Who’s In Charge of CRM Functions? It Depends…

In many companies, the question of which department oversees customer relationship management is a tricky one. Marketers work with the system on a daily basis, sales has to input data on the go, and IT needs to make sure all the back end processes are in place.

Chief Marketer talked to several industry experts to get their thoughts on who typically controls—or should control—CRM within a marketing organization.

Martin Schneider, director of marketing at Sugar CRM, notes that the advent of software as a service (SaaS) applications have made it easier for marketers to get more in control than the past. The ease of use and reduced cost—a CMO could conceivably put it on his or her corporate card—definitely breaks down the barriers.

“It allows them to circumvent IT, which is a good and a bad thing,” he notes. “You want this to be a well-thought-out approach. We can do things without touching code that five or 10 years ago you couldn’t have done if you weren’t a programmer. And that opens up a lot of opportunity—but it also gives people a lot of rope, and you know what happens when people get too much rope. In order not to hang yourself, you need to think about what will be the business benefit.”

Of course, the CIO is still heavily involved, because CRM serves the needs of multiple communities, says Brad Heidemann, executive vice president, strategy for Agency Q.

“There were a lot of failed CRM implementations in the early 2000s, in the failed dot-com time frame,” Heidemann notes. “In the wave of CRM implementations now, you see people trying to get out of the mess they created back then.”

The reason those systems failed is because they weren’t adopted by end users, he says. “They were typically put in to facilitate execu¬tive reporting and management of the overall sales process, instead of serving the needs of the salespeople or the community managers that supported the biz. The new wave of CRM is much more user focused.”

It is essential for salespeople to be supportive of the CRM process, notes CRM consultant David Taber. The sales organization is often the group that figures out the CRM budget and what is initially needed. But the key to remember is that sales and marketing people don’t think the same way.

“Typically, salespeople aren’t wired for long-term maintenance and process, that’s not where they excel,” says Taber. “Once the system is up and alive, it often transfers into the marketing group, and they’re the ones who make sure things keep going where they need to.”

While IT does need to remain involved to make sure all the func¬tional delivery aspects of CRM are deployed, marketing needs to lead the charge across the enterprise, says Nick Smith, group managing direc¬tor, Accenture Marketing Services.

“CRM is a load of disciplines,” Smith notes, citing London-based media firm Sky as an example. “Sky positions its customer engagement functions with brand acquisition functions through communications and advertising, which drives com¬mercially beneficial relationships to the CRM direction.”

CTC’s Sales-Led CRM

Sales oversees the CRM functions for machinery control platform marketer Control Technology Corp. The company hosts its CRM programs through Sugar CRM, says Martin Umeh, western regional sales manager of CTC, noting that when he first joined the company, CRM was hosted internally.

“That’s not a good idea when you have part-time IT,” he says.
The sales cycle for CTC’s products is typically three to six months, with price points ranging from $600 to $15,000. (“Pitching a control system can be like telling a Mac user to use a PC—it can be a hard sell,” says Umeh.) Sales are 90% U.S.-based. The group has four direct salespeople, and four support staffers, for a total of eight CRM users. Having support across the board is key, he notes.

“They don’t have to love it, but if you can’t get your users to embrace it and use it, that really slows things down,” Umeh notes. He adds that inter¬nally, sometimes training hinges on the little details, like making sure users access Sugar’s quote system, enter all the data rather than set up a bunch of folders in their personal Outlook account, or collect complete customer contact information.

“Someone would send me an e-mail that said, ‘Hey we got contacted by Mike at Such-and-Such Electric and here’s his number.’ No last name, no company name? Really? Really?”