Realizing that your Marketing Automation and CRM systems need to change is one of those "Keyser Söze" moments from Usual Suspects. Everything becomes clearer and the path forward is to take a step back and reassess all that you thought was solid and concrete in the world. It's at this point, your job is to get stakeholders on the same page as to what's needed for the health of the business in the long term.
As you have these conversations, many will ask key and important questions about their team's involvement that you should be prepared to answer. Of course these will vary based on the project, but generally it will follow the same process with only the time or # of sprints being the variation. Here is an outline of what you'll need to answer the first few questions they'll ask.
For large projects, it's imperative that we know what we are building before we start to tinker with your Sales System. Otherwise, we'll build something only to need to change it after we think further down stream. For that reason, all projects follow the same process:
Thankfully we use a custom built application called "The Sales Nerd App" to facilitate all the communication and decisions made across teams/consultants. You'll see which requirements are assigned to which sprints, conversation history on Chatter, and the progress of the projects all Natively built in Salesforce.
Usually these roles would be involved in a Marketing/Sales Transformation:
There are several roles that will be helpful when building out your team of Stakeholders. Generally they will follow into these buckets:
Before beginning a project, we will select these people and ensure they have what they need to contribute to each phase of the project.
This will absolutely change depending on the size of the project, but the below is normal for a large Transformation Project that touches Marketing Automation, Salesforce, Cadencing Tools, etc...
Don't be discouraged by the amount of time this will take for your team. The vast majority of the work (development and sprints) won't include your team outside of demo's and random questions. Requirement gathering takes the most time, but this is to ensure we are aligned with what you are asking us to do.
Business Transformation projects are not small feats. To run them effectively means building communication channels and establishing buy-in prior to the project starting. Ensuring that you've selected the right people to contribute AND they (and their leadership) are aware of the time they will need to commit to the work is imperative.
If you are not confident in your Marketing and Sales data this type of project is worth it. By providing visibility into your Marketing and Sales Funnel, you are able to assign responsibilities and have shared definitions of what exactly is in your system. Without it, it's impossible to prioritize or iterate on the great work you are doing.
We are here to explore whether this is right for your company or if a smaller project is the right fit! Reach out to The Sales Nerd and we can find a way to drive towards your goals together.
