Unfortunately, CRM cost is anything but straightforward. Although many CRM companies advertise specific price points, buyers frequently find that hidden costs billed by their chosen platform quickly exceed the front-facing fees. 

In this article, we’ll lay out the various costs involved in implementing a new CRM including ones that often occur immediately after signing a contract (surprise!) and those that remain hidden until users have no choice but to hand over their credit card or start their search from square one.

How much does a CRM cost?

The cost of CRM software varies widely and depends on a number of factors, including but not limited to:

• Number of users
• Number of contacts or customer data points
• Complexity and number of add-ons
• Advanced reporting and analytics functionality
• Dashboard capability

CRM system subscription pricing – which is typically the number that’s advertised as the “cost” of the product – can range from the low double-digits to well over $100 a month per user.

Many providers scale their price based on your number of business users. These are the individuals in your organization that have access to the solution. For example, a Hubspot Professional plan for five users costs $450.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to CRM cost, though. There’s also the cost of implementation to consider, which for some legacy systems, can easily hit five or six digits (and immeasurable time and effort). 

It’s important to note that even CRM vendors that openly advertise all of their subscription and implementation costs often have substantial fees involved with customizing their platform to fit your business needs. These hidden fees can add up fast.

CRMs business models

All customer relationship management platforms have one thing in common: they bring efficiency to contact management. 

Beyond that, though, no two CRMs are exactly the same. Each and every platform is built differently and, therefore, determines its pricing plans by different metrics. 

Some CRM softwares charge clients per user. Some charge per user and per feature. 

Some charge a flat fee monthly, and some annually. Some even have a monthly or yearly retainer in addition to their SaaS subscription fees. 

And that’s just for the software package – implementation fees also vary widely and can easily exceed the cost of the platform itself.

CRM costs by company size

It’s hard to nail down an exact range of what a company can expect to spend on a CRM – some small businesses need a tremendous amount of customization, and some do fine with the basics until they achieve a certain level of growth. Some enterprise companies never explore beyond the surface level of their CRM, while others spend well into six figures customizing and building out their systems. 

It can be helpful to ask questions about this to your salesperson during the sales process. Can you see a timeline and a total cost of implementation for a company your size? Can you speak with a recently onboarded company about their experience?

Here are some CRM features you might expect to pay for based on your company size:

SMB CRM Costs

Small businesses (fewer than 20 licenses) run the gamut in terms of what they need from a CRM. While many opt to keep it simple during the startup phase, others choose to dive head-first into customizations and add-ons. 

SMBs can often expect to pay for at least the following features:

• Data Integration 
• Preferred Customizations
• Email & Marketing Automation 
• Ability to Create Landing Pages & Forms
• Contact Management
• Customer Interaction Tracking
• Lead Management
• Social Media Management

Mid-market CRM costs

Mid-size companies (21 – 100 user licenses) focus heavily on scaling, and need a CRM that can grow with them. 

• Additional Data Migration
• Intuitive Data Collection & Storage
• Integrations into Inbox
• Intuitive Mobile App
• Data Integrity Guarantee
• Customizable Objects/Fields
• Project and Task Management
• Ability to Transfer Deals to Project Management
• Scalable User Base
• Customer Segmentation

Mid-market companies can avoid department silos by adopting a platform that allows the marketing, customer success, and sales teams to have universal access to real-time data. 

Enterprise CRMs Costs

Large enterprise companies (100+ user licenses), no matter their level of customization, require a more flexible, sophisticated system to meet their needs at scale. 

• Additional Data Migration
• Workflow Consolidation
• Mobile-First Format
• Automated Data Entry 
• Automatic Logging
• Opportunity Management
• Personalized Campaigns and Engagement stats
• Lead Scoring 
• Activity Management
• Pipeline Views
• Power Dialer
• SMS and Call Management
• Dynamic Forms
• Granular Access Control
• Single Sign On (SSO)

It’s important to remember that these are only guidelines. Company size can be an indicator of investment, but not always. CRM pricing depends more on the customization and needs of the business. 

The cost of legacy CRMs

Many companies adopt big-name platforms like Salesforce with the assumption that they’ll have more than what they need in terms of account management.

The truth, though, is that these legacy solutions are almost always overly complex. The quantity of features doesn’t necessarily correlate to their usefulness. Feature-heavy CRMs require heavy training and create ample room for error with their steep learning curve. 

Legacy CRM systems also almost always require a dedicated dev team to implement the product, and other third-party services to reach complete customization as the business grows. They are also known to gate-keep certain marketing automation features, APIs, and reasonable workflow storage behind their premium pricing tier.

On top of that, most legacy CRM companies offer only multi-year contracts. This lock-in often creates a sunk-cost fallacy in companies who aren’t getting what they need out of their legacy system but are reluctant to start the search process from scratch. 

Even for companies that are in it for the long haul, the costs of implementing new capabilities and add-ons as the business grows can be a massive, ongoing budget hit.

Hidden CRM costs

Although the sheer number of choices can feel overwhelming, choosing the right system is actually the easy part – the implementation and integration processes are often surprisingly expensive, complex, and time-consuming.

The surprise and hidden costs (of both time and money) involved in setting up their new system often leave users wondering if the CRM really improved their business. 

Indeed the biggest cost can be a failed implementation where the system was purchased but was not properly configured and adopted and therefore just accumulated dust. 

If you’re shopping for a new CRM system, it’s important to fully understand the full scope of cost and fees involved with using the CRM in a way that works for your needs. 

Setup and implementation costs

The setup and implementation costs for CRMs can vary. Modern, intuitive platforms will be easier and more cost effective, while legacy systems (e.g. Salesforce) can be quite expensive. It’s important that potential buyers fully understand the upfront and post-purchase costs involved in the process. The following questions will help CRM shoppers screen potential vendors and weigh the various costs involved.

• How long will implementation take? 
• How many support staff are needed for the process? What hourly rate does your staff receive for implementation development? 
• Are there fees involved with transferring data from a previous system or inputting data into the new one?
• Is there a minimum number of users allowed? A maximum? What are the fees for exceeding the maximum number of users? 
• Is the subscription fee based on number of users, or number of employees? 

Ultimately, the specifics of your CRM implementation will vary according to your unique business needs. The important part is asking the right pre-purchase questions to get a full understanding of the scope of the project.  

CRM integrations costs

If you have additional softwares that you’re hoping to integrate into the new CRM, you’re likely to face fees for that, as well. For modern platforms, this can be a few simple steps; for legacy platforms, it can take a whole team. Be sure to clarify how these fees are calculated – some will ask for a large, one-time fee, and others may make you pay per integration.

CRM training costs

The second-highest leading cause of failure to adopt a new CRM system is lack of sufficient training, with most employees reporting the systems are far too difficult to learn on their own. 

Consider the costs involved in learning this new system. Not only will you pay for the trainers, but you’ll also be asking your employees to pause their revenue-generating tasks to attend long training sessions. The more complex your system is, the more training will be required and the longer it will take, so this is another reason to do some research. Ask your rep to put you in touch with current customers so you can discover how long it took for them to be working as a team in the CRM.

CRM support costs

No matter how carefully you implement your new system, or how thoroughly you train your employees on its specifics, you’re likely to encounter a few issues as you get the system up and running. 

As you choose your new system, be sure to understand their support program. How readily available are support agents? How much and when will you be charged for consulting with them? Are there phone and email options?

CRM add-ons costs

All CRMs offer add-ons, but most don’t advertise how necessary they are for full functionality. Even Enterprise or Premium subscriptions often require users to add on or build out new features to access specific integrations, analytics, reporting, or intelligence-based features. Unfortunately, these are often advertised during the sales process, but hidden behind a paywall after purchase. 

You’ll be frustrated to hear, “you didn’t select that option, would you like to add it on?”

Be sure to understand exactly which apps and custom features are included in the advertised fee, and what additional fees are involved in complete customization.

