CRMs…Often Misaligned but a True Asset To Any Construction Business

Many companies implement Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems but fail to unlock their full potential.

This article uncovers the missing ingredient—Momentum—and explains how giving your new Sales or Business Development hire the right tools such as an Engine-Class CRM can position them to race ahead in a competitive landscape.

🤔 How can we start to learn to appreciate and value what the CRM does?

As this series of tips are written for an employer with a focus on the recruitment of a new hire in the Sales or Business role for a construction company as the topic we will not delve into the technical world of CRM versus CRM technical comparisons and costs but lightly touch on some points as to why the CRM is a tool for a forward-thinking company, why it is a must-have in today's world and why it is critical for your business development.

The old CRM platform is often an unappreciated if not neglected asset of the company. The senior management only sees it as a grudge purchase and the staff are only too ready to give the role of updating and maintaining its many channels to literally anyone.

Far from a desirable purchase people reluctantly accept them as they are trying to keep track of clients and the ongoing explosion of task setting.

How can we start to learn to appreciate and really value what the CRM does for the company's business development, ask where does it sits in the hierarchy and why is it so important for your new hire to embrace?

In the past, CRMs were often treated as a necessary evil, something that had to be endured. The powerful engine-class CRMs of today are now at the very crown of business development as they reach into every other part of the business. If we mapped the hierarchy of the business system and process, the business development CRM should be viewed as a critical asset.

📈 The Missing Spine of Business Development (BD)

This journey forms the spine of business development—the foundation upon which business development is built. Yet, this spine is often damaged or poorly structured. If you're experiencing frustrating results in your business development, this could be the place to look

Think of the spine of a client journey as a pipeline that carries the enquiry from start to finish. This pipeline touches on each point of your business development that is needed to ensure the enquiry flows through the pipeline as effortlessly as possible.

If the pipeline is poorly constructed the client's journey will not flow properly and they will have a bad journey. This could appear as lots of things, taking too long to respond or quote which then can appear as low enquiries and poor cash flow. The company will feel sluggish and unproductive, the pipeline is leaking profit.

Dedicated CRM 🆚 Multi CRMs

Today's marketplace is flooded with different solutions for CRMs, to make matters worse, true Business Development CRMs are often confused with others due to clever marketing.

Software providers will package their product to be an all-in-one solution but really they are Task or Project Management Software that has a small business development CRM layer bolted on or in reverse a CRM with Task or Project management software connected.

As Task and Project managers they excel as this is their primary core design but the business development side can be inconsistent and limited in its design delivery.

Choosing the truest form of CRM for the task will always bring less conflict and provide more support for those staff using them such as dedicated platforms. The right tool for the job.

🤔 What if we do not have a CRM?

If you have no or an outdated CRM then yes it's time to invest in the company and its processes with the new engine class of CRM. This is a choice of staying ahead of the pack or falling behind which will just mean more work to catch up.

The real question that steps forward from this section is, from a recruitment point of view, should you enclose in your job description for your new Sales or Business Development Manager that you do not have a CRM and or they need to build it?

If a seasoned business development professional or sales manager sees two job descriptions, one from a company that will need to build a CRM and one from a company that has everything in place, the best candidates will, from experience, probably not apply for the job where they have no CRM or have to build one.

It can be a red flag that maybe the business development is not valued. If you do have an old-style CRM, they are so limited and unproductive now compared to the new engine class CRMs that it can be a deciding factor not to apply.

It can also scream chaos and disorganisation. Is this a panic recruitment? It says so much about the company's position and attitude regarding its business development. Unfortunately, it means the best candidates will not apply.

🛠️ The new way - The Engine Class CRMs

The newly developed engine class CRMs allow you to step away from the archaic database view of a CRM and let you catch up on years of intel and progress for your company in an instant. It also lets you take much more of an Editor role as things have become simpler user-wise.

Now you can manage but also connect the full circle of the Business Development function of the company through it as well.

This brings all of the company business development collateral such as your website, social media accounts, e-brochures, and case studies much more in-house and is now more connected to our clients with responses and outreach workflows through options such as a sealed system which we have covered previously. We can then go further and connect to other solutions like powerful project pipelines, creating a steady flow of project opportunities.

You may have already invested in some of this business development collateral, things like your website and maybe some social media, the CRM is the next natural step to harness those assets together.

The business development engine class CRM is the vehicle that is used to drive the roadmap of the overall company's business development strategy which is alive and embedded into the CRM firing off gates and triggers from the collateral 24/7.

Think of it as an engine. A powerful CRM engine. This one component has revolutionised the company's business development approach from the traditional “ passive “ method of waiting for the phone to ring approach to a whole different dynamic. The new approach is far more subtle but aggressive, energetic yet focused.

We have a CRM built around everything discussed in this email called The Momentum Engine, you can claim your free 14-day trial here.

🤝 Connectivity

An important consideration in your selection is to have your CRM system pre-built so it's connected to a Business Development Strategy and Sealed System. This allows you time to observe and digest how the company's business development function is operating in real-time before you even make a new hire.

The costs of CRMs can vary. Find something that feels right visually as much as technically. The most expensive are not always the best and be careful of painful add-on costs.

Another consideration prior to taking on the new hire is to have the CRM set up, pre-populated and running fully with all your client data communicating to save even more time and be ready for deployment. This will help you communicate the role and its many moving parts on the day of the interview which will only create more engagement and help guide you towards suitability for the role.

By having these solutions connected and already in place, we find this eradicates most of the poor business development performance before the new hire is even selected improving their chance of success which is what we all want.

📈 Momentum

We often find companies have invested heavily in marketing or business development but something seems off, it feels flat. Why, they ask themselves, we seem to have covered everything. They have all the components and all the collateral. This can cause your existing business development team to struggle and may have led you to need to recruit someone in the Sales or Business Development role.

What we find is missing is Momentum.

That may resonate with some of you. What we would suggest you use to assist in the correction of this is an engine class CRM.

Connecting your Sealed System and Business Development Strategy through the engine class CRM with its many Pipelines helps kick the business development function into life. One action causes a reaction. Now the engine class CRM engine ticks over 24/7 just as it should giving massive support to the new hire in the Sales or Business Development role.

💯 Conclusion: A Smarter Way to Recruit

By having the right assets in place, you can attract better staff.

The CRM becomes the heartbeat of the business.

Bring your business development to life - Momentum!

Add stability to your company so you can grow safely.

If you would like to discuss what you need to get into place before hiring a sales or BDM representative, book a power session with one of our business advisors today!