My team and I were excited. A few months before I had made the decision to invest in an automated CRM. I was tired of having to rely on the CRM that took up space in my head, of to-do lists and post-it notes all over my office to remind me to follow up leads so that I can convert to clients, and of falling short in structured follow up and contact after projects. I tell my clients I am with them for life, so I needed a way to support and manage our ongoing relationship.
We researched CRM’s appropriate to the size of our business. There was one that really stood out as a great solution. We did our due diligence – the tutorials, demonstrations, meeting key people and even speaking with two of their clients who were effusive in their recommendations. The platform was simple and user-friendly, and we loved the people. They were responsive, caring, and frankly, a joy to deal with. It all felt right. So, we made the commitment, and started the onboarding program, with a timeline of January 1 to be up and running.
Then, a fatal flaw.
We discovered that access to the platform was limited to only a few countries. I was in Jamaica for a business trip and couldn’t access the platform, nor could a team member in Austria. With clients and team members all over the world, we realized that this platform would not work for us. And we were back to square one. We had lost six valuable weeks, and we were deflated. All the horror stories I had heard from clients about automation and digital transformation became my personal experience.
Deadline looming, we quickly assessed how bad the situation was and whether it could be fixed. We halted all work and had some difficult conversations where we asked point blank if the problem could we fixed. We received a resounding “No”. We couldn’t believe that in 2023 (at the time), after a global pandemic, a company could not give global access. But, we realized, that’s not our issue – the only problem we had to solve was to:
Continue or discontinue.
But before making that decision, here’s the most important thing we did:
We mourned the loss of the “perfect system”. Yes. We took a little time to grieve what we thought was the perfect solution, what we lost, or thought we would lose, and the impact this had on the business. This step was critical in calming us so that we were then able to proceed with clear minds to review other platforms incorporating the learning from the experience. This meant revising deadlines and putting plans on hold. And we were OK with not rushing – we reasoned that we had already gone years years without a CRM, so what’s another few weeks?
Stephen R. Covey, author of the “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” said:
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness.”
Our “mourning” gave us this space … we found a new platform, revised our “joylines” and are proceeding apace with onboarding. We have released the “perfection” of the first system. And we are having quite a bit of joy with the new system!