The cost of using the wrong CRM solution 

It should be clear by now that choosing the wrong CRM system will cost a ton of cash – even choosing the right system will impact your bottom line! 

There are also many significant and less tangible costs involved with not finding the perfect fit. 

First and foremost, the wrong CRM is highly likely to discourage adoption altogether. In fact, lack of user adoption is responsible for 70% of failed CRM projects.

Even for companies who have success in onboarding their employees, the risk of a poor UX or slow processing times is high. Despite their multitude of features, most big-box CRM systems are clunky and difficult to run once the add-ons and customizations are fully built. 

At the end of the day, one of the most significant costs of a poor-fit CRM is time. It takes a tremendous amount of resources to get a new system up and running, and the lost-time consequences of investing those resources into a poor fit can be devastating. 

Insightly is a deeply integrated unified CRM with transparent pricing

If you’re looking for an affordable, modern CRM with a unified database to build lasting customer relationships, check out Insightly. With Insightly’s robust CRM, you’ll get all the tools you need to run your business and great support to make it happen. Add on the Insightly Marketing and Insightly Service apps, and you’ll align your teams, deliver world class experiences, and drive growth. Choose AppConnect, and every tool you need to run your business will be connected with no-code/low-code integrations.

With one-click data migration and superior customer support, you can switch from your current provider in under two hours. 

Find out how much you can save by choosing (or switching to) Insightly by using a CRM costs calculator.

The post The true cost of a CRM appeared first on Insightly.

A CRM solution is an essential part of your company’s digital transformation. You can eliminate redundant interactions, departmental silos, and customer frustrations. You can maintain all your customer data on one central platform. And you can create new assets like dashboards, visualizations, and apps with incredible speed.

For example, your sales team leads can view individual interaction maps and know exactly where prospects are in your funnel. You can track each prospect’s unique paths through your marketing and sales pipeline.

Most importantly, you can use a CRM to develop and maintain long-lasting customer relationships.

Define your CRM needs

Before committing to a CRM solution, identify the business needs it should address. Determine the aspects of your current sales and marketing system you want to maintain. Next, ask yourself which goals you’d like to accomplish. And finally, answer these critical questions: 

• How do you currently track marketing prospects and sales leads? 
• How do you manage ongoing customer/client relationships?
• Do you use the same CRM software for all front-end operations? 
• What redundancies exist between your current systems? 
• What will it take to switch CRM platforms?
• Which new technologies do you want to leverage? Consider customized dashboards and visualizations, app development and deployment, and AI data analysis, forecasting, and machine learning.

Once you’ve answered these questions, here’s what you need to do next to get started. 

1. Assemble a cross-functional team

Because your CRM software will affect a wide array of stakeholders, you need a cross-functional needs assessment team. This group should represent senior leadership, middle managers, and the front-end staff who will use your new CRM every day. Invite specialists like IT people and CRM admins – as well as generalists and creative thinkers.

Choose a leader for this group who has an excellent understanding of all your customer-facing operations. This person will take responsibility for the project, ensure team member accountability, and deliver a data-backed decision. Consider operations or data managers, sales leaders, or IT leads for this position. Most of all, this person should balance details with general perspectives and have excellent communication skills.

2. Collect feedback from future users

Your new CRM software will integrate all your front-facing operations into one system, so touch base with everyone who will use it. Have leaders ask their teams what functionalities they value in your current system, what customer experiences they wish you could offer, and what workflows and interactions they wish you could track?

Create a comprehensive needs list like this:

• Secure customer data management
• Lead management
• Project management
• Workflow automations, integrations, and customizations
• Sales automations like product and price catalogs, quote books, territory management, etc.
• Marketing automations like campaign management, email marketing, lead scoring, etc.
• Data analytics and reporting
• Mobile CRM access
• Data management during the transition to this new CRM
• User training and ongoing support
• Implementation requirements and total cost of ownership

3. Analyze and synthesize feedback

Meet with a small group of stakeholders and parse your feedback data.  Look for similarities between  ideas, issues, and feature requests that may signal important trends. Group these into categories such as important features, cost and licensing, scalability, integrations, and support.

4. Prioritize your CRM needs and wants

Choose a CRM solution that meets the needs of your customer-facing teams. As you review your analysis, differentiate between each department’s “must-haves” and “wants.” Look beyond the needs of any single group to be sure your new CRM is easy to scale up as your business requirements grow and change.

Assess CRM vendors

To properly assess all the CRM solution vendors available, consider some key questions, including: 

• Which one offers the right mix of features for your organization of all the CRM companies out there?
• Which CRM tool allows access to real-time customer relationship data?
• Which contact management suite tears down the invisible barriers between your marketing, sales, and support teams? 
• Does your CRM software map interactions in real-time so your team members can speak with confidence and relevance? For instance, your sales manager may want to follow up with current customers to track relationships.
• And most importantly, how will your new system protect your customer’s personal information?

5. Identify solutions that fit your needs

Every department will need different features from your CRM. For example, your: 

• Marketing teams may want CRM features like custom dashboards and detailed lead management visualizations. 
• Sales managers may want to know how far prospects have progressed through your sales pipeline. 
• Content creators may require clearer perspectives on the email and workflow builder, and its content creation interface.

By determining all the features your company needs, you can compare CRMs and make the best decision for your company. 

6. Keep an eye out for CRM costs

Big names don’t mean big savings and every feature you require. Some legacy CRMs may include features that don’t meet your business needs. Alternatively, these older CRM solutions may not have the new technologies necessary to increase your market share.

CRM providers typically offer tiered pricing per user that facilitates scaling. However, look out for hidden fees and ensure the features you want are in the tier you choose.

7. Hop on trials and demos

After comparing the benefits of the CRMs on your list, pick two or three to examine in depth. The most efficient way is to schedule live demos and sign up for free trials.

Have your tech team test out integrations, customizations, and add-ons. Ask your marketing team which CRMs provide the conversion statistics they need to get the most from your ad budget. Have sales teams test out custom ticket automations and role-based permissions.

8. Remember these essential CRM characteristics

As you’re testing potential CRM solutions, consider the following essential factors that may matter most for everyday use:

• Implementation—Choose someone who understands team workflows and tech logistics to create a new CRM implementation plan. Although you probably want a CRM software suite with comprehensive functionality across many departments, you also need a CRM system that integrates with your existing software and data.
• Adoption rate—While a CRM software suite with comprehensive functionality across many departments is a wise choice, you also need a CRM system people will actually use. According to this 2019 report, experts differ on the causes of low adoption rates, such as bad experiences, poor onboarding, and negative preconceptions. However, the data shows that users engage more with systems that are easy to use, and include mobile apps.
• Customization and workflows—Even though a particular CRM software package may look like the right one on the surface, be sure to dig deeper, so have your teams test the limits of dashboard customizations, email design tools, and analytics.Make sure your new CRM can handle everything your teams throw at it during their daily workflows. Do a few test runs with salespeople playing the part of customers. That way, you’ll know you’re making the right choice.
• Support—A CRM system is only useful to your organization if users can quickly and easily get the help they need. From salespeople to tech people, everyone eventually needs help. Be sure the CRM you choose provides comprehensive customer service and support.
• Integration: A unified platform—You can save big bucks with a single, unified CRM solution that eliminates redundancies and helps you create efficiencies. However, integrating all your client-facing operations into one system can be difficult. So have your tech teams work closely with team leads to ensure your CRM can deliver on its all-in-one promises long before deployment day.
• Scaling and growth—Your CRM is the central hub of your customer-facing operations. Adopting new CRM software can put a massive strain on your teams. Be sure the platform you choose will easily scale to your growth. That way, you’ll avoid massive headaches by not having to change CRMs every time you expand.
• Smooth transitioning—Your new CRM software should seamlessly integrate with a wide array of third-party applications. Make sure your CRM works well with the tools you use now and the tools you’ll rely on as you scale up.Of course, your CRM will also need to integrate with your existing system. It’s crucial to preserve your current customer relationship data as you transition to a single, unified CRM.
• Compliance—Your organization needs to show it meets all current digital privacy requirements for the countries in which you’ll be operating. Be sure the CRM software you choose has powerful and up-to-date customer information protections. Nothing matters more than building and maintaining customer trust, so your CRM should be able to support those goals.
• Ease of use —Although your team needs to feel comfortable using your new CRM platform, consider how it looks to your customers. Find out if their experience is pleasant? Does your CRM software feel intuitive? Have team members play the role of the customer. They’ll learn a lot about each CRM’s UX by opening emails, clicking through funnels, and filling out forms.

