5 secrets for building a customer-centric business

According to a major analyst, enterprises that deploy CRM strategies will return at least 25 percent better
financial returns than those that don’t. How can your organization deliver such results? If you’re a small or
midsize business, work to incorporate the 5 secrets below in your CRM system. In the process, you’ll
transform your business and set the stage for even greater success in the years ahead.
1. Without a clear mission, you’ll falter
2. CRM is a business strategy, not a technology Abstract
Small and midsize businesses can greatly
3. Don’t invest another dime in technology infrastructure increase their chances for success by becoming
customer centric. Here are 5 secrets for
4. CRM dashboards are more than just eye candy achieving that goal.
5. Becoming customer centric is an ongoing process By Wendy Close

Secret 1: Without a clear mission, you’ll falter

Studies of successful businesses show one clear indicator of success: The business knows exactly what
value it’s delivering, to whom, and how to do so profitably. Successful CRM demands a clear CRM vision
so you can put a strategy and corresponding infrastructure in place. For example, our mission at
salesforce.com is to make every customer and partner wildly successful. We came up with several CRM
strategies to realize our mission—a user community for sharing information and best practices, an online
service for sharing business applications (www.appexchange.com), a virtual demo environment, and free
trials for a taste of success before buying (www.salesforce.com).

Secret 2: CRM is a business strategy, not a technology

A CRM system will help you achieve these basic strategies for a successful customer-centric business:

 Extend the depth and breadth of your customer relationships

 Reduce delivery channel costs and create barriers to entry
 Reinforce your brand
 Create customer satisfaction and loyalty
In an independent survey of 944 small to midsize businesses (SMBs) that use Salesforce CRM, the top
three business strategies were revenue enhancement, customer loyalty and satisfaction, and cost reduction.
What are your key strategies?
5 secrets for building a customer-centric business

Secret 3: Don’t invest another dime in technology infrastructure

Many CIOs of SMBs are trapped, spending their entire IT budget just on keeping the lights on. To avoid
that fate, consider spending 20 to 35 percent of your IT budget on innovation. Decommission any legacy
client/server apps that are hard to use, maintain, support, and upgrade—they’re likely to be a hefty portion
of your IT budget. Then integrate those applications where it makes sense to exchange data into CRM.

Secret 4: CRM dashboards are more than

just eye candy
Investing in developing dashboards can have a big
impact on business performance.
Dashboards inspire by showing information in context,
highlighting productivity and showing effectiveness—
all at a glance.
With dashboards, you can see key CRM performance
indicators all together: the number of open
opportunities, close rate, competitive knockouts,
number of open service calls, average time to service
resolution, and more.
There are literally hundreds of CRM metrics you can track. Best practice is to use no more than 7 (±2)
metrics at any given management level.

Secret 5: Becoming customer centric is an ongoing process

As an SMB, being able to adapt to change is your greatest weapon against competition from larger
businesses. Your CRM strategy and the technology that supports it should be flexible and adaptable to
changing conditions. Make sure you regularly reevaluate your approach to stay customer centric.
Use these secrets to evaluate your own approach to CRM. With the right vision, strategies, and tools, you
can develop closer customer relationships, gain competitive advantage, and succeed.

For More Information

Contact your account executive to learn

how we can help you accelerate your
CRM success.

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