Drive Change And Adoption Of Your Technology Investments

Drive Change And Adoption Of Your Technology Investments

Digital Transformation

Drive Change And Adoption Of Your Technology Investments

The CRM Team will be hosting a free webinar titled Adapting To Change: User Adoption & Technology, helping business leaders optimise their software investment through effective change management.

This topical session will illustrate how effective change management and training improve user adoption and help maximise investment in new solutions. Whether one is planning to implement a new solution or already has a solution that users are failing to embrace, this user adoption, training, and change management session will outline how to improve adoption through proven methodologies.

Mark James, head of training at The CRM Team, says new technology solutions may promise to improve your business, however, without user buy-in and adoption, your ROI and business impacts may be disappointing. “Imagine you have to complete a series of tasks in a dark room. The fact that there is low to no visibility makes it almost impossible to execute your tasks effectively.” 

“At the risk of stating the obvious, it might be easier if you could simply flick a switch and light up your playing field. Creating the ideal systems solution for all your users and stakeholders can be just as challenging, but you can light up your playing field by consulting and involving key users in the process, from planning, through execution, all the way to realising a return on your investment,” he explains.

Discover what works and what does not in change management and user adoption programmes. Join The CRM Team and get an overview of the most effective Adoption and Change Management strategies to accelerate one’s digital transformation.

Delegates will see first-hand how to rapidly release the value from your technology investments as these change management specialists share their insight and practical tips for maximising user adoption.

The webinar will be held at 10:00 on 21 June 2022, for more information visit https://www.itweb.co.za/webinar/crm-team-adapting-to-change-user-adoption-technology/

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Tried-and-True Tips for Sales and Marketing Alignment

Tried-and-True Tips for Sales and Marketing Alignment

Dynamics and Power Platform

Tried-and-True Tips for Sales and
Marketing Alignment

Firstly, What Is Sales And Marketing Alignment?

Sales and marketing alignment, or “smarketing” as some like to call it, is essentially getting these two teams to cooperate as one; working towards a common goal – generating and increasing revenue in the long run.

Think of your business as one big family. As with real families, there are usually two or more relations (like siblings) who are constantly bickering, and in this instance, Sales and Marketing can be considered the corporate siblings.

Aligning these two teams is an opportunity to grow your business. As a sales or marketing manager (or parent in this instance), it can be frustrating to constantly try and keep the peace between the two teams, especially when your time could be better spent on more productive tasks.

Getting these “siblings” to collaborate and listen yields a brand new invention – or simply creates a much more harmonious working environment. Which in turn leads to a healthy impact on organisational growth (see more on this infographic by Wheelhouse advisors).

 

Did you know that $1 trillion of revenue is lost annually due to marketing misalignment?

Let’s explore some ways on how to better align your marketing and sales teams.

 

Spot The Difference

Sales and marketing teams are often siloed through different offices, technologies and goals. By (literally) breaking down the walls between these two teams, you can combine the sales and marketing funnels into one process for both teams. How? With Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales and Marketing. Both of these software solutions are based on the same platform so that both teams can share and access data and business processes – simplifying the alignment between sales and marketing teams.

 

Practice What You Preach

As the leader of your team, you should practice what you preach. Openly praising (or criticizing) another team in front of your own will set the precedent for them to do the same. Small, simple ways to start the alignment process are by giving credit where it’s due; openly collaborating with other team leaders and carrying their contributions back to your own team. When your team sees your cooperation with the other, the effect will trickle down.

 

Check-In Regularly

Another way to align the sales and marketing teams is to simply communicate with one another. It can be as quick as grabbing a coffee together or through scheduled meetings.  This essentially helps the team gain in-depth knowledge of one another’s challenges. Attending meetings together lets teams know how each one is doing with their goals and how they can support one another. For example, the marketing team can share what content they’re creating and promoting, while the sales team can help marketing improve their lead-generating skills.

 

Generate Quality Leads Together

In order to generate strong quality leads, both the marketing and sales teams need to align on what the ideal client looks like. If this is not clear, marketing campaigns could be skewed and sales will waste time chasing misinformed leads. Assessing your buyer persona together ensures more accurate marketing campaigns and higher close rates for the sales team, and ultimately increased revenue. A win for everyone!

 

Feedback Drives Improvement

Smarketing needs to head toward the same goal with the same coordinated messaging, and as long as each department is doing this, everyone will be aligned. Keeping an open feedback loop to ensure everyone is on the same page is imperative to achieving alignment and organisational growth. For example, should a prospect or customer ask for content that doesn’t exist (yet), there should be a simple way for marketing to receive this nudge and add it into their content strategy. Similarly, sales should ensure they’re using defined brand tone/messaging when prospecting. This type of open communication drives improvement across both teams.