9. Choose the best CRM system

Ultimately, you need to discover what feels right for your workflow and your teams. Take your time, test potential new CRMs, and check in with your colleagues. Together, you’ll find a set of tools that supports all your organization’s front-facing teams.

Marketing, sales, and support teams love a unified CRM

Insightly provides the versatility you need to quickly and easily scale your operations.

With Insightly, integration and dashboard customization are a snap. Our users appreciate our massive suite of relevant and powerful tools. Insightly’s adoption rates are incredibly fast because people enjoy using our tools.

Rely on Insightly for everything from broad-scope analytics to single-customer views. Our CRM software gives you unparalleled perspectives on your most precious asset: customer relationships.

Make us the nerve center of your entire customer service infrastructure. Click here for a free trial of Insightly.

The post 9 steps to choose the best CRM appeared first on Insightly.

A unified CRM is what’s required to thrive in a competitive landscape. The tools and data integration that it provides enable all of the company’s teams to seamlessly achieve synergy. They enable you to gain more insights and deliver a better experience.

Let’s dive deeper into the ways Insightly’s unified CRM software can have a transformative impact on your business.

What is the CRM process?

The CRM process can be best described as a business strategy that enables companies to better identify and interact with current and potential customers. 

The idea here is to improve personalization for every customer interaction for enhanced customer experience and loyalty through data analysis and segmentation tools.

The same approach is also leveraged for prospects to convert them into paying customers. The five core steps of the CRM process signify a collaborative effort between the key departments in a company.

The 5 steps of the CRM cycle

1. Increase brand awareness

Typically the marketing team’s domain, the first step in the customer relationship management process involves introducing prospects to the business. It requires in-depth research on the audience’s demographics and interests.

Audience personas are created based on this market research to launch marketing campaigns that will theoretically have a greater chance of resonating with the audience.

2. Acquire more leads

The lead acquisition step is generally handled by the sales or marketing teams, or in some companies, both. This is essentially an effort to get prospects to engage with the business. 

For example, the marketing team might offer downloadable content as a lead magnet to website visitors if they provide an email address. The sales team could then pull that data from the CRM to proactively target prospects to convert them into customers.

3. Convert leads into paying customers

Reps nurture leads to get them to convert to paying customers in this part of the sales process. They usually rely on lead-scoring data in the CRM to identify prospects that may have the highest probability of a sale and follow-up diligently with the lead.

Converting prospects into new customers is more of an art than a science. Sales reps must be skilled at building trust to inspire confidence in the leads to convert them into paying customers.

4. Retain customers with customer support and customer success

The job doesn’t end when the lead converts into a customer. Providing them with exceptional customer service is key to ensuring that they remain loyal customers.

The most widely used metric in customer service is CSAT or customer satisfaction. This data is used to track trends and identify and fix any issues impacting customer service.

5. Extract more value per customer with upsells/cross-sells

Upselling and cross-selling are great opportunities to proactively meet the needs of your customers by utilizing the data in the CRM. Companies should be mindful of the fact that customers’ needs may change over time. 

This can be achieved by leveraging purchase data to provide personalized recommendations on the products and services that would provide further benefit to the customers.

Why the CRM process is flawed

Not all companies are created equal. The customer journey will always be different for every company. What works for one may not necessarily work for the other. This crucial fact tends to be overlooked by the CRM process. 

What ends up happening is that the data gets compartmentalized in different tools. It turns into a mess as data discrepancies inevitably occur when all teams are not entering data into the same system.

This causes friction between various teams, including sales and marketing, since they effectively work in silos with complex ad hoc data sync processes.

Employees thus end up not trusting the data as it doesn’t provide them with a holistic view to make empowered decisions. They come to question the integrity of the data because it doesn’t appear to be cohesive and comprehensive.

They also find it difficult to achieve synergy with colleagues on other teams. Alignment across teams is crucial to close more customers and to improve retention.

A real-life CRM process example

A legacy CRM is effectively used as a suite of apps by a company. All of the sales, marketing, and service data is collected and managed in separate silos. 

Thus, in reality, these so-called “integrated” CRMs are actually “assembled” CRM software where features and functionality were added over time in response to customers’ needs. 

These solutions don’t fit the customer journey, particularly for companies that offer multiple products and services. The many teams that work on them use different tools that all do the same thing but don’t allow for seamless data integration. It’s impossible to have confidence in the data when it’s scattered everywhere. 

There’s no continuity between the various tools in the CRM system, which prevents them from having an up-to-date and comprehensive view of the customer journey.

This will prevent, for example, the hardware and software sales teams in a company from leveraging the upsell/cross-sell opportunities that may exist with their customers simply because their data is all over the place. 

Trying to fully integrate the scattered data is an expensive and time-consuming proposition, often making efforts to achieve that futile.

A better, adaptive approach to the CRM process

1. Start with the customer journey

The customer journey is a vital part of any CRM integration. Most solutions go about it the wrong way by forcing the customer journey to adapt to the CRM process. 

Think about it, what works for a customer who wants to buy hardware might not work for someone who’s buying software. The same CRM strategy can’t be used for both.

It should be the other way around. The CRM process needs to be flexible enough to adapt to the customer journey. This increases the potential of converting leads and enhancing retention regardless of what stage of the sales pipeline they’re in.

2. Integrate with your existing tools

A single customer view that centralizes all customer data is a powerful tool to achieve synergy. Its integration with all of the existing tools that a business uses is also of vital importance. 

Insightly AppConnect is a tool that allows for integration automation. Companies can use it to link and integrate Insightly’s unified CRM system with the other apps they use in their organization. 

This allows for powerful new workflow automation between applications. AppConnect also features over 500 pre-built connections to popular business apps.

Even non-technical users can build seamless integrations by using its simple drag and drop interface without writing a single line of code.

3. Take a unified approach

Companies can both extract the most from their CRM implementation and improve customer service by adopting a unified approach that no longer relies on redundant tools and the compartmentalization of data in silos. 

They can achieve synergy and data integration by unifying the marketing, sales, support, and project management on a single platform. All of the teams work together with a holistic view of the customers’ needs and expectations.

​​One of the biggest benefits of a unified solution for teams is that they can complete many tasks in one single system. They no longer have to switch between multiple applications to use various tools just to access data, a task that unnecessarily slows them down. 

Insightly puts this unified approach at the heart of its CRM solution. Teams’ productivity increases through automation. With business intelligence built in, Insightly can also be used to create data visualizations and real-time data dashboards for unmatched visibility.

Insightly unifies your CRM process

Insightly empowers organizations and even small businesses to align sales, marketing, and support teams so that they have complete visibility over customer relationships. They can use that insight and knowledge to improve customer service. 

Automatic lead routing ensures that leads are routed to the right person in real-time. With workflow automation, companies can create complex, multi-step business processes to better serve their customers. It can even execute custom business logic to sync with external systems from the likes of SAP and Oracle.

AppConnect ensures that the ecosystem of tools that a company uses every day isn’t disrupted; rather it’s integrated seamlessly with the CRM. AppConnect comes with more than 500 pre-built connections to the most popular business software apps. This makes establishing seamless integrations between the CRM and apps very straightforward.

