Big doesn’t mean better….

One aspect of implementer/vendor selection to get right is to choose a vendor where the potential project is of sufficient size or profile that it’s going to attract the vendor’s attention and interest, while being within their technical capability to deliver and support it. You may feel your investment in CRM technology is a significant one, but if the potential supplier is used to a diet of multi-million pound projects, you may well experience a certain amount of frustration getting their attention.

The problem is that the sales-cycle is often the same regardless as to whether the project spend is £5,000 – £50,000 – £500,000 – or £5,000,000. Companies want information, presentations, proposals, and references, etc. regardless of how much they are spending. This is one of the reasons why I was cautious as to how successful SAP might prove to be courting the CRM mid-market. If you’re the sales guy with a multi-million sales target to achieve, you might accept a £50,000 order, but the last thing you want is to have to devote a great deal of energy to securing it. Conversely the £50,000 project might represent a massive investment for the company making it, which might just make or break the company. Not surprisingly they are likely to progress cautiously and not unreasonably demand considerable hand-holding.

While the temptation might be to gravitate to the companies who can claim to be the biggest in their field, if this means you get starved of the resources you need and get to play with their D team, then this can be a recipe for frustration and failure.