Your “CRM system”

If I asked you about your CRM system, how would you describe it?

Is it a piece of software?

Is it CiviCRM?

That's the usual answer, but I'm growing less and less satisfied with it.

Not with the software. CiviCRM is great, for many organizations, and for many reasons.

But I’m starting to see it's a mistake to say that your CRM system consists solely of your CRM software.

True, CiviCRM, like Salesforce and others, is a fine CRM tool. And mastering its use is important and valuable.

But such tools will only help you to the extent that you have your own CRM process, that is, your organization's unique process for managing relationships with your constituents.

That CRM process, together with your tools, is your CRM system.

What this means is:

If your primary concern, when it comes to Constituent Relationship Management, is about your CRM software, you're probably missing out on a lot of relationship opportunities.

Those are opportunities that you won't even notice until you make a regular practice of looking for them.

And regular practice is what it takes. Frequent, creative, goal-driven effort to:

• identify the journey you have in mind for your constituents,

• understand where each of them are in that journey,

• define the next step they need to take, and

• lead them, kindly but effectively, to take those next steps.

Here's the thing:

Your CRM software can help, but no software can really do this for you.

It's a process that you, together with your staff and your advisors, have to work out on your own.

It's simple to say, hard to do, and oh so worth the effort.

All the best,
A.