Interested in learning more about how a real single customer view can enable you to improve customer retention and to better connect with them? Try Insightly for free to feel the unified CRM difference for yourself.

The post The CRM process is flawed. Here is why. appeared first on Insightly.

As a business leader, you see both sides of the issue. You want data integrity, but you also want to empower users with the right mix of tools and information. What’s the best approach?

Here are four steps for striking a balance.

1. Develop a cross-functional CRM team

Some organizations wrongly assume that their CRM should be entirely owned and managed by sales (with occasional assistance from IT). Revenue-generating teams may be some of the heaviest users of CRM technology; but, they’re not the only stakeholders. A properly implemented CRM should serve as the source of truth for your customer data, which includes everything from basic contact information to web interactions and attitudinal insights. Storing all of your customer data in your CRM forms a solid foundation for understanding the customer journey—which benefits everyone, not just sales.

Data-driven customer journeys don’t just magically appear in your CRM. Rather, they require a company-wide commitment to efficient data collection, organization, and reporting. That’s why you need to establish a cross-functional team that is responsible for strategic CRM decision-making.

At a minimum, the team should include your CRM administrator along with representatives from sales, marketing, IT, operations, business development, and executive leadership. The team should meet regularly, discuss corporate strategy in the context of your CRM, and serve as a clearing house for any major changes or enhancements.

2. Make it easy for CRM users to share feedback

Your front-line staff probably comprise the largest group of CRM users. Sales reps use it daily to log calls, send emails, track deals, and monitor pipeline growth. Operations teams manage projects, invoices, proposals, and work orders. Marketers build segmented lists, design and send promotional emails, and monitor lead acceptance rates. Altogether, your users may have thousands of CRM interactions in a single day. Naturally, they’re full of CRM enhancement ideas.

Get ahead of the situation and develop a formalized mechanism for soliciting and collecting user feedback. If your organization uses a team collaboration platform—such as Slack or Microsoft Teams—consider setting up a dedicated channel for users to share ideas in real time. In addition, distribute a quarterly survey that encourages all users to share their joys and pains of working with your CRM.

Taking a structured approach will make users feel confident that their thoughts are being heard, which can lessen the perceived need for “urgent changes” to your CRM. More feedback leads to more data. More data empowers your cross-functional team to identify trends, weigh one idea against another, and make informed decisions—instead of dealing with every customization request as a free-standing emergency.

3. Know the full scope of what your CRM can do

Messy CRM customizations are often unnecessary—especially when you know what you’re doing. Just because your sales team is asking for a way to track “hot deals” does not mean that a custom field is the best approach for alleviating their pain point. In this example, an Insightly user might consider using tags—rather than custom fields—which can be easily applied to leads, contacts, organizations, opportunities, and other records without altering the record itself.

Or, perhaps a more robust solution is required, in which case prospect lead scoring with Insightly Marketing could be worth a look.

Either solution addresses the core request while using built-in CRM capabilities (instead of relying on record-level customizations).

Go beyond the original request and terminology nuances. Revisit your CRM vendor’s documentation often. Understand what you’re trying to solve for. Tap into your CRM knowledge (and your creativity) to deliver the most value with the simplest solution.

4. Take an agile approach to CRM feature rollouts

The world’s top software development teams are experts at collecting a wide spectrum of user feedback, sequencing ideas, and working on features that deliver immediate impact. And, that’s exactly how your CRM cross-functional team should operate, too. Here’s how.

Collect raw ideas in a centralized location

Once you turn on the spigot of ideas as outlined in section two, you need a place to collect and organize them. A shared spreadsheet could work, although centralizing ideas as projects or tasks in your CRM might be a more scalable solution.

Merge & filter ideas

Some ideas will be duplicates. Some will be related or subideas within a larger idea. Some won’t be aligned with your company’s CRM philosophy. Appoint one person from your cross-functional team to regularly combine and archive requests on your kanban board.

Sequence ideas for implementation

There are only so many hours in the day. Members of your cross-functional team have plenty of other responsibilities on their plates, so sequencing top ideas is dependent upon understanding true capacity.

Engage the team in a discussion to understand capacity so that cards can be prioritized for implementation. Sequence CRM customizations or enhancements that offer the most value to the largest amount of users, without compromising data integrity or accessibility.

Find the right balance for your CRM

At the end of the day, your CRM should help your teams become more efficient, productive, and confident. CRM customizations, when implemented strategically and methodically, support these ideals without abandoning time-tested best practices.

Learn more about how to customize CRM for your business while preserving data integrity.

Get a free Insightly demo to learn more about CRM setup best practices.

Request a demo

The post Balancing CRM best practices with the need for customizations appeared first on Insightly.

That’s why midsize companies frequently hire CRM consultants to help with implementation, training, and ongoing support. CRM consultants possess intricate knowledge about particular systems, features, and integrations—knowledge that may not exist within your organization’s four walls.

Of course, hiring a CRM consultant comes with its share of tradeoffs. Cost is certainly at the top of the list, as CRM experts are in high demand and, as a result, highly compensated.

This article discusses the topic of CRM consultants and how to form a game plan for eliminating, or at least minimizing, consulting fees.

Why are CRM consultants so costly for midsize companies?

Midsize companies have customer data management needs that are similar to those of larger organizations, but with budgets that are considerably smaller. This means that every dollar of your CRM project really counts. However, when you’re spending the majority of your CRM budget on consulting fees, it’s hard to make traction toward your actual business goals.

Here are just a few reasons why consulting fees can add up so quickly for midsize companies:

CRM onboarding expenses

Bringing in a consultant to document use cases, develop architecture plans, and serve as an independent advocate is a common starting point. You also need someone who can extract data from legacy systems, prepare data for import, configure custom fields, onboard users, and coordinate training. And, of course, all of these tasks require meetings—lots of them. Before you know it, the consultant has logged 100+ hours, which begins to rival the total cost of your first year’s subscription. Ouch.

Ongoing expenses

Consulting projects have a way of evolving into never-ending engagements. What seemed like a one-time setup morphs into an ongoing relationship. After all, new customer data continues to flow into your CRM. Someone also needs to stay on top of deduplication, record management, provisioning new users, offboarding old users, and ensuring everyone has proper access to the right data. Since you’ve already invested so much time (and money) into the consulting relationship, it seems logical to keep the consultant around to provide ongoing support, even though the hourly fees continue to add up.

5 tips for eliminating dependency on CRM consultants

So, what are your options for minimizing dependency on costly CRM consultants?

Consider these five tips:

1. Start with an intuitive, easy-to-use CRM

Users and administrators want a system that is easy to use and manage. When you go against their wishes and select a CRM with a complex data structure and antiquated user interface, consultants become almost unavoidable. If you’re still in the consideration stage of your CRM selection process, take a few minutes and ask yourself these four questions:

• Do other midsize companies use this CRM?
• Is data management intuitive and customizable?
• Can we save money and improve efficiency?
• Will this CRM scale to align with our future growth?

Then, look for a CRM that’s built for the exact needs of midsize companies and offers features that accelerate user adoption, such as:

• A modern, intuitive user interface
• Easy-to-use administrator tools
• Customizable data fields
• Integration to business applications that your company actually uses

2. Avoid shiny objects

Go back and reevaluate your motivation for implementing a CRM in the first place. Take a CRM needs assessment to get your creative juices flowing. Is your primary goal to centralize customer data? Or, are you looking to scale sales operations and give SDRs more tools for prospect engagement? Identify your primary and secondary goals, then focus all conversations and resources around achieving those goals. Do not be distracted by features that, while interesting, do not support the mission.

For example, if your main goal is to streamline the handoff between sales and operations, you should not spend much time worrying about APIs or custom objects. Rather, focus on the features that accelerate project delivery, such as automated workflows and record linking. You might be surprised by how much your in-house team can accomplish on their own once goals are clearly defined and understood.

