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Your CRM system makes up a crucial part of your business. If your business will thrive and your relationship with your customers will not suffer, your choice of this system must be befitting for your business. Nevertheless, choosing an ideal one can quickly become a feat with the myriads of CRM software available today.
This article will open you up to 5 things you can do to actively choose a CRM system that sits right with your business. Whether you manage a small or large business, these steps will ascertain that your CRM does not sabotage your business goals and objectives.
What Could Go Wrong When You Fail to Choose the Right CRM?
When you fail to select the ideal CRM for your business, many things could go wrong. First, you would be hindered from meeting your sales, marketing, and customer-related goals because your CRM choice may not have what is required to meet those goals.
Also, a wrong choice of CRM will adversely affect your sales and profit. Given that a wrong CRM choice may not meet the unique needs of your business and customers, you’ll be converting fewer leads and generating less profit. In addition, your team members may collaborate less, and your projects may suffer gross mismanagement.
Furthermore, since you’d be paying for a system you’re not using efficiently, your business would only end up incurring unnecessary expenses. Add this to your shrinking profit margin, and you may end up in negative figures.
How Can You Select the Ideal CRM for Your Business?
The first and most important step to choosing the right CRM for your business is understanding your business and your customers. You need to understand your industry needs, the size of your business, your prospects, as well as the unique characteristics of your clients and potential customers. Afterward, you can successfully implement the following steps in choosing an ideal CRM for your business.
Identify Your Business Needs
Why do you need a CRM system? What functions would you have your potential system perform for your business?
Do you want a CRM that would:
• Track and convert your leads?
• Manage your customer relationships and monitor their preferences?
• Connect your team members and departments?
• Manage your projects?
• Centralize your operations? Or,
• Increase your business efficiency and profit?
Whatever your business’s CRM needs may be, you cannot make the right CRM choice without identifying them. Identifying these needs would mean that you’ll receive inputs and suggestions from all your departments and managers.
Make In-Depth Research on Systems that Meet Those Needs
After you’ve identified the CRM needs of your business, you’ll need to do your homework. Check digital shelves for CRM systems designed in line with your outlined needs. Surely, you’d have hundreds of CRM solutions on your list. You can narrow this list down by:
• Surfing through trusted websites for product and user reviews. The users of your potential CRM are in an ideal position to tell you its worth and pitfalls.
• Read through publications in your industry. You can find information that can better direct you to choose CRM systems designed for your specific industry.
• Ask for recommendations from colleagues or business partners who already use CRM systems.
• Check out the systems your fiercest competitors are using. You never can tell; their CRM system may be contributing largely to their business success.
Harness Demos and Free Trials
Demos and free trials are your surest bets in determining how suitable a CRM system would be for your business. They allow you to test out all the system’s features without making any financial commitment. And the good news is that most CRM solutions in the market offer this luxury to all potential customers.
However, simply running a perfunctory trial on software will do your business no good. The tips below will help make sure that you make the best decisions from trials :
• Do not be in haste to leaf through the demo. Spending more time on it will save you a lot of trouble in the future.
• Have members of each department needing a CRM join in the demo or trial.
• Try out up to 3 or 4 systems from your research results.
• Ensure that the system can perform its acclaimed functions.
Lookout for Intuitiveness and Ease of Implementation
It would be helpful of you looked out for the intuitiveness and ease of using your choice CRM. You don’t want to purchase a system your current technical expertise cannot manage. You may end up spending more to train your team members on how to use the system, or you’ll end up paying to hire an expert to do the work for you.
Also, a CRM system with complex dashboards and menus would only make work more difficult for your team members who use it. This can adversely impact their productivity and the overall efficiency of the system.
Finally, how efficient is the system’s customer support? Because you’ll need this support at several stages during the use of the system.
Watch Out for Flexibility and Compatibility with Your Current Software
If you’re already utilizing a host of other software in your business, then you’ll want your CRM system to be compatible with them. Look out for systems that allow for third-party integrations with your current systems. It would help if you opted for software with API for tailored customizations.
Make the Best Choice!
Whatever your business needs may be, Bitrix24 is the CRM solution you’d need. First, it comes in industry-specific versions tailored to serve nine different industries.
Also, Bitrix24 performs virtually every CRM function you can think of, from lead conversions to sales and marketing optimizations, project management, and workplace collaborations. API is also available to run unique customizations on the software.
Another good news?
At EMCsoft, we are a team of Bitrix24 developers waiting to run your unique Bitrix24 customizations. We are dedicated to tweaking the Bitrix24 CRM to serve your business better. Contact us today. Our developers will be waiting to attend to you and get your productivity and profits off the chart!