CRM insights from Sage

David Beard works in partner development in Sage's CRM organisation. In these excerpts from his recent interview ("How did I get here", from the Customer Management Community at www.insightexec.com) David answers questions about good and bad CRM, and how Sage are working with partners like QGate to deliver leading CRM solutions that generate tangible returns.

What advice do you have for aspiring customer management professionals?

Listen to what people say, and what they don't, to work out what they really need to drive their business forward. Business is full of people saying they want something yet the real need can be something different. Achieving "good CRM" is all about understanding what a business needs to succeed, not what they say they should be doing. To do this you need exposure to many types of business. This allows you to offer some real guidance on what CRM means to businesses. Tactfully handled, you can offer real improvements to a business looking to achieve benefits with CRM.

What do you think are the key issues facing customer management professionals at present?

Jason Nash of Microsoft sums up some of my thoughts very nicely so I will shamelessly crib from him: "Organisations will benefit substantially when their skilled, experienced workers can devote more time to ensuring top-notch customer service, and less time and energy tracking down the right information."

So if you (a) really understand what a business needs and (b) turn that into measurable, tangible benefits, then you will have a successful CRM strategy for pretty much any company. The key issue is committing to those ideas and making them work.