3. Use every resource at your disposal

Most likely, your CRM vendor’s pricing page lists every feature and service that you’re entitled to as a customer. (Your contract might include similar information.) Look for the expanded version and familiarize yourself with every resource at your disposal. Examples might include:

• Standard support services (i.e., email support, chat, etc.)
• Success plans that provide dedicated support and continuous improvement
• Online user communities
• Sample data import templates
• On-demand training resources
• Native integrations
• Self-help documentation (For example, here’s Insightly’s documentation site.)

Go through the feature and service list to identify resources that could make the biggest impact on your CRM project. Make sure your team is also aware of these resources and references them often.

4. Continuously invest in your people

Your team is a talented, diverse group of professionals. From IT to sales and marketing, your organization already possesses many skills that are necessary to successfully implement and manage an in-house CRM project. Perhaps they just need extra training or coaching to give them the necessary confidence boost.

Believe in your people. Capitalize on their strengths and identify opportunities to help them develop new skills. In doing so, you’ll be supporting their professional growth while simultaneously establishing a new core competency for your business—one that’s far less reliant on consultants.

Empower your team with modern and easy-to-use CRM, like Insightly CRM, that can drive up productivity, free up time for more creative work, and help your team reach goals.

5. Run the numbers on a CRM success plan

If you’re still not sure how to eliminate costly consultants from your budget, maybe it’s time to consider your vendor’s CRM support and service plans. Although there’s a cost, such plans can be easier to budget for as compared to hourly consulting fees. In exchange for a predetermined amount, your vendor provides additional services to help your in-house team be more successful with your CRM project.

For example, Insightly’s support plans include a variety of value-added services such as:

• Onboarding
• Admin and user training
• Phone support
• A dedicated customer success manager/personalized guidance
• Regular check-ins for continuous improvement

Why not tap into the collective genius of the people who are developing and supporting your CRM software? Seems like a logical place to start.

Get your game plan

Perpetually relying on consultants to manage your CRM is a losing proposition. It’s time to take control and develop a game plan that maximizes the impact of each dollar invested back into your CRM.

Explore Insightly and schedule a demo to get a free CRM needs assessment and see Insightly CRM in action.

Request a demo

The post How to eliminate the need for costly CRM consultants appeared first on Insightly.

As a CRM power user, this puts you in a difficult spot. On the one hand, you need the best CRM technology to successfully perform your job. On the other hand, disagreeing with your boss (or your boss’ boss) is not an enviable position.

This article offers tips for using data and real-world evidence to challenge flawed assumptions about finding the right fit for your CRM tech stack, while recognizing the political dynamics of a company.

Assumption 1: “Users just want leadership to make the decision”

This assumption wrongly presupposes that staff do not possess the proper experiences or perspectives to participate in the CRM decision-making process. After all, selecting a CRM is a multifaceted endeavor that impacts numerous departments and teams. It’s understandable why leadership would view this as a strategic decision that requires a top-down approach.

How to challenge this assumption

Start by volunteering to participate in the conversation. If you never offer, your leadership team may not think to ask for your opinion. Gently reaffirm the importance of the decision at hand. More data is better than less data, and you’re certainly an excellent source of it. You possess invaluable firsthand knowledge about your legacy system. You know its challenges and have ideas, backed by data, for overcoming them. True, you may not know what other departments need, but you definitely know what your team needs. If you receive continued pushback, point out that there are several approaches for selecting a CRM and that a hybrid approach, which harnesses the collective genius of leadership and frontline staff, has been documented to work well.

Assumption 2: “Bigger is always better”

Choosing the most well-known brand in any product category is tempting for the risk-averse executive, especially when multiple executives are involved. Executives are competitive people, and they don’t want to face future embarrassment for today’s bad decision. Therefore, selecting a big-name vendor often presents the least amount of perceived risk. If the solution is good enough for the world’s largest and successful companies, then surely it’s good enough for your company. Right?

How to challenge this assumption

Do your homework and come prepared with data-driven insights that support your perspective. If you feel that a niche CRM vendor better aligns with your company’s unique needs, prepare an executive summary (one to two pages) that concisely explains why. Ideally, the executive summary should contain statistics from objective analyst reports (for example, Gartner, Inc.) that speak to your product category, revenue size, and user base. Develop a side-by-side matrix that compares how your preferred vendor stacks up against the big-name alternative.

For example, if you’re a midsize manufacturing company with 150 users, your comparison matrix might look something like this:

To enrich your quantitative data, collect reviews and case studies from customers in your cohort group. Using third party testimonials and use cases increases your chances of success with leadership.

Assumption 3: “Emerging vendors can’t compete on features”

At face value, large technology companies should be able to deploy useful features faster than smaller competitors. Vendors with tens of thousands of customers have massive cash flows, allowing them to hire more developers and make aggressive acquisitions. In reality, however, the larger a company becomes, the harder it is to move quickly. Layers of bureaucracy and a tendency toward risk aversion create opportunities for innovative contenders to develop better solutions and capture market share.

How to challenge this assumption

You might not be able to convince leadership that smaller tech vendors are more agile than larger, established brands (even though they often are). Instead, a better approach focuses on the impact that certain features will have on meeting your company needs and growing revenue. Go beyond feature talk and orient the conversation toward the end result. Why does your company need a CRM in the first place? Is it to grow your business, reduce cost, maximize productivity, and/or grow revenue? Whatever your CRM goals are, they are not going to be about a vendor’s 22-page feature list.

Spend time to identify and agree on the features that actually align with your CRM goals. Then, get to work understanding how usable those features are by requesting a free trial. As pointed out in a recent Insightly survey, usability is a major reason why companies switch CRMs. It’s therefore important to find a healthy balance between feature availability and usability.

Assumption 4: “Sales and marketing data must live in two separate, yet integrated systems”

Which came first…the CRM or the marketing automation system?

Although we may never discover the answer to this question, many executives have grown accustomed to having one system for sales and one system for marketing, creating artificial walls between sales and marketing. Therefore, consolidating into a single sales and marketing platform that serves both functions is, for some executives, a difficult concept to imagine.

How to challenge this assumption

There’s a lot of chatter today about the customer journey. Use this to your advantage. Provide leadership with helpful content that reaffirms the importance of developing a cohesive journey for each relationship—from initial interaction all the way through renewal.

To get you headed in the right direction, check out Insightly’s series about how to create alignment for the buyer journey. Also, begin evaluating vendors that provide sales and marketing under one roof. Insightly’s platform is a good place to start.

Advocate for the best CRM

Your voice is important to the conversation. Be bold and share your opinion. Use data and real-world evidence to help your cause. It’s time to advocate for a better CRM that meets your needs, helps you do your job, and, ultimately, makes your company (and you) more successful.

Looking for additional resources to help you make your case? Check out the articles below:

• How to do a CRM needs assessment
• Go beyond features when comparing CRM vendors
• 5 reasons why companies switch CRMs
• How to select a marketing automation system: Here’s a checklist

The post 4 common CRM assumptions & how to tackle them appeared first on Insightly.

In this post, we share tips for going beyond feature comparisons when evaluating CRMs.

Start by identifying what is important to you

Everyone agrees that getting the right mix of features is important. But, when it comes to selecting a CRM vendor, what else matters?

At a minimum, consider:

Excellent support

One of the benefits of a cloud-based CRM is the opportunity to receive timely support from the experts who built and understand the system. Unlike on-premise solutions that are not easily accessible by the vendor, a cloud-based solution offers a more collaborative ecosystem.

Here’s the catch: not every cloud-based vendor delivers the same level of personalized support. Some provide basic support for free and premium support for an added cost. Others rely on third-party contractors and consultants. Still others point users to an online knowledge base and call it a day.

When evaluating solutions, it’s therefore vital to identify a vendor that offers a success plan and consistently ranks well in customer satisfaction—especially if your CRM implementation is complex or requires significant amounts of customization.

