I’m not sure what industry takes the award for most acronyms however for those of us in the digital imaging (copier world), we might just take the lead!
So, with the thousands of acronyms flying around today, it’s no wonder that anyone knows what the other person is talking about. In my opinion, it is likely that many of us are having conversations that mean something entirely different to each of us if there are multiple acronyms in one sentence. I recall a recent conversation that had 7 of these abbreviated terms in 2 sentences! I had to stop myself and laugh when I paused to consider a simple point; does this person even know what I’m saying? Or is he just pleasantly agreeing with me and quickly thinking of a way to change the subject?
Now, for the fun part starting with a few acronyms I hear quite often ERP, CRM, QBR, DCA, the ever present MFP and DCA.
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is defined as an industry term for the broad set of activities that help an organization manage it’s business. ERP software platforms automate different business functions from product planning, inventory, distribution, marketing and human resources activities. One of the most basic goals of the ERP is to share and improve the flow of information. Everyone has one of these. Do you know what yours is doing to help manage your business? Is it integrated with your sales process and sales automation tools?
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is defined as a business strategy that helps you understand your customers to retain them and increase profitability. The CRM software you choose to use in your business strategy is designed to help collect, manage and link information about your customers and prospects. Bottom line, when you link your ERP and CRM beautiful things happen! How’s that for a 2 acronym sentence we can all understand?!
Now onto customer retention. How you do you define your QBR process? Many companies in our industry define QBR as a Quarterly Business Review. This is fine if you are actually meeting with your customers quarterly however if you aren’t then why not call it something else like CPR (Customer Partnership Review), PAR (Periodic Account Review), CARE (Customer Account Review for Everyone). Define this however you want, the point now is are you doing these? In my opinion, the sale really starts when you sell something. It’s our job, as account managers and sales leaders, to meet with our customers on a regular basis and have business conversations about our customer’s future goals, objectives and initiatives. Maybe I just made up a new acronym called FGOI. Anyhow, these conversations take your account reviews to a whole new business level giving you the opportunity to make a business alignment fit (BAF) that is a building block for a long-term business partnership and strategic roadmap for your customers. Just figure out a way to stay connected with your customers and bring them new ideas while having authentic conversations. Now that’s what I call an effective QBR or whatever.
For those of you who don’t know me, I am a copier industry veteran of 25 years. I started my career selling analog copiers and went through the digital transformation (yes they started calling copiers multi-functional printers (MFP’s). During the analog to digital transformation, I surrounded myself with really smart people who could help me understand the acronyms. Today, I think out of the box, continue to ask questions to gain understanding, listen and am driven by connecting people with solutions. And there’s no acronym in that final sentence!
One last acronym for now. What’s in your DCA? In one of my recent article publications, I shared a Base Management Strategy (BMS) designed to help retain your customers and sell more stuff. You have the information at your fingers with your DCA. Are you using it? Oh, by the way, DCA is your Data Collection Agent. See you next time!
Find me on LinkedIn, Twitter @sgchangeagent or with an old school phone conversation.
SGchangeagent 