Donnerstag, 12. April 2012

Four crucial considerations for small businesses while choosing a CRM Software - Business - Small Business

Managing the sales process, sales people and customer experience requires patience, discipline, and today, good software. Choosing the right sales software is as crucial to a businesses growth. Especially for small and medium businesses, for whom growth depends upon efficiency, agility and strong follow-ups, keeping a tab on sales and having a structured sales process goes a long way.But also a major catch for small businesses is: at their price points how do they get the best available and scalable product in the market? We put together the best minds to chalk out decision makers for Small businesses:* When should you look at buying a CRM tool for your organisation?The crucial question of when to acquire some type of CRM has been made much easier by the explosion of low-cost hosted software options. While this is not the time to discuss the value of SaaS (software as a service), the ability to pay a few dollars per month per user for hosted CRM software greatly reduces th e costs of a quality CRM application.When should companies start using CRM? When there are more salespeople than just the owners of the business. Most entrepreneurs who start businesses rely on previous customers, known contacts and a small list of targeted prospects. Focus at the beginning of a new company often revolves around building the processes to satisfy the short list of critical customers. Once the company achieves some level of stability, the search for new customers begins. A CRM system should arrive with the first non-owner sales person. If your company is past that point, the sooner a CRM system solidifies the sales process for your sales team and sales manager, the better.Managers will wonder if the time and effort to choose a CRM solution is justified, especially if existing sales people complain about being forced to use a system. Will the sales benefits justify the hassle?Absolutely, especially in today's market with so many inexpensive CRM options. CRM add s structure, control, and management oversight to the sales process and the sales staff. Small companies often underestimate the time required to create and manage a sales team. CRM applications provide structure and best practices for the sales process as part of their package. Embrace the value of CRM best practices early, and reap the sales rewards for years to come.Though there are many options in the market today, but the decision making has become easier by the explosion of low-cost hosted software options. The whole opportunity of not having your own hardware and leverage the SaaS model is a boon for small businesses.To answer the simple question, When should companies start using CRM?Well, when there are more salespeople than just the owners of the business. Most entrepreneurs who start businesses rely on previous customers, known contacts and a small list of targeted prospects. A CRM system should be in place with the first sales employee you hire.* But is it not ju st another process add-on? Will the benefits justify the whole hassle of getting a CRM?YES! without a doubt. In today's market with so many inexpensive CRM options you can add structure, control, and management oversight to the sales process and your sales team. Small companies often dont recognize the need for structuring the Sales process. They over look the scalability factor.* Okay, so if I get a CRM, where do I host it?There are multiple options available today. For small companies, a CRM could be used from a single user on a single machine to a self hosted internal/ local server. Today almost everything is running as a web supported, hosted model, this helps you reduce cost and also have a centralized access to the CRM.Got it, so how do I know which is the best product for me?With millions of search results on search engines on the word CRM, I am bound to be confused. Being a small business I have to consider the scalability of the solution as well. Well, yes! and that 's why you must keep in perspective some basic thoughts: Involve everyone who will be interacting with the system in your organisation towards understanding their perspective. Do you need to integrate this with any of your existing accounting applications etc?* Accepting the CRM workflowIts always difficult to at first integrate and work according to the CRM workflow, which is a common feedback by sales people. But you must understand that your CRM tool is giving you access to a pre built best practices CRM workflow, which you can model your process according to.Its a no-brainer saying that your sales process will strengthen and be streamlined with a good CRM tool. Customer service will undoubtedly improve as all your sales people will have access to the customer information. You will never miss a follow-up and hence increase and strengthen the chances of conversion. With CRM's today being accessible on mobile as well, you will never run out of information.



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