If you ever want an object lesson in candour and taking an objective long term view then look no further than Warren Buffett’s annual shareholders letter. Observing on the mayhem in the financial markets in his 2007 letter he notes ‘You only learn who has been swimming naked when the Continue Reading

As someone very sagely noted in a meeting last week – while the initial stages of a CRM implementation pick off the low hanging fruit, the real benefits accumulate over time. To illustrate the point I’ll tell a rambling and probably not very grammatical tale of one of our older Continue Reading

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. Continue Reading

One of the big benefits of deploying CRM technology can be systemising the handling of leads and enquiries. In his book ‘Lead Generation for the Complex Sale’ Brian Carroll notes that ‘as many as 80 percent of leads are typically lost, ignored or discarded’. Some leads simply don’t get followed Continue Reading

I get a bit blasé about the importance of selecting the right vendor. MyCustomer.com is due to publish an opinion piece that I wrote about CRM consultants not just being about vendor selection. And I have been known to suggest from time to time that effective requirements definition is actually Continue Reading

While it’s a significant proportion of the project work we undertake it’s not always obvious why we get involved in the requirements definition phase of a CRM implementation. Before I address that point it’s probably worth summarizing why effective requirements definition as an activity is so important to a project’s Continue Reading

In his improbably entitled autobiography ‘Blood, Brains, and Beer’ David Ogilvy quoted Louis XIV: ‘Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cents mecontents et un ingrate.’ – every time I give someone a job, I make a hundred people unhappy and one person ungrateful. Neither party Continue Reading

Well the invitation to vendors regarding show-case sites didn’t illicit an overwhelming response, though that could be a reflection on the breadth of readership rather than anything else. That said I did get an unexpected email from Jeff Thull the other week after my note about his ‘Mastering the Complex Continue Reading

When people think about independent CRM consultants they tend to see us as advisors on technology selection. While this is a key part of what CRM consultants do, in reality we tend to be involved throughout the implementation cycle and add value in ways that may surprise the uninitiated. The Continue Reading

I’ve been doing the CRM equivalent of wearing neon pink in a Wimbledon final, coughing when your opponent is about to take a vital putt on the 18th, or bowling underarm in a test match, in other words going against protocol. More specifically we’ve been asking for reference sites before Continue Reading