Anyone who knows me has heard my analogy on what CRM software and the weight loss industry have in common. Let me belabor the analogy. Implementing CRM can be as daunting to people as trying to lose weight. I believe that it's human nature to want the silver bullet, or the magic pill, to solve complex problems. Americans spend $35 billion a year on weight loss products—it’s big business. Why? Because taking a single pill—packaged and sold by the likes of Kim Kardashian—or buying a Bowflex appeals to an idealized end state.

Technology today is no different. When technology is packaged with fluffy clouds and household-name brands, we all aspire towards the clear path to success. But, here is the reality: diet pills rarely work. And Bowflex? It's become a dusty piece of furniture. In essence, buying software or a magic pill propels the myth of the ‘quick fix’ versus creating a long-term solution. Instead, health experts focus on changing ingrained behaviors, and making incremental, iterative change to drive long-term results. They provide guidance on a long-term vision and strategy. In time, and if you continue the journey, you will see vast change and impact. Of course, the journey is not always easy.

On one hand, you have smiling Kim Kardashian handing you the magic pill and, on the other, you have the buff personal trainer with a calorie counter and a barbell. Which one would you choose?

People buy technology like diet pills. They want the quick fix. For long-term value, one must realize that technology alone won’t get you there, and that evolving ingrained processes and behaviors is a journey. Technology is the barbell, the enabler—not the end state.

In a recent Nucleus Research report, CRM: The Propensity to Switch, they draw attention to an issue I think supports this point. The reports states that 52% percent of CRM customers are willing to consider switching to another vendor’s application within the first six months of their deployment. Though that number drops significantly after 6 months to 18%, why are so many organizations willing to switch their vendor in just 6 months? The report states various reasons including lower switching costs, mismatched expectations on what it can deliver, and poor adoption. The devil is in this last detail.

What CIOs or business executives want is to go back after a few months of being live on a new CRM and say, “Sorry, wrong CRM. Let’s do that all over again!” An implementation in a large enterprise is not like taking a pill. This report goes right to the heart of what we, at Bluewolf, have seen for the 12 years we’ve been managing change, implementing cloud-based CRM systems, and innovating on those solutions. Adoption is the key to getting long-term value out of CRM. This is only achieved when you focus on employee engagement and get them to make the CRM system their own. IT doesn’t own it. The executive team doesn’t own it—your workforce does. If they own it, they will use it.

What will be the results? Your dashboards will work, your workforce will help you innovate on the solution and make the solution stay in lockstep with your business. Too often we see the ‘diet pill’ approach to choosing the technology and getting it up and running. It’s not surprising that, after only a few short months, leaders are scratching their heads and wondering why the solution is not delivering on its promise. Though IT may be measured on getting a solution up and running on budget, what the IT leader wants is to look back in a few months and say, “Let’s start over again."

Business and IT leaders looking for long-term value out of a cloud CRM solution need to stop looking at technology as a diet pill. Join the journey. It’s worth it.