By Michael Briggin
No one likes to pull their hair over getting more customers, especially sales reps.
Whether you’ve got a whole team of sales reps responsible for driving revenue or if you’re working with your C-Level executive team to analyze metrics, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can help you build relationships with your customers in a big way.
In order to find the right CRM that works best for your organization’s ability to obtain customers, it’s important to consider the following:
Selecting the Right Vendor
Doing the right vendor analysis is important. Organizations that jump to get a CRM system installed without proper vetting of the vendor or full information on how the program works risk bringing more chaos and pain to their sales teams.
Hubspot, Keap, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zoho are five of the most well known technology companies with CRM systems. However, popular names and lots of customers doesn’t mean any of them by default will be right for you. Customers who use any of these CRM systems use them because they are right for them, not because it’s hip to have them.
Make sure that in looking at vendors you get a full understanding of the CRM system’s features and how they apply to any users who are using them on a regular basis. Going through anywhere from 3-5 CRM tools and vetting accordingly is a good way to weigh what options you have if you want to consider making the final CRM selection in the end.
License vs. Subscription
Most companies that develop and sell CRM systems will have both monthly subscription pricing options and/or a license pricing (if applicable).
From a pricing standpoint, a CRM subscription option without a license allows your organization to save more upfront costs and more flexibility to cancel at your own comfort level if you decide you want to consider an alternative CRM program more suitable for your needs. A license by contrast can be cheaper in the long-term and will free up the burden for you having to pay per month.
Each CRM program has differences in each subscription option, and license. With subscriptions, there are different tiers of options based on the size of your team, stage your company is in and features. While certain licenses and subscriptions may be more affordable for you than others, price alone should not be your determining factor. Goals and productivity should be the primary determining factor, followed with price.
Implementation & Training
When you’re at the point where you’ve decided to select a CRM system and want to get it implemented for use by your organization’s departments such as marketing and sales, don’t hesitate to consider an administrator who specializes in such implementations.
If you get a CRM administrator to help you get the program set up, make sure it functions appropriately and can be accessed at relative ease by the users who are meant to use the program on a regular basis. Having a sales enablement manager or sales operations manager helps you run the day-to-day operations so you don’t have to bring in a CRM administrator all the time
Anyone in sales (channel sales, inside or outside sales) will jump at the opportunity to use a new CRM system if they can have their own dashboards and manage their pipeline. When training, it’s best to ensure whoever is doing this to not simply be about show and tell but focused on educating your sales what the CRM program can do to enable them to be more productive.