Photo credit: Paul Pitman
Apart from an incredible taste in silk ties and a slightly obsessional interest in old Land Rovers, what else should you expect from a CRM consultant? If you are paying good money to someone to advise you on CRM, what are the top 5 things to look for? Spoiler Alert – the ties and Land Rovers are not that important!
A consultant, it is said, is someone who will borrow your watch to tell you the time. So if you are retaining the services of a consultant to guide you on your CRM journey, we recommend that, at the very least, they should add some measurable value. Gone are the days when conducting a requirements survey and producing a list of software vendors is worth any more than what you would pay to run a Google search. Today’s leading CRM consultants provide value in the following areas.
Relevant subject matter expertise
If you are looking to implement a CRM solution to address the needs of your sales team, then it makes sense that your CRM consultant understands how to sell. Equally, if you are a B2C company, does the consultant have B2C experience? Think about the business area that will drive the ROI for your CRM project and look for consultants with CRM expertise in that area. Has you consultant got experience in managing sales, service or marketing teams and hitting their KPI’s? If the answer is “No” then how are they qualified to advise your business?
Goldilocks appeal
As with the fairy story, your CRM consultant should be used to working with clients that are “not too big and not too small – in fact, just the right size.” Have they worked with clients the same size as your organisation? Also, what size of organisation does the consultant work for? The idea that hiring consultants from one of the “Big 4” will improve the quality of the advice given is quickly dismissed when they turn up for a meeting with more people than you employ.
Challenges the “status quo” with the experience to back it up
The ideal consultant will challenge your current way of thinking,
- Why are you doing a particular thing?
- Why are you doing that particular thing in a particular way?
- What happens if you don’t do it?
,and will have the knowledge and experience to suggest alternatives. It is in those alternatives that the consultant’s expertise and knowledge shine brightest. Either they will provide you with solutions to problems, improvements to current processes, or they will stimulate you to find your own.
Access to a network
Now, more than ever, it’s not just what you know – it’s who you know. Top consultants have great personal networks. These have built up, often over many years, and are fellow professionals. Contacts who have been tested in the past, and who are known to be reliable and trustworthy.
Your consultant assumes an element of responsibility when they refer you to someone in their network; they are sharing the risk with you. If their contact doesn’t “come up with the goods” then the consultant’s reputation suffers.
Commitment to a long term relationship
The very best consultants understand that they are building long term relationships. So while your initial engagement may be measured in days or weeks, the best consultant will still be in contact with you years after they have delivered their recommendations. This interest in seeing the results of their work is the mark of a great consultant. Whether you adopted their suggestions in full or in part, there is valuable data to be gathered and experience to be gained. By keeping in touch over time, the consultant will continually develop their expertise, and you will retain access to a valuable resource who understands you and your business.
Consultants can offer you security and peace of mind, they can apply a dispassionate perspective to a difficult decision, and they can guide and mentor. Consultants can do many things, but they cannot guarantee the success of your CRM project. What the very best CRM consultants do is provide you with the knowledge and tools to write your own guarantees.
…if only they could fix Land Rovers though!
