CRM or Customer Relation Management is a must have tool for every growing business.
Especially if your clients are other businesses, you need to have a way of tracking your communication and interactions with your clients and keep an eye on your sales and marketing efforts.
Having in mind that CRM is an essential for effectively managing clients relations and sales process, we shouldn`t be amazed that CRMs industry has become an estimated $55 billion industry in 2019.
What is CRM?
CRM as we said, stands for Customer Relations Management. This is more than just a list of contacts, or database of phone numbers and emails of your clients.
Per Wikipedia: “Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information.
CRM systems compile data from a range of different communication channels, including a company’s website, telephone, email, live chat, marketing materials and more recently, social media. They allow to businesses learn more about their target audiences and how to best cater for their needs, thus retaining customers and driving sales growth. CRM may be used with past, present or potential customers.“
So, to conclude, CRM is a program where you will store information about your clients, your communication with them, their orders with you etc.
This is crucial for organizing your business, as we wrote in our article Organizing your work.
What CRM does?
Maybe you don`t have any of the “fancy ones out there”, right? You made something in, for example, excel spreadsheet, and it is working for you. You have all data you need there, and you are used to it.
But is it working for you?
Do you really know how many times you called that client before closing a sale? How deep is your relationship to them? Are you sure you remembered all details from your past conversation?
And, last question is, do you know how much all these information are worth to your business?
CRM is actually a tool which will help you capture all these important information. It will safely store all info about calls you made or emails you have sent. CRM will show you how much time you have spent trying to convince that client, and how much he actually spent with you over what time. It will also help you stay organized and focused by allowing you to schedule your next actions with all your clients. All information will be easily accessible.
Choosing best CRM
So, we convinced you that CRM is needed for your business. You jumped quickly on Google and searched for “CRM”. And your enthusiasm hit the floor, right? So many options and so many information.
Congrats, you`ve discovered big question: “How to choose best CRM for my business” !
This is probably most difficult decision you need to make. There are so many articles about this topic, but choosing best CRM for your business is really question you need to think well about.
Steps for making good decision
There are several steps you need to take before choosing CRM you will use. Let`s show you most important ones.
- Understand that same CRM doesn`t work for everyone
- Identify biggest problems you want to solve
- Identify your goals
- Do your research
- Ask for Demo
- Understand implementation process
- Get to know all the costs
- Map it out
- Do you need help?
- Prepare for mess
- Breathe!
Now, let`s talk about each step individually!
Understand that same CRM doesn`t work for everyone
When you go to buy a car, you will not buy the same as your best friend, right? Or, you will, but it will have different add – ons. Or none.
Well, it`s same with CRMs. If one works for someone you know, it doesn`t mean it will work for your business too. Various CRMs on the market will offer various options, sometimes in various plans. You need to find exactly what works for you.
If you find it hard to find exactly the one you need, maybe you should consider building your own CRM, BMS (business management software) or even ERP (enterprise resource planning). Prime Business Consulting can help you with this too! Find out more on our Business Software consulting services page.
Identify biggest problems you want to solve
What causes you most headaches in your business? Tracking sales? Reporting? Inventory?
Determine exactly what weak points are. This way you will know what features you will need in CRM.
Identify your goals
Now, when you know what you need to fix, you also need to know what you want to achieve.
Set an achievable but high goal. If your inventory is a mess and you keep loosing sales because of it, then your goal should be: “Keeping clean inventory and do not loose any more clients.”
If your sales process is too long, you goal should be “Shorten sales cycle and achieve sales growth of 30%”, for example.
So be realistic, but also set high goals that will lead your business to growth.
Do your research
So, worst part is done. You know what you need to achieve and what you need to solve. Now, off to search.
Pay attention to all features of any CRM you are considering.
Is it mobile friendly? Does it provide ability to integrate with some other tools you are or might be using? Are there any features you would use if offered?
Make a list of all your needs, and compare all CRMs you are looking at. Answer on which one to choose will come to you.
Ask for Demo
So most of CRMs will offer free demo session. Use advantage of this, especially if their technical staff will hold demo session for you.
Get ready to ask all kinds of questions, like: Can your CRM do this and how could I set it up, What are support options, What is knowledge database for your product etc.
Understand implementation process
Make sure you understood what steps need to be done for implementation.
If you are not so much of a tech-savvy, ask for help. Prime Business Consulting offers service of setting up CRM or any other tool for you. Find out more on our Business Software consulting services page.
Get to know all the costs
Many of the CRMs have different plans in their offer. Make sure you know how much is a cost of a plan which gives you exactly what you need, and be aware that, usually, first displayed price is price per user and month, but if paid annually.
Price may be very different if you choose to pay on monthly basis. This can cost you up to several hundreds of dollars or euros if you don`t pay close attention.
Map it out
Make a game plan. Get into the details.
Determine exactly what information you need to store about each module (lead, contact person, client company, deal, etc)
Also, map out complete sales process. There are so many tools that can help you with this, from Mind Meister to Xmap, which is PBC`s favourite.
Do you need help?
Really, no one expects a business owner to know how to do it all. Ask for help if needed! Start with your employees and family, and if nothing is working, get an expert to make it happen for you.
Prime Business consulting can help you with mapping out your sales process too, but also with building up your CRM/BSM.
Prepare for mess
Changes are painful, but necessary. Prepare for an impact that will hit you, as with any other change.
Prepare training material and/or training session for your staff (we can help here too!) . Make sure all your data in transferred to new system properly and on time.
Breathe!
As we previously said, every change is painful. Do not let it fear you, implementing CRM to your business process will help you, you just need to wait it out, and storm will pass.
After rain, there is always a sun. And this sun will be warmer than ever, as you watch your business blossom once you have a tool that will help you.
And, if in any step of the way you feel like it`s too much, contact us, we are here for you to guide you through the whole process and help you do all this much faster and easier!
You can book your free introductory appointment now and start the journey immediately, or you can check out what our past clients say about us and judge on your own!