Ease of implementation & onboarding

On its own, a CRM provides minimal value unless it is implemented strategically and in a reasonable amount of time. Spending months trying to onboard a system is counterproductive and erodes morale. After all, most companies implement a CRM to accelerate growth—not inhibit it. Ideally, a CRM should have the flexibility to fit your needs without creating unnecessary workarounds or delays.

Active development pipeline

For many organizations, the CRM serves as the source of truth for all customer relationships, leads, opportunities, and related business data. Migrating such a large amount of information from one system to another has a real cost, which is why selecting a CRM is not a short-term decision.

If you’re buying into a long-term value proposition, don’t you want a vendor who continuously supports and enhances its platform? Remember, your business will change dramatically over the next few years—and, so should the solutions offered by your CRM vendor. CRM providers who invest in an active development pipeline demonstrate their ongoing commitment to customer success.

Fair & honest pricing

Few things in life are more frustrating than costly, unexpected surprises—especially when it comes to your CRM.

Investing countless hours to customize your CRM for your exact needs is, on its own, a big enough endeavor. So is hiring consultants to help you implement, customize, and keep up the system—the added cost that’s hard to estimate upfront. When comparing pricing plans, consider the hidden costs to get a more accurate estimate of each vendor.

Validate vendor capabilities to your needs

Once you’ve clearly defined your goals and objectives, it’s time to validate them with real-world data. Don’t just rely on sales materials and fancy emails from the vendor. Seek out objective information to inform your decision.

Read case studies & watch online testimonials

Most technology companies publish in-depth case studies, testimonials, and voice-of-the-customer videos on their websites. Although these can be pumped full of marketing messages, they can be useful in your evaluation process. Here are a few questions to think through:

• Which customer use cases relate directly to your business?
• Does the vendor serve customers across multiple industries—yours, in particular?
• How have customers translated the platform’s features into tangible business value?
• Do customers seem satisfied with the support that they receive?
• Do you notice any common trends across multiple customer stories?

Try to look past the subliminal marketing spin and dive into the heart of each message.

Check online review websites

Online reviews are more prevalent than ever before. From restaurants to retail to professional services, it seems that every industry has a myriad of review sites.

Software as a Service is no exclusion to this rule. Sites like Capterra, G2, and Trustpilot provide first-hand user experiences with a variety of CRM systems.

Keep in mind that software vendors are well aware of such sites and, wisely, implement programs to increase their online reputations. Therefore, do not base all of your decision- making on a single review site. Spend time evaluating dozens of reviews across multiple review platforms to gain a comprehensive perspective.

Know what CRM experts say

Almost every modern company can benefit from a CRM, which is why the cloud CRM market has experienced rapid growth over the past decade. As a result, countless CRM subject matter experts have popped up to share their recommendations and best practices.

Sadly, not every thought leader has your best interest in mind. Be wary of consultants who push a single solution due to existing affiliate or referral relationships.

Instead, look for organizations that provide independent perspectives. For example, the team at Gartner publishes thoughtful, unbiased content about the CRM market and related trends.

Talk to the vendor

Reading secondhand information can only get you so far. There’s still something to be said for establishing real—albeit virtual—relationships with technology vendors.

As you begin to interact with vendors, keep these questions in mind:

• Does the vendor make it easy to request a live demo? (For example, here is Insightly’s demo page.)
• Can you talk to a live human via chat or by calling a phone number?
• Once contact is established, does the representative listen to your needs?
• Does the representative follow up promptly with additional information?
• Are you feeling pressured to make a decision?

A reliable vendor will do more listening than talking and recommend real solutions that meet your needs. And, if no solution is present, they might even point you elsewhere.

Talk to actual customers

Talking to real customers can be an eye-opening experience. Customers know the good, the bad, and the ugly, and they’re usually willing to share it with you.

Don’t be afraid to ask each vendor to provide a few customer referrals. This is a common practice in the software industry, especially for larger enterprise purchasing decisions.

Use a free trial

You might be curious why I have not yet mentioned the free trial. Certainly, a free trial is a great way to familiarize yourself with the software, identify issues, and understand tangible and intangible benefits.

That being said, you need a game plan to maximize the impact of your trial. Remember, most trials only last between 14 and 30 days. After that, it’s time to make a purchasing decision. Reading case studies and reviews, interacting with customers, and talking to vendors forms a solid foundation to maximize the trial’s impact.

Also, don’t just go through the motions during your trial. Instead, make a commitment of being an actual customer. Participate in feature release webinars and online tutorials. Read the documentation. Pay attention to the vendor’s emails. Do you have what you need to be successful? What, if anything, seems to be lacking?

Features aren’t everything

No doubt, you need a CRM with the right mix of features. On the other hand, features are not the only factor to consider when selecting a CRM.

As you plan your CRM project, push your team to go beyond basic feature matrices. Take a more holistic and long-term approach that starts and ends with what actually matters to your business. View your CRM vendor as a technology partner who can help you reach your business goals.

Read more like this:

• How to do a CRM needs assessment
• What is a CRM?
• 5 reasons why companies switch CRMs
• How to select a marketing automation system: a checklist

The post Go beyond features when comparing CRM vendors appeared first on Insightly.

What are your reasons for building a CRM?

Maybe you’re disgruntled with your current CRM and/or find legacy systems too expensive and difficult to set up and use. Maybe you believe your developers have what it takes to build your own custom CRM, giving you more control and flexibility. Maybe you think you can get by with a few tools—like Excel, G-suite—you’ve patched up to create your version of a CRM. Whatever your reasons are, make sure to scrutinize them for any misconceptions and blind spots. To help you do that, let’s take a closer look at a few common reasons why companies decide to build their own CRM.

Cost

Building your own CRM doesn’t automatically mean saving on CRM costs. In addition to assuming the cost of the first build, you’ll be also responsible for maintaining and improving the system over time. You’ll be paying for all the research, learning, testing, and troubleshooting. Make a list of all direct and indirect costs to get the full picture. Don’t forget to include human capital, implementation, ongoing maintenance/upgrades, and opportunity cost in your list. Is building your own CRM still a cost-effective and viable option? We’ll discuss what it takes to build a CRM in more detail later in the article.

Customizations

You’ve done a CRM needs assessment and have concluded that your business is truly unique and requires a unique CRM system. There are a couple of things to consider here. Firstly, do your research—there are a number of modern CRMs that offer advanced customization features and capabilities regardless of your industry, business type, or operational complexity. Talk to vendors, request free demos, and look at use cases similar to yours. At the very least, these conversations will inform you on how to approach solving your CRM needs. Secondly, there are layers of customizations and you need to think both short- and long-term to make sure that your system is not so highly customized that it defeats the purpose of a CRM (think data organization, accuracy, and integrity) and keeps breaking as your team and business grow and evolve.

Control & risk management

Some companies want to maintain control over the build and avoid taking a risk with a vendor. Prior CRM vendor experience(s) that fell short of expectations can make it really difficult to build trust with a new vendor. Once again, getting clear on your CRM needs, taking time to research providers, and understanding the terms of your CRM contract can make a huge difference in the long run. Also, keep in mind that a homegrown CRM is not a risk-free investment.

What would it take to build your own CRM?

The scope, necessary resources, and the timeline for building a CRM depend on whether you are coding a CRM software from scratch or patching up multiple third-party tools, like Excel, and G-suite, to create a version of your “own” CRM. A lot also depends on the size and complexity of your business operations as well as your CRM expectations. Here is a list to get you started.

Product roadmap

If you are coding a CRM, then you’ll need a product roadmap that will address both your immediate needs and overarching business value of a CRM. Will your system include workflow automation? What about reporting and analytics dashboard? Will you need to incorporate third-party technology solutions? How will you align teams around your product roadmap?

