conclusion
If your company has yet to begin its CRM initiative, following the recommendations in this article will help you avoid failure. If your company is in the middle of an implementation, it's not too late to stop and reevaluate. Many stalled CRM implementations have the potential for success if companies make the switch to a Web-based SFA/CRM solution.

When you identify your business objectives, set realistic goals, and establish your best business practices, it becomes easier to select and implement the appropriate CRM/SFA solution and gain a very high percentage of user acceptance. Don't feel you have to make the decision yourself - pull in internal resources from your company, especially members of the sales and marketing teams. It's important that you hear the opinions, recommendations, and concerns of all those who will be using the new CRM system. And, if everyone feels like they have a voice in the initiative, gaining user acceptance becomes an easier goal to achieve. Once the right solution and the right model is in place, you'll find yourself where you want to be -- on the winning side of CRM.