If you’re thinking of getting a contact relationship management (CRM) system for your business, make sure you are crystal clear why you’re doing it. If you’re not sure, how do you expect to get your team’s buy-in?
Too often companies jump into their CRM initiatives without the proper thought and planning. The result? A CRM system that costs the earth and doesn’t really take the company forward… an expensive waste of time.
So, before you dive in with two left feet, here are some of the questions you need to ask yourself:
- What do I want to achieve? More leads, an email marketing solution, simple database management, or perhaps a more sophisticated way of managing my sales funnel?
- Would an ‘on demand’, hosted solution suit my business? Is my internet connection fast, secure and consistent enough to handle this?
- Maybe a software installation customised to your own business specifications would fit the bill?
- How easy is it to implement on my network? Will I have to upgrade other areas of IT?
- If I buy a CRM, how will it improve our service to customers?
- Will it actually improve my sales?
- Will it increase the company’s productivity?
- How much training will we have to do?
If you can consider such questions then when you meet suppliers to discuss your needs, you get more from their specialist advice. Make sure you are confident about the technical support you’ll get, because you are going to need it.
These are some very good questions, and ones most people neglect to ask.
I work for a web-based CRM provider, and I’d say 60% of our new clients don’t ask these questions in their discovery process.