How mature are you?

No, not you specifically – your CRM. More accurately, your business process as it relates to CRM and the management of your customers and prospects.

I seem to have some version of this conversation during every implementation. As I sit with the executive team we discuss business maturity and where, as an organization, they’ve been – as well as where they want to be. When I talk with Sales teams we discuss how mature their Sales process is. With marketers… you get the idea.

I tell all of my clients – Customer Relationship Management software is not really about the customer. GASP?! What? It’s about the process you design, implement, and track that helps you manage your customer relations. To grow your business and properly leverage technology to manage your relationships, you need to understand how mature your processes are.

Many of you are aware of the different Maturity Models out there.  Carnegie Mellon has their Capability Maturity Model (CMM) which lead to SEI’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), and a brief Google search will return millions of hits. There is a good one (big and complex) from CRM Magazine that shows the growth of CRM and Social Media.

Since this subject is an entire MBA course by itself, I always try to simplify it as much as possible while retaining the salient points. Those of you that have been around me long enough know I call this process the Big Crayon Picture (BCP since this is an industry that can’t live without acronyms). I find that if I can boil issues and concepts down to a Big Crayon Picture with the project team, then the end user will better absorb them and more easily adopt a new system. I love Big Crayon Pictures!

I wanted something I could use to explain these concepts in a way that everyone could understand. I wanted one I could use with an executive team, the sales team, or marketing professionals. I wanted a simple CRM Maturity Model. I wanted to reduce, reuse, and recycle. I needed a Big Crayon Picture.

As you can see, an organization grows through the process it generates. An organization moves from surviving on the heroic efforts of a couple key people to repeatable, measurable, consistent process.

This is not an overnight process. Clients that tell me they want their project to take them from level 1 to level 5 – in 8 weeks no less – I tell to step back, review their checkbook balance, and then let’s create the plan that will get them there, eventually.

In future posts, I will discuss the different levels of the model and key strategies to move successfully from one level to the next. For now, the Big Crayon Picture should do – that’s the point of a BCP anyway, right?

I hope you can use my Big Crayon Picture to help your project or team better understand the efforts needed. Feel free to contact me if you need help or want a larger pdf version of it. Good Luck!

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now.