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Adroit Consulting CEO Stan Martin to Outline How Manufacturers Will Reshape CRM at National Manufacturing Week Event

"Manufacturing companies have always been product experts - but to compete, these firms MUST transform into customer-centric organizations. CRM technologies and processes will provide the roadmap." - Preview of Mr. Martin's comments

Chicago, March 7, 2005 - Adroit Consulting, Inc. (www.adroitconsulting.com), a management consulting firm that specializes in developing strategies and implementing operational improvements in sales, sales channels, customer care and product / service marketing for mid-sized companies, today previewed CEO Stan Martin's planned speech to delegates at the National Manufacturing Week Conference at Chicago's McCormick Place.

Scheduled to speak Wednesday (March 9) during a morning session, Mr. Martin will address "How Manufacturing will reshape the Perception and Value of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)," and offer success strategies unique to manufacturers.

Outlining the unique challenges facing manufacturers hoping to succeed with CRM, Mr. Martin will suggest that:

• Years of acquisitions, cost cutting, and product focus have left most manufacturers product centric and siloed, and often facing some of the following obstacles:
• "Build it and [assume] they will come" mentality
• "Things are fine in my area - the product works" attitudes
• Years of cost cutting have created companies with limited resources to succeed with enterprise wide initiatives
• Growth thru acquisition has resulted in "customer facing" functions being fragmented and inefficient
• Companies go to market through complex channels and varied customer touch points
• Direct sales - Field and Inside
• Channel sales - Reps and Distribution
• Emerging web channel
• Customer service and sales support
• Traditional manufacturing metrics do NOT equate with CRM metrics, and they should

Mr. Martin will describe 10 Steps that manufacturers can take to transform themselves from product-centric to customer-centric organizations and avoid the CRM pitfalls of their predecessors. And he will provide sample metrics for firms to consider including: CRM program effectiveness, customer experience, revenue and operational efficiency.

According to Mr. Martin CRM is challenging for manufacturing companies due to their historical product focus and complex "go-to-market" (GTM) approaches and the integrated nature of successful CRM initiatives. For these very reasons, the benefits are significant. The value of CRM to manufacturers includes the ability to capture information about their customers' interests and in turn remove variability from the processes, as well as the ability to capture customer information, which can then be shared throughout the enterprise. He notes that companies cannot "save their way to prosperity," and that CRM programs must go beyond functional exercises in the sales & marketing departments to become enterprise-wide initiatives that offer great rewards.