 

Be A Motivator

Though it may seem to be the most obvious route to alignment, motivation hardly seems to be the first thought that comes to mind. By motivating everyone on your team – from the CEO to the new intern – you’ll get a better understanding of the financial value of their work.

 

Set Common Goals

Creating similar KPIs and goals is a great way to align smarketing. Having the same goal gets both teams working and strategising together, providing a more holistic approach to marketing. This also creates a seamless transition from marketing to sales, preventing broken messaging that could result in losing a potential lead. When conversion rates and lead value is measured and influenced by both teams, this would be a great key performance indicator (KPI) smarketing can work towards.

 

Understanding What Each Team Wants

There will naturally be different KPIs for each team and colleague, but for true smarketing alignment, there needs to be a general understanding of what each team wants to achieve and how they can work together to achieve it. Perhaps it comes down to the sales team reducing the number of touchpoints between converting a lead to a sale. By collaborating with the marketing team, they can create succinct workflows that allow leads to pass between marketing and sales, as and when necessary.

 

So, there you have it – tried and true tips for aligning your sales and marketing teams; these tips should help your teams get along effortlessly. But remember, implementing the same tools such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales and Marketing, having the same processes and aligning your goals is key. When one team is working with leads from the other, data can get lost on both sides and teams can’t see where the lead originated from, track its progress or provide feedback on trends surrounding these leads.

Now that there’s virtually nothing holding you back, see what you can do to improve smarketing alignment today – we suggest starting with a coffee, a chat and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

 

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Digital Transformation – Everything’s Changing

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Assimilating Change Management and Project Management

Assimilating Change Management and Project Management

Inspirational

Assimilating Change Management and Project Management

Resistance is futile…

(A tribute to the “Trekkies” out there)
When the Enterprise first engages the Borg, Locutus says: “Resistance – is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over… Strength is irrelevant. Resistance is futile. We wish to improve ourselves. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.”
Captain Picard’s response? “I will resist you with my last ounce of strength.”

Every organization has its own biological and technological distinctiveness. When we are invited to make changes to this distinctiveness, be sure, we will encounter varying degrees of resistance. It is therefore absolutely essential that we meticulously plan and execute both the project and the people aspects of any systems implementation.

We could engage potential system users with an aggressive “Resistance is futile – you will be assimilated”, but in my experience, the human is an obstinate species and our aggression will be met with a resounding “I will resist you with my last ounce of strength.” In my experience; we are doomed to lose that battle. There is a better way.

Complementary Disciplines…

Project Management is focused on the Technical aspects of systems implementation, while Change Management is focused on the People aspects. Project Management seeks to design, develop and deliver technology. Change Management seeks to engage users to help them adopt and use this technology to the benefit of their clients, their organization, their team and themselves. Success can only be achieved when we give enough attention to both.

According to Prosci.com; “they each provide focus, processes and tools for moving through the transition toward the future state”. They go on to say: “The Unified Value Proposition of applying both Project Management and Change Management is actually quite simple: delivering intended improvement through successfully implemented change programs.”

In a recent article entitled “Change Management and Project Management: A Side-by-side Comparison” Tim Creasey – Chief Innovation Officer at Prosci – states: “Each discipline brings the critical structure needed for effectively implementing change and achieving the results you want. Yet, Change Management and Project Management must work together to achieve successful change. Doing so creates a unified value proposition, which sets the foundation for tactical integration and delivers value across all aspects of the project, including both the people side and technical side.”

The bottom line is that there is immense benefit in assimilating these two disciplines. However; this is much easier said than done. You will have to plan your approach carefully and with some degree of agility, knowing that each project will present unique challenges and rewards. Learn to adjust your course on the fly, without losing focus of the milestones and the desired outcomes.

Assimilation…

According to merriam-webster.com/dictionary: ”Assimilation refers to the process through which individuals and groups of differing heritages acquire the basic habits, attitudes, and mode of life of an embracing culture.”

Project Management is already a universally accepted discipline for introducing new systems in an organization. Change Management – not so much!
Traditional Project Management approaches often do not account for essential elements like effective communication, sponsorship, coaching, training and resistance management.
It is only when we successfully integrate Change Management disciplines into our Project Management activities that we help the people in the organization to ”understand, internalize and support a change throughout the project’s lifecycle”.

“Research shows that the earlier Change Management is started on a project or initiative, the more likely the project is to meet or exceed objectives.” “… when Change Management is started at the beginning of a project, the activities can be fully integrated.”

