Seven Habits of Highly Effective CRM Consultants

CRM consultants can help companies in various stages in their CRM buying process. CRM consultants can help companies identify what type of CRM software would work best, help research possible vendors and help plan and execute the CRM implementation. To be seen as an effective CRM consultant, keeps these key traits in mind to win more CRM consultant jobs.

Be the Right CRM Consultant for the Job – As a consultant, you should clarify your capabilities at the very beginning. Depending on where the company is in their buying process, chances are they don’t want to spend any more of their time researching a CRM consultant’s background.

Understand the Significance of an Integrated CRM Approach – As a consultant, you know how much time and effort companies put into their CRM buying processes. It is important to know the technical and strategic needs of a company’s CRM initiative to provide the most benefit to their clients.

Understand What CRM Means for Your Client – CRM is a broad subject, and as a consultant you, are expected to be an expert on all things CRM. It is important for a CRM consultant to know what their client is expecting to get out of a CRM solution so you can provide better guidance on what solution to choose or the best implementation practice.

Leverage Your CRM Consulting Experience – Companies will always use experience as a criteria when choosing a CRM consultant. As you gain more experience chances are the CRM consulting offers you receive will be from larger clients with more complex implementation guidelines. When you are working with clients, fall back on your previous experiences and don’t try and reinvent the wheel.

Remember that CRM Modifies Employee Behavior – Implementing a CRM solution is to improve the productivity of the company’s workforce and improve customer interactions. Many employees resist change in their processes and may not want to adopt the CRM processes. Knowing this, you can help address these concerns of the employees during the implementation phase.

Be There for the Company – CRM implementations have a tendency to take longer than originally planned. As a CRM consultant, you can help minimize the chances of the project running longer than expected by working with your clients to create a detail plan of how the implementation will take place. If the implementation process is taking longer than planned, make sure to go over any revised plans with your clients.

Be an Unbiased CRM Consultant – Some CRM consultants work directly with certain vendors and act as an extension to the vendor’s sales team and an implementation expert. Companies that are in the research stage of their CRM buying processes will choose an unbiased CRM consultant to help them choose from the variety of CRM vendors.

However, when it comes time to implement a CRM solution, companies will likely go with a CRM consultant that has experience implementing the solution they decided on.

Being a CRM consultant can be a challenging career path, as many companies know they need a CRM solution but aren’t sure where to start looking. Keeping these seven tips in mind can help you become a leading CRM consultant.