I decided to write this posting because there is so much conversation going on right now about CRM 2.0 and Web 2.0 that it is hard to get a word in regarding all of the other issues that have been traditional barriers to successful CRM initiatives.  Throwing that fuel on an already raging fire just seems like we are asking for trouble.  Don't get me wrong.  Five years ago it was hard getting anyone to talk about CRM (much less the versions of it).

The thing that keeps rubbing me the wrong way with all of these social media and other extensions of CRM into the market place is that much of this discussion is assuming that all the rest of CRM and its operational capabilities are already being met.  I am as big of a tech junkie as you can find.  When the new gadget comes out I am camped out the night before with the rest of the geeks.  I blog and belong to many of the social networking venues.

I guess that is why I am having such a hard time making the connection.  It reminds me of my kid asking me how to make a wheelie (hope I spelled that right) before he can even ride without training wheels.  There is no doubt that these new CRM 2.0 "wheelies" will sell an awful lot of software...now that people are bored with dashboards and sales funnels.

So here is my checklist of the top value added initiatives that you need to have a handle on before you worry about walking around your shop and find sales reps staring at Facebook entries while logged into CRM:

1.  Solidify Marketing - Make sure that all of your marketing initiaitives are well defined within CRM and that you have optimized the current technologies to be able to see when people are opening the messages you send them or when they are hitting your web site.  If you also are able to track the effectiveness of campaigns you can put more money into some efforts and discontinue others mid stream.

2.  Lock down Proposals & Quotes - Show me a sales team and I will show you people frustrated with generating quotes and orders, using multiple systems, and cutting and pasting proposals together every time they have a real deal.  In most organizations this equates to a day or two a month. If you automated quote and proposal generation with professional looking documents how would your sales team use an extra day or two a month?

3.  Connect Systems Like Leggos - So now your team has orders or customer inquiries and people are running around like crazy double entering information or spending lots of time explaining things to order entry or customer service personnel.  Really???  Haven't we gotten past the concept that data entered once should never have to be entered again! If you give people information or integrated systems then you are just given them the opportunity to succeed.

4.  Why Recipes Work - Did you ever bite into a brownie the first time your mom let your little sister make them?  If you managed to keep it down then you are brave.  The point is that recipes, like workflow, enable us to do things the same way over and over again wiht predictable results.

5.  Be the Night Guard - Assuming you are entering and tracking valuable information then you should be able to treat that data like gold.  The night guard at a Bank walks around and is looking for specific things that look right or look wrong every time he passes through.  If you don't have Key Performance Indicators monitoring and notifying you so that you can manage proactively then how valuable is that data people take so much time to enter?

OK, so I think I have gone far enough for now.   If you can email me and tell me that you have all of these things in line with your CRM then CRM 2.0 until the cows come home.  Hopefully I am not just a rambling idiot but addressing internal operations and sales operational excellence should be a priority before you worry about how you are connecting to everyone outside your company walls.