The calamitous reality is that Change Management is too often slapped on in an attempt to cauterise the wounds on an already injured and dying project. These wounds are most often inflicted by employees, supervisors and managers resisting the changes imposed on them. The wounds could be in the form of a decline in productivity, point-blank resistance to change, and even a possible loss of valued employees. So; when we stand at ceremony to lay to rest our beloved systems implementation, we cannot help but think that this death was so unnecessary. We could so easily have prevented this tragedy – if only we had acted early.

Having said that – with all the prior hyperbole added merely for emphasis – it is important to add that Change Management can add value even at a late stage in the project. Obviously, the earlier you start with Change Management, the greater the chances of success.

 

My Advice…

Develop an assimilated strategy where both Project Management and Change Management strategies can be managed in the optimal sequence, to ensure that the users, their teams, the organization and its executives, and customers can derive maximum benefit in as short a time as possible. You would need a good understanding of the Project Management processes and the Change Management process. Then begin to merge the stages and steps to create a hybrid process that works for your team and your customers. Good luck.

It might not be an easy or enviable task, but it will not do itself. To quote the great body-builder, Ronnie Coleman, just before attempting to lift 800 pounds with his legs: “Ain’t Nothing To It, But To Do It”.

You might instinctively resist the call to exert all this effort, but might I remind you that “Resistance is futile!”

Mark James

Mark has been a Microsoft Certified Trainer for many years and has been training Dynamics since CRM version 4.0.

He specialises in Dynamics 365 end-user training and has trained across the UK, Africa, and the Middle East. Mark is proficient in Microsoft Dynamics 365: Sales, Service, Deployment, and Customization & Configuration.

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The CRM Team welcomes changes to the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program

The CRM Team welcomes changes to the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program

Digital Transformation

The CRM Team Welcomes Changes To The Microsoft Cloud Partner Program

Microsoft continues to evolve its partner program and will be rolling out a new Microsoft Cloud Partner Program. This change reflects the vast transition of business operations to the cloud, and Microsoft plans to support its partners in the future.

Microsoft is terminating its Silver and Gold competencies, achievements that partners could earn to help differentiate their businesses to customers beyond a baseline partner network membership status.

The CRM Team Head of Delivery Operations, Bertha Musanhu, says Microsoft is simplifying its partner programs with solutions partner designations, anchored on the Microsoft Cloud in six solution areas aligned to how Microsoft goes to market.

“By attaining these designations, you can demonstrate your organisation’s capabilities in delivering customer success in the solution areas. That’s valuable for you, because it’s where we see customer demand, and where the opportunity is for partners to scale to meet customer needs,” she explains.

The Microsoft Cloud Partner Program will be open to Microsoft’s current partners including managed services providers, resellers, systems integrators, independent software vendors (ISVs) and device partners.

However, Microsoft is changing the way it categorises its partners to signal their cloud capabilities and experience. Microsoft will have six solution areas that partners can specialise in. Solutions Partner is the first new partner qualifying level.

The new partner program opens the opportunity to grow and develop as a Microsoft Partner. This model provides two qualifying levels: solutions partner and specialist/expert. The partner designations will be aligned to the six Microsoft Cloud solution areas including:

  • Data & AI (Azure)
  • Infrastructure (Azure)
  • Digital & App Innovation (Azure)
  • Business Applications
  • Modern Work
  • Security

Musanhu says a new partner capability score will rank partners’ performance and technical skills based on their certifications, new customers, successful implementations and overall growth.

“Microsoft’s new program will be mainly focused on several different areas: Azure data and AI, Azure infrastructure, Azure digital and app innovation, business applications, modern work, and security,” she concludes.

Microsoft continues to invest its partner ecosystem and continues to grow its Azure cloud offerings. These changes to the partner program certainly reflect their cloud-first approach. The new program introduces three levels of competency for partners who demonstrate expertise in the various Azure offerings. This partner status will solidify their authority as Microsoft experts.

 

Bertha Musanhu – Head of Delivery Operations

Bertha has been with The CRM Team for 5 years overseeing Delivery Operations, she is a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing Functional Consultant Associate and she holds a BCOM in Marketing Degree. She is currently busy with an Advanced Project Management Certification and is equipped to deliver projects using Agile Principles. Her Favorite workplace Moto is  “When our Customers Win, We win! ”

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Digital Transformation – Everything’s Changing

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Our vision for the Microsoft customer data platform

Our vision for the Microsoft customer data platform

AI & Data Analytics

Our vision for the
Microsoft customer data platform

Realizing the Largest Benefits of Using Customer Data Platforms

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are a modern solution to a modern problem: disconnected customer data. We’re currently living in a world full of data, but data is useless unless you have the tools to interpret it. This is the value that a CDP can bring to your organization. This guide will explain the benefits of CDPs to everyone in your business, with examples from Microsoft Dynamics 365, so you can get ahead with understanding your customer data.