IT, financial, & operational resources

Whatever your cost and timeline estimates are—multiply by a few times and prepare for results that may still fall short of your original vision. You and your team will be learning as you go and you’ll make mistakes. It’s part of the process. Some companies spend years and hundreds of thousands of dollars on building their own CRM systems only to realize that they can’t update and innovate the system fast enough to keep up with their business needs and growth.

Your sales, marketing, and customer support teams won’t be shy about their wish lists of features and capabilities, and they’ll want them delivered sooner rather than later. With all the pressure and expectations, building a CRM may cause you to shift focus and divest resources away from your core product/service and revenue generating activities. Are you prepared for that? Can you afford that? Most companies that build their own CRMs rarely, if ever, spend 100% of their time on the project.

CRM implementation & upkeep

Building a CRM is only the first step. You have to plan for implementation, staff training and adoption, ongoing maintenance and system updates. Keep in mind that once you promise your team a CRM that will be custom built for them, they’ll expect it to be easy-to-use, match their unique preferences, and solve all their pain points. It can take anywhere from 9 to 16 months to get the system to an operational level and some features might be already obsolete by then. Can you dedicate a developer (or a team of developers) to monitor system performance, continuously improve it, and create a process for ongoing maintenance that can survive staff changes and other company changes?

What are the risks of going with a CRM vendor?

Anytime you purchase a business service or tool that’s integral to your own company’s operations, you’re taking a risk. What if your business outgrows the CRM that seems ideal for right now? What if the pricing changes drastically and you haven’t planned for it? Is your CRM vendor going to invest in continuous improvement in product and customer support? Will your team adopt the tool and use the system as intended to make the most of it? Will the benefits justify the costs?

These are all important questions and the only way to mitigate the risk during the decision-making process is to make sure you do your due diligence with CRM needs assessment, vendor research, and selection. Request demos, read analyst and customer reviews, ask the right questions when talking to CRM vendors, etc. Don’t lock yourself into considering big brands or niche industry players. Look at CRM providers’ underlying technology and customer support to determine whether they can scale with your business and support your team as your business changes. Some companies set up a selection taskforce to make sure they get key input from all their stakeholders, including daily CRM users and IT managers.

There are risks associated with both buying and building a CRM. And, there’s a real danger of overlooking your internal risks. Often companies have one developer/project lead in charge of their CRM system, and once that person leaves, the system begins to fall apart. Sometimes companies overestimate their ability to build a CRM and by the time they realize it, they’ve spent so much time and resources that it’s harder to switch.

How are you going to measure CRM value?

At the end of the day, it comes down to value. Most modern CRM providers, like Insightly, have been working on product features and maximizing CRM value for businesses for many years. Their entire business model depends on creating more value for users like you, and building scalable CRMs is their core competency.

When thinking about CRM value, consider both your immediate needs, such as solving long-standing management and operational challenges, and reaching your growth goals. Will a homegrown system provide you with maximum CRM value over time? Considering all costs, risks, and goals, how will you measure the value of your CRM?

Your decision on whether to build or buy a CRM will have a consequential impact on your business for years to come. Take time to think it through, research your options, and make a decision that will stand the test of time and set up your business for success.

Read more like this:

• 5 reasons why companies switch CRMs
• What is a CRM?
• How to use a CRM for business development
• 3 ways a CRM success plan can help you maximize ROI

The post Should you build or buy CRM? appeared first on Insightly.

Start by clearly identifying your CRM goals

Jumping straight into a detailed feature comparison is certainly tempting. A better approach, however, is to carefully examine your goals before spending any time on vendor evaluations. After all, how can you know which CRM features are relevant without a proper understanding of your true needs? Knowing your CRM software requirements, business processes and business requirements is an important first step to selecting the right CRM solution. Doing a requirements gathering exercise followed by creating a requirements document (system and functional requirements) is the formal way to start the process.

One of the best ways to to begin understanding your CRM needs is to set some basic goals:

Primary CRM goals

At the end of the day, why does your company need a CRM? Achieving 100% user adoption is a necessary objective, but is it the main motivator for adopting a new CRM? Of course not. In the long run, you need a CRM that will help you increase revenue and grow business faster with effective use of data.

If you’re a service-based business, your primary CRM goal may be to elevate customer relationships and deliver projects on time and to specification. If you’re a manufacturer, you may be looking for a better way to organize a rapidly evolving web of production, supplies, distribution, customer, and order data.

Start by clearly defining and documenting your high-level “why,” and everything else will start to fall into place.

Secondary CRM goals

With your primary goals defined, it’s time to identify secondary goals. Secondary goals can come in a wide variety of forms. Some are easily tracked, while others require additional data and investigation.

Get some basic ideas down on paper (you can refine and improve them later). Here are a few examples:

• We want to select and implement a CRM that staff will actually use.
• Our new CRM will become our central source of truth for all business data.
• We need a CRM that will help with sales and marketing alignment.
• We need a CRM that scales and adapts to our rapidly changing business model.
• In the next 90 days, we want to migrate our legacy on-premise CRM to a cloud-based solution.
• Our goal is to achieve a 90% MQL-to-SQL ratio.

As you can see, defining your CRM goals has less to do with features and more to do with outcomes. Develop your primary and secondary CRM goals and use them as a guidepost for all future vendor and feature analysis. You will be amazed at how this simple, yet important act will foster greater alignment among stakeholders.

3 approaches for performing a CRM needs assessment

“Smart” goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. What additional information do you need to align your goals with this reality? What is the best way to convert your vision into an actionable CRM needs assessment?

Here are three possible approaches:

1. Top-Down

Commonplace among smaller organizations, the top-down approach heavily relies on senior leadership’s past experiences and knowledge. For example, let’s assume that your company recently hired a chief revenue officer who possesses decades of experience with CRM technology. This first-hand expertise is highly useful to your organization and you’d be wise to use it as a driving factor in the identification and sequencing of your needs.

2. Bottom-Up

Some leaders take a “hands off” approach to CRM needs assessments, deferring instead to sales, IT, and/or administrative staff. The logic is that frontline SDRs, account executives, customer success agents, and marketing staff, etc. will be the primary day-to-day users of the software, not the senior management. In theory, the bottom-up approach sounds good, but in reality, collecting and considering input from every CRM user is rarely feasible—especially for midsize and enterprise organizations.

3. Hybrid

Combining the best aspects of top-down and bottom-up can be a viable solution for many companies. Forming a cross-functional team that includes senior leaders along with mid-level and front-line users can streamline the collection and analysis of input without overwhelming the system. With the hybrid approach, you are considering all aspects—big picture and long-term goals as well as execution process, including daily user experience.

CRM needs assessment checklist

Regardless of who will be performing your CRM needs assessment (be it a senior manager or a committee), there are several key questions that must be answered before going any further:

What is the top reason for considering a new CRM vendor?

Harken back to your primary and secondary goals. Avoid feature talk here. Rather, try to pinpoint how your current CRM may be slowing down growth.missing your business needs, or is misaligned with your business objectives. Perhaps it’s about pricing, workflows, dashboards, or compatibility with your business in general. Does it connect well with the apps you already use in your business? Is there a way to integrate use automation (via an API) to connect with your marketing automation platform and the campaigns?  Other apps like those for social media? You’ll want to map the responses here to your CRM requirements.

What does your current CRM do well (if anything)?

Chances are, there’s something that your CRM does well to support your sales process. It’s OK to be specific and ask your sales team. Maybe converting leads to opportunities is straightforward (e.g lead management), or maybe you like how uploaded lists of contacts appear immediately in the system. Is sales forecasting easy? General sales management? Is the salesforce content with support? Is there a quality knowledge base to use when they get stuck?

What does your current CRM do poorly?

Again, be specific. Make a list of all the ways that your CRM fails to meet your needs. Is is customer data? Email marketing? Lead management? Contact management? Opportunity management? Do you struggle with team member permissions? Is your system installed (on-prem) vs. SaaS? Keep in mind that as your business grows and changes, your CRM needs will too. Would your current CRM scale easily? Do they have the customer support you need?

