It is pretty surprising in the times we live in that there are still businesses that hesitate to take advantage of modern tools for Customer Relationship Management also referred to as CRM. But when you are a small to a medium-sized business, every decision you make has a real impact and the money you have to invest needs to be thought out carefully. However, the fact remains that investing in sales CRM software can really help both in your sales and your marketing efforts.
Many Customer Relationship Management Solutions
With so much focus being placed on CRM a lot of tools and software have been developed to meet that demand. Some are better for large businesses, and some are better for new and small businesses. There is also a lot of players focusing on cloud-based and internet CRM solutions. Each offers their own options and set their own costs, and some offer free access but restrict exactly what they can use. You do not have to pay a lot of money to find a solution that meets your needs, especially if you are not a huge company. This is something you should consider as an investment into a complete solution for sales, sales support, and marketing and managing customers.
Choosing a cloud-based CRM solution
While different cloud-based solutions might have some differences the following is an overview or example of one that will cost less than ten thousand dollars. With such an example you would only fees based on your usage and there are no hardware costs because it is cloud-based. You could in theory find and get sales CRM software up and running in just a week.
It might include;
• Email tracking capability and email templates for marketing campaigns
• Lead assignments, routing and management
• Mapping of data, data transformation and migration and validation
• Account information, contacts, activity and opportunities
• All attachments and notes
• Reports and analyses that can prove very useful
• Training for users
• Fields and objects can be customized
• Workflow
• Service dashboards
• Contract management
• Territory management
• Customer portals
A Five Day Process
What the process might look like.
- The first day will look at initiation, design and analysis.
- The next two days will be about configuration and reviewing everything and making minor changes as they are required.
- Now you will be looking at data migration, moving data from the old system to the new.
- Then there is the completion of training so all your employees understand it and can use it.
Summary
If you are looking for sales CRM software look for something that suits your experience, size and needs. Make sure it is something you and your staff understand and can use. If there are employees not using it efficiently that means you are not going to get the most out of your investment.