Explaining Salesforce.com to the CEO

When you're ready to revamp CRM and need to explain "why Salesforce.com" to the CEO, you must be aware of myths and preconceived notions already in place. Watch out for these big 5 items that could trip you up.

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Misconception 3: Salesforce.com is a glorified contact manager, with lots of metrics to help executives monitor sales reps.

The kernel of truth here is that Salesforce.com is too often used only as a web version of Act or Access, and that is an enormous waste. But the core of this misconception is that an SFA system is an executive tool for closely monitoring rep activity-and that is an enormous tragedy. If the sales team believes that Salesforce.com is there to spy on them and will be the basis for micro-management, the system will be still-born.

Instead, think of SFA as standing for "Sales Funnel Acceleration"-something that the rep wants so he can get a bigger commission check. Salesforce.com is uniquely effective almost anywhere along the SFA to CRM spectrum. Of course the system has lots of metrics and can easily generate reports on rep activity. But focus on how the system increases revenues-a positive for everybody-rather than measurement and activity management, which will seem punitive to some users.

Misconception 4: SaaS CRM's initial lower costs should sell you.

Salesforce.com has low initial procurement costs, like any subscription software. You could buy user licenses only as you need them. Know that Salesforce.com is not the cheapest SaaS CRM vendor (careful, you get what you pay for!), and that SaaS vendors are not able to discount as deeply as on-premises software vendors. But initial procurement costs are not the right way to evaluate CRM packages in any case.

Instead, focus on TCO and delivered value over a 3-year period (no longer!). SaaS CRM system procurement, deployment, and operational costs are lower than on-premises equivalents. But the costs of integration and data cleansing-often a much larger factor-are not much different between SaaS and on-premises. While the TCO of SaaS CRM may be lower, the key is to buy the system that will have the biggest impact on your business results. That doesn't mean "a bigger system"-more on this in part 2 of this article.

Misconception 5: The best way to deploy Salesforce.com is "big bang" style.

Get all the critical features ready and tested for all users before you roll out. Sounds logical enough, but couldn't be more wrong. While you do want to have key features fully tested before you go live, you don't want to deploy all the high-value (read: high-risk) features, or even bring up all the users, at once. Going down the big bang path is to repeat the mistakes of traditional enterprise software, with the similar legacy of delays and cost over-runs. Further, a big bang release strategy undermines system credibility.

Instead: start small, think incremental. Deliver something of value to the business every 6 weeks, gradually on-boarding more users as system credibility grows. Release the high-risk functionality on top of a stable base of "easy features" that have been running for a while. For more on how to sequence features across user groups, departments, and foreign operations, take a look at Chapter 4 of my book, "Salesforce.com Secrets of Success."

Next time, we'll be looking at the 5 things your CEO needs to know about the real business benefits of a well executed CRM system.

David Taber is the author of the new Prentice Hall book, " Salesforce.com Secrets of Success" and is the CEO of SalesLogistix, a certified Salesforce.com consultancy focused on business process improvement through use of CRM systems. SalesLogistix clients are in North America, Europe, Israel, and India, and David has over 25 years experience in high tech, including 10 years at the VP level or above.