July 1, 2009

“It’s Gonna Be Like Buttah” Part II of II – Facing the Brutal Facts About Adopting New Technology

Posted by Steve Snyder

At Rubicon, we develop open partnerships where we help our clients reach their business goals. We work with clients who understand the value that we bring as an extension of their team. I actually had a new prospective client say this just the other day, and I quote: “I don’t want a “YES” team. I want a partner who is going to be honest and tell me when I am doing something the wrong way, and help me do it the right way”. <cue orchestra> (sniff)Oh, yes, we want to work with you!<big hug>

Here are some things a trusted partner will tell you:

•    Running an MA system isn’t going to be cheap, but when it’s done right it will pay for itself and more. If we didn’t believe that, we’d be the worst kind of hypocrites.

•    You can staff up internally or you can outsource, but one or the other will have to happen. You can’t expect staff with full time jobs to take on complicated new responsibilities without some kind of change. That will probably mean spending money.

•    The software can get in the way if it’s not managed properly. And yes, it will need regular technical attention.

•    If your data is garbage you won’t get anywhere. And once it’s cleaned up, it needs regular maintenance. It’s just the nature of data systems.

•    Failing to deal with cultural issues, like marketing and sales alignment on lead scoring, will sabotage your efforts if you aren’t aware of what they are and how to manage them.

•    Staffing roles will come up immediately. Do you have:
         1) a project manager who centralizes and manages campaign requests and assets
         2) a technically inclined resource to do a deep dive and learn the system
         3) a strategist who can guide the whole MA plan

•    You’ll probably never get to the point where your reporting triangulates MA, CRM and WEB data for a 360 degree, closed loop report. (We’re there already and we can give you info about your whole funnel – not just sales– from “suspect” to “won opportunity” that you may never see anywhere else. Dashboard data mashups you never imagined are within reach.)

That’s a start. There will be “custom” problems, too. On my third day at Rubicon I wrote up a description of a technical problem that one of our clients was having which was preventing them from being able to use their MA tool effectively. It was caused internally on the client’s side by untrained users who mucked up the system. I gave them three options:

         1. Ignore the problem and eventually fail completely
         2. Do a half(baked) solution and limp along ineffectively
         3. Pay us to fix the problem so we can get on with marketing already

Which do you think they chose? (Hint: we have a partnership based on mutual respect)
Which would you have chosen?
Have you counted the cost? Have you done your TCO analysis?

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