It’s fair to say that business owners shouldn’t get bogged down in the details of their CRM system. That’s the sales managers job. However, there are a few things every business owner, from a CEO to a SMB owner should know before committing to a new CRM system.
So What Are The 5 Things Business Owners Should Know About CRM?
Will My Employees Use The CRM Software?
Most CRM software system failures are due to a lack of adoption by sales people. The system is there, but because change is hard, many people just flat out reject it. Do you have a team willing to learn? Does your CRM software provider have a good customer service team or training model you can implement? You will want to make sure the CRM system is as painless as possible for your employees. Find out if the CRM software is fast and easy to use. And that your team gets adequate exposure and training and that you support the change from the top down. Leadership trickles down.
Is the CRM Software Vendor a Good Partner?
It’s imperative that the CRM software provider understands your business model and can help your team use it to fit their unique needs. A CRM partner that cares about your business will make sure their solution is explained and utilized to best suit your business needs.
Can We Get The Raw Data?
The day will come when you want to migrate your data or do a thorough analysis and you will need to be able to extract the raw data from your CRM software system. If you are considering an in-house CRM system make sure the data can be saved in an industry standard system file. If you are going with a hosted CRM software system, just make sure you can get a copy of your data when and how you want it. This is something you need to find out now.
Is the CRM System Reliable?
When a CRM system is fully integrated in your sales team it is your lifeblood. If the CRM Software isn’t working your sales people probably aren’t either. And if you go with an in-house system, you need to make sure you IT people are capable of rebuilding the system if it fails. it’s too complicated for your IT team it’s probably not the right system for you. When you go with a web-based CRM software system you should check with them to make sure they have disaster recovery plans and standby procedures to prevent you from being without crucial data.
Is the CRM Software System Flexible?
As your business grows you need a CRM System that grows with you. Find out if expanding to multiple offices domestically and internationally can be supported. Also, as you expand you will ultimately have more users on the CRM software system and need to find out in advance if there’s a limit to the number of users you can have and if the additional user licensing costs and how much. Clearing this up before it’s an issue can save you from it becoming an issue.
Keep this list handy as you scout for new CRM Software partners. And check out our CRM Comparison Checklist to learn more about what you should be looking for in a CRM Software Service.