CRM chemistry….

I had a call from a reseller on Friday who was interested to know a bit more about what we as independent CRM consultants do. When I explained the vendor selection side of our services, they were interested to know which implementer I recommended for the CRM product they sold. Whether they believed the answer or not, I explained that it wasn’t a simple as product x = reseller y.

There are a number of reasons for this: if a CRM product was sold through business partners (e.g. Microsoft CRM), and if that product was a strong contender, we would almost certainly look to involve more than one reseller. One reason being that we find resellers to be somewhat schizophrenic when it comes the way they price projects. This may reflect project work load, but one time you’ll ask and they’ll come up with something very competitive, the next it can be completely stratospheric.

Secondly, the nature of the project itself and the skills required to make it successful drives the choice of potential vendors, for example a complex implementation might orientate us towards suppliers with a heavy duty implementation methodology, or a client with a tight budget might suggest an up and coming vendor looking to build their customer base.

Lastly we don’t make selections for clients. We see our role as finding highly capable suppliers, but ultimately the final choice will always be the client’s to make. While we will provide commentary and analysis, ultimately chemistry is always going to play a key part – who do they feel most comfortable working with?

Chemistry of course be a very dangerous thing if it’s chemistry between the client and the salesperson – which is they way most CRM purchase decisions get made – because generally they’re not going to be around once they’ve cashed the commission cheque, but as long as it’s chemistry with the people that will be implementing and supporting the technology, and it’s a chemistry decision between well qualified vendors, then chemistry’s fine with us.

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