 

Why You Need A CDP

With so many brands, products and services on the market, and millions of new businesses opening each year, customers can become overwhelmed with choice. When multiple organizations offer high-quality products or services, customers begin to pay more attention to how brands interact with them. Customers want to feel recognized, valued, and understood by the brands they interact with and the only way for you to create this feeling is to have data about them. Lots of data.

It would take a long time to manually collect data for each of your existing and potential customers across all platforms, not to mention how resource-intensive it would be. AI-powered CDPs have the capability to collect masses of data, including behavioral data from customer interaction, demographic data, and transactional data. Not only this, but the AI in a CDP can analyze this data for you, creating a unified customer database that can be used to personalize customer touchpoints and increase engagement.

There are three main ways CDPs can help you understand your customers better:

  1. Centralize customer data, creating a single view of a customer using data from each step of the buyer’s journey.
  2. Analyze data to provide insights and recommendations.
  3. Empower businesses to deliver personalized experiences, which are now expected by customers, in response to customer desires and needs.

 

Benefits of CDPs

Implementing the use of a CDP in your businesses can benefit all departments but especially the marketing, sales and customer service teams. Marketing teams benefit from the ability to deliver targeted marketing across channels, using content they know is relevant to a specific audience to stand a better chance of a conversion. This in turn raises the company’s marketing ROI.

Sales teams benefit from personalized information on customers such as their loyalty, buying frequency, spending and recent purchases. Sellers can use data like this to optimize sales opportunities by delivering personalized sales engagements.

Meanwhile, customer service reps can view complete profiles for each customer, allowing them to provide proactive support to customers in a way that makes them feel understood.

 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

One example of a powerful customer data platform is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. Dynamics 365 Customer Insights provides a single view of customers by connecting data from a full range of sources. In addition, Microsoft’s CDP ensures all data is managed securely and in compliance with GDPR regulations. Its capabilities can be split into Audience Insights and Engagement Insights.

 

Audience Insights

Microsoft Dynamics 365 combines both B2C and B2B data to generate real-time AI-powered insights that marketing, sales and customer service teams can all use to make informed decisions about customers.

 

Predict Customer Desires and Needs

Built-in AI and analytics help to predict customer lifetime value and transactional and subscription churn. The same models the CDP uses for these predictions can also identify opportunities for cross-selling and upselling with recommendations of products and services, increasing the value that each customer may bring. The AI makes recommendations for dividing your audience into demographic segments you can target separately, though you can also define your own audience divisions.

 

AI-powered Insights Deliver Meaning

Marketing, sales and customer service teams benefit from real-time customer data collecting from Dynamics 365 Marketing, Sales and Customer Service. This comprehensive data allows them to deliver personalized journeys to clients across marketing, advertising and engagement platforms.

 

Deliver Personalization for Your B2B Clients

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 system allows the sales team to shorten sales cycles with unified account profiles, complete with client activities and insights. On top of this, third-party integration means data from other sources can be used to increase the accuracy and quality of leads, while AI models will identify at-risk accounts so you can respond with a proactive retention strategy.

 

Build Customer Trust

Data itself is a sensitive topic. Customers want to know they can trust brands to keep their information safe. With Microsoft’s customer experience platform, customers are linked to their consent preferences, which refresh automatically so you can honor them easily. It also has tools to easily secure customer data so you can achieve your marketing goals while complying with GDPR and CCPA.

 

Engagement Insights

The other side of the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights helps businesses understand customer behavior with cross-channel analytics.

 

Optimizing the Sales Funnel

Built-in features allow marketing, sales and customer service teams to view how many and what type of customers are moving through each step of the customer journey so that you can optimize your website and mobile app for conversion. These insights can be even more specific with the ability to carry out funnel analysis on different customer segments.

 

Understand Customer Behaviour

AI-driven insights from your website and mobile help marketing teams understand customer engagement. The system tracks customer behavioral data and creates real-time reports so teams can easily identify patterns and make informed decisions to increase engagement and conversion rates.

 

Set Up Customer Insights Today

With such a comprehensive view of each and every one of your customers, you almost can’t go wrong when it comes to delivering great customer experiences that will keep customers coming back to your brand. Contact us to help optimize Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights today.

 

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Don’t miss more articles by The CRM Team

Digital Transformation – Everything’s Changing

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