These comments have been on the lips of most sales and business managers over the last 5 to 10 years. So it prompts an important question, “What is a CRM and what does it do for me?”
As a bit of background (in case you are not familiar with the term CRM), CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. So an application that is a CRM helps manage the relationships business have with their clients. The problem with accurately defining what a CRM does is that if you ask 20 Sales Managers, you will get at least 15 different answers. What is clear about a CRM is that every organisation has unique requirements and expectations that need to be met.
Irrespective of what a CRM will do for you, there are some key features in all cases. Here are 4 things we think you should look for.
1 – Customisable
As everyone has different needs, you need to have something that is customisable to your needs. Can you create new tables of data, add or remove fields, change screens?
If the answer to this is NO, then you will need to change your business process to match the application rather than change the application to match your business processes.
2 – Integration
There is no one application that does everything, in fact the reverse is true with all major brands providing some kind of “app store” to find a solution to add functionality to the core application.
Make sure you can Integrate easily.
3 – Email Integration
We have separated this item as there are some unique features to consider. Generally we want to be able to track our communications with clients. Some CRMs allow you to save individual emails, other track all emails, some automatically track a “thread”, some allow you to send from the CRM and some have the option to do all of this.
As the primary source of communication with your clients, make sure you can logically and effectively tack all communications. This might be at the Opportunity, Contact and or Company Level.
4 – Reporting
At the end of the day having data should lead to effective reporting. If this is not available and does not provide integration with other databases you may have, then you are probably going to find a point of frustration.
What to look for in a CRM
“Everyone wants a CRM!”. “We have to have a CRM!”
These comments have been on the lips of most sales and business managers over the last 5 to 10 years. So it prompts an important question, “What is a CRM and what does it do for me?”
As a bit of background (in case you are not familiar with the term CRM), CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. So an application that is a CRM helps manage the relationships business have with their clients. The problem with accurately defining what a CRM does is that if you ask 20 Sales Managers, you will get at least 15 different answers. What is clear about a CRM is that every organisation has unique requirements and expectations that need to be met.
Irrespective of what a CRM will do for you, there are some key features in all cases. Here are 4 things we think you should look for.
1 – Customisable
As everyone has different needs, you need to have something that is customisable to your needs. Can you create new tables of data, add or remove fields, change screens?
If the answer to this is NO, then you will need to change your business process to match the application rather than change the application to match your business processes.
2 – Integration
There is no one application that does everything, in fact the reverse is true with all major brands providing some kind of “app store” to find a solution to add functionality to the core application.
Make sure you can Integrate easily.
3 – Email Integration
We have separated this item as there are some unique features to consider. Generally we want to be able to track our communications with clients. Some CRMs allow you to save individual emails, other track all emails, some automatically track a “thread”, some allow you to send from the CRM and some have the option to do all of this.
As the primary source of communication with your clients, make sure you can logically and effectively tack all communications. This might be at the Opportunity, Contact and or Company Level.
4 – Reporting
At the end of the day having data should lead to effective reporting. If this is not available and does not provide integration with other databases you may have, then you are probably going to find a point of frustration.
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