A Digital Transformation Consulting Checklist

5. Be technology agnostic to deliver exactly what you need.

There are many dedicated consulting firms out there that’s solely dedicated to a single piece of technology. Whether it’s Salesforce or Zoho for CRM, or Active Campaign or Autopilot for marketing automation – you’re not going to receive unbiased opinions. It’s like going to a store that only sells hammers, and you ask the best tool for you. Since they only sell hammers – we’ll give you a single guess on the product that’s going to be pushed your way.

Technology should follow your objectives, versus changing your objectives on what the technology can or cannot do. Instead, a technology and data agnostic approach encourages finding the best technology stack for your needs, versus the other way around.

6. A solid concentration on brand consistency.

Your people (both customers and employees) are everywhere. They’re on social media, they’re on your site, they scour the web just like the rest of us. Brand consistency is paramount across all channels. 

7. Be adaptable to different industries and verticals.

No two organizations are similar: a digital business is going to be extremely different than a brick and mortar business. Different approaches need to be taken with different organizational structures. They have people and processes that are unique, and every digital transformation project should be malleable to change with each organization. 

8. A track record in combining CRM and marketing automation.

Sure, CRM provides the data and analytics to get a 360-degree of your organization. However, when tightly intertwined with marketing automation is where true transformation occurs. For example, a prospect opens up an email from a recent campaign you’re promoting. That user should automatically be tagged in a specific way that scores their behavior and nudges them closer to the bottom of the funnel. Once that score is a certain number, a salesperson would receive a notification so they can take appropriate next steps.

9. Focus on organizational transparency.

People tend to nerd-out over data and data transparency. By having the information that is *relevant to them* is absolutely critical. We can’t improve on what we can’t measure. Data self-discovery also allows them to do whatever is needed with their data: combine in, mesh it and smoosh it. Canned, static reports are a thing of the past, and self-discovery data is where it’s at.

10. Putting project management and remote work at the forefront.

As the way we collectively work has fundamentally changed due to Covid, more organizations are rethinking the most efficient way to work. The pandemic has normalized remote work, and most teams have dramatically pivoted to accommodate this. That said, are they doing it in the best way? Likely not. It’s important to have the proper tools, processes and automations in place so teams can spend more time doing value-added work versus coordinating.

11. Invest in a beautiful, but easy and functional website.

A beautiful site is obviously wanted. However, beauty fades when it’s not also functional and easy-to-use. Changes should be a breeze, with proper access controls and publishing workflow. It’s the intersection of design, functionality and processes where the magic truly happens.

12. A strong focus on customer touch points.

Your customers are everywhere: they’re on social, your site, reading your email, and many other ways that you engage with them. Different people have different habits, and undergoing a persona exercise is critical in making sure they’re in the center of the entire digital experience. Personas are fictitious narratives that ‘bucket’ your people based upon who they are, and what they’re interested in. Once personas are established, the execution will be much easier for your entire organization.

13. Focus on user adoption.

This is the area that we see commonly neglected. New tech and new processes won’t be used unless it’s adopted from people across all levels of your organization. People should be trained in different ways: group training, functional/ department training, and one-on-one training. This approach encourages questions, and gives people with different learning styles opportunities to learn the best way for them.

14. Test and optimize

You could have the perfect strategy and execution, however nothing is ever going to go *exactly* as planned. As part of your transformation, the ability to be highly nimble should be baked into the overall solution. There are going to be new, agile competitors always your space, so you need to be able to quickly pivot to address new objectives and their respective obstacles. You need a solid pulse on what’s working and what’s not, and constantly tweak and optimize. 

Summary

Digital transformation is a marathon, and not a sprint. It’s a way to change how you do things, and let technology do the heavy lifting, to allow your people the time and resources to do the things machines can’t do. It’s an unparalleled dedication to getting quality leads in the door, and using automation and CRM to convert those leads into valuable customers. Once they are your customers – it’s about deepening relationships with those customers, so they turn into your most effective advocates. True transformation is really about being the best organizational version of yourselves. 

If any comments or questions, we’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to send us a message, and we’d love to chat with you.