Do you have a diagram of your current CRM process(es)?

Yes or no. If no, you should create one before proceeding to the next question. If you are doing a formal RFP, this will be requested by many vendors as a part of requirements gathering, so it’s best to get started on it. It may also provide internal clarity to those on the selection team with less in-depth knowledge of the current implementation. It’s a great way for everyone to see the lifecycle of leads, to understand the CRM project as a whole, and to get better insight into the CRM software requirements.

Do you have a diagram of your ideal CRM process(es)?

If technological limitations did not exist, what would be the best CRM to support your ideal buyer journey? Ask the same question for your customer journey and other important processes, such as project delivery, order fulfillment, and CRM user onboarding. Will there be webinars? Templates for the team to use? Different modules depending on role/team segmentation? What will be the messaging around the new CRM implementation internally? When issues can’t be solved internally, who will be in charge of case management?

What data silos do you need to banish?

Data silos and underperforming CRMs often go hand in hand. Carefully examine all of the places where data resides. Spreadsheets, email inboxes, third-party marketing systems, mobile apps, and project management platforms are common examples of segmentation. Is it possible to reduce or eliminate such silos with a better aligned CRM?

Do you have the in-house project management and IT capabilities?

Switching CRMs can be a complicated and time-consuming process. If you decided to switch CRMs today, what additional resources (new hires, consultants, or support packages) would your team need? These are people who are keen on system requirements, operating system limitations, etc. Are there templates for major switches like this that an IT project manager may have access to?

What is the opportunity cost of the status quo?

Yes, your current CRM may have a negative impact on revenue performance. But to what extent? How does this compare to the cost of switching CRMs, training users, and supporting an entirely new platform?

What’s the budget?

If you’re relying on a legacy on-premise system or database, you may not have a true CRM software budget—aside from the ongoing cost to support a non-cloud solution. Even if you’re already using a cloud solution, the cost of switching may be more (or less) than your current subscription. Be sure to define a ballpark CRM budget now (and refine it later) so everyone is aware of the pricing constraints for your new CRM system.

Start with your CRM needs for enhanced results

There’s no doubt that upgrading your CRM can make a decisive impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of your business operations and customer relationships. That’s especially true when internal needs are carefully examined and understood prior to engaging vendors and comparing features.

Need more tips for successfully switching CRMs? Download Insightly’s free ebook.

Download the ebook

The post CRM Requirements: Assess your needs with a CRM checklist appeared first on Insightly.

Sound familiar?

Companies switch CRMs for a variety of reasons, not the least of which includes low user adoption. And, while switching CRMs can certainly lead to increased levels of user adoption, doing so is no guarantee of success.

In fact, failing to implement a rock-solid adoption plan is a recipe for repeat failure.

Let’s explore a few best practices to maximize the impact of your switch.

Why is your current CRM failing?

Pointing fingers at your current CRM seems like the easy thing to do. “It doesn’t have the features that we need to be successful,” says your top sales rep. “It’s confusing, and data is everywhere,” says your CRM administrator. “Integrating to our marketing automation system is painful and time-consuming,” says your marketing manager.

While all of these statements may be true, a more objective look at the situation could also uncover deeper problems than substandard features and data silos.

Here are a few reasons why companies fail with their CRMs, and, as a result, accelerate the downward spiral of their already low utilization rates.

Lack of upfront training and support

Some vendors try to make the CRM buying process feel like a trip to the supermarket. Just browse for what you need, load up your cart, pay your bill, and be on your merry way.

In reality, switching CRMs has very little in common with grocery shopping. Picking the perfect avocado, for example, requires minimal forethought or assistance. Selecting and implementing the perfect CRM for your business, however, should be a multifaceted process that requires adequate research, planning, and input from stakeholders across the organization.

A reliable CRM vendor walks with you (even after you’ve paid the bill) to ensure that you have a comprehensive onboarding experience, robust documentation, helpful online user community, and value-added professional services.

Questions to consider: How thorough was the training, onboarding, and support that you received from your current vendor? Did they make mistakes that contributed to your current situation?

Misalignment in system ownership

For many companies, delegating CRM administration to the IT department makes total sense. After all, your CRM houses the most confidential customer data, documents, and strategic insights. Maintaining tight control over user access and data integrity certainly falls within the IT department’s purview.

On the other hand, sales is the primary CRM user and is closest to the customer. Perhaps your sales director would like to customize the system without bothering IT, but, unfortunately, it’s complicated. Changes to one area might break something else. As a result, the sales team just tries its best to make things work as is.

Questions to consider: Who “owns” the success of your CRM? What does success actually look like? Do administrative bottlenecks reduce your chances of achieving success?

CRM stagnation despite rapid business change

Fundamentally, a CRM should make it easier for your teams to understand customers, engage them, and identify profitable business opportunities. That’s tough to guarantee when your business model is evolving faster than ever⁠—especially when your CRM can’t keep pace.

Granted, some CRMs are easier to customize than others. Customization for customization’s sake, however, can lead to unnecessary data fields that overwhelm users and create an unpleasant experience, which inhibits customer relationship management.

Questions to consider: What assumptions were made during adoption that are no longer valid? Was your current CRM customized too heavily (or not enough) based on one or more bad assumptions? Does your CRM vendor check in with you to make sure your setup is aligned with your business goals?

Planting your CRM in fertile ground

So, how can you avoid these types of issues and ensure your next CRM project is a success?

As a simple illustration, let’s compare your CRM implementation to that of planting a garden. Before you ever plant the first seed, there’s a considerable amount of tilling, hoeing, fertilizing, and watering that must be done. All of this prepares the ground to receive the vegetable seed, and, in turn, increases the chances of survival.

Now, let’s apply this analogy to your company. How can you ensure that your new CRM (the “seed”) bears good produce? Here are a few ideas to consider:

Build a cross-functional team

Don’t allow your IT Director or Chief Revenue Officer to operate in a vacuum and fail to seek input from other stakeholders. Onboarding a new CRM impacts multiple departments and teams; therefore, each team should have at least a seat at the table. Conversely, don’t try to do everything by consensus. The team is there to foster greater alignment, share ideas, and rally around a common cause. Ultimately, one specific team member should own the success or failure of the project. He or she should have more decision-making power and final say on important matters.

Set clear definitions of success

What does the team’s shared vision of success look like? What is a reasonable user adoption rate, and what reports are necessary for measuring progress toward that goal? Define key dates, timelines, KPIs, and accountability mechanisms. Ideally, your new CRM will provide native tools to help track success or failure.

Define roles and responsibilities

Adding new users. Assigning roles and permissions. Customizing contact records. Building automated workflows and integrations. Who in your organization should perform these and other CRM tasks? What is a reasonable turnaround for each task, and how will you measure deviations from the norm? Set clear expectations now to avoid unnecessary friction and misalignment later.

Leverage vendor-provided resources to the fullest

Don’t overlook the services and resources that are provided by your vendor. Be sure to utilize every coaching session, training webinar, how-to video, and support article to its fullest potential. Are you also entitled to ongoing support or a success plan as part of your contract? If so, implement safeguards so that users take advantage of such services in the future.

Weigh premium onboarding services vs. the cost of DIY

Some vendors offer add-on, premium onboarding, training, and support services. Although the cost is certainly incremental, the long-term savings could far outweigh the upfront investment—especially if your staff is already overworked. For example, Insightly offers several training and support plans that can get you up and running faster and with less effort from in-house staff.

Don’t just set it and forget it

By developing a healthy mix of people, technology, and vendor-provided solutions, you can give your CRM every chance to thrive. But remember, your company’s needs will be constantly changing, which means your CRM must constantly change, too.

Stay tuned for the next post which will explore how to ensure ongoing CRM adoption after a successful launch.

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