With the wealth of CRM software currently available in the market today, how do you know you’re choosing the right one? You might say you have the money to buy the best one with all the bells and whistles but, really, how do you know you’re buying the right one for your business and its needs?
As with anything you’ll be shelling out money for, the proper research needs to be made in acquiring CRM software for your business. Questions need to be asked and answered before you can decide on the one to get and avoid making mistakes. So, the question still stands: How do you know you’re choosing the right CRM software?
The Big Three
You have the budget to get the best CRM software available today. Hurrah! However, that’s not really the smartest way to go about things. First, you need to understand what a CRM is and what it can do for your business. Ask yourself and your team these three questions and evaluate:
1. What does CRM stand for? It’s the acronym for Customer Relationship Management.
2. What is CRM software? Taking a cue from the name, CRM software is a set of processes used by a company to manage how they interact with their customers with the use of data and other information.
3. What is CRM software used for? Simply put, CRM software helps you find new customers while also helping you to take care of old customers and keeping them happy.
Before you commit to buying CRM software, be sure to do your due diligence to avoid the 6 mistakes most people make when choosing CRM software.
1. Not identifying your needs
What do you need in a top CRM software? As much as we would like them to be, CRM systems are not a one-size-fits-all thing. The wealth of CRM software available in the market is only comparable to how many features and benefits each one can offer and whether these features and benefits meet your business needs.
Do you need CRM software to help you with leads? Do you want to streamline your customer communication protocols? Whatever your needs may be, it will be worth it to pull your team aside for a quick powwow and come up with a list of needs before you start a hunt and finalize a purchase.
2. Setting complicated goals
Take your lead from your list of needs – yes, that rhymes because it’s important. Don’t overwhelm yourself with CRM software that has too much of everything going on. You or your team might get frustrated by the middle of things and abandon the idea altogether in the end. You also won’t be able to make good use of the features and benefits that you really do need for your team and business.
Keep your eye on your priorities and goals short and concise so you don’t lose sight of what’s important. A top CRM software for small businesses is supposed to help you. If you make things overly complicated with functionalities that you don’t need, your customers might end up suffering instead.
3. Being unfamiliar with sales strategies
A responsible manager who has success in their mind will be an active participant in helping the sales teams come up with sales strategies. Whether it’s responsiveness, after-sales care, or something else altogether, you need CRM software that will support and help you carry out your sales strategies to completion.
Your team should be comfortable with your CRM in using it along with your outlined sales strategy. If your team finds it cumbersome or redundant, they won’t make good use of it.
4. Not tapping the team in
It’s second nature to call the shots when you’re the big boss. However, you have to keep in mind that you’re only as good as your littlest contributor so you need to make sure everyone is on top of their game. This includes your sales, customer service, and marketing teams, among many others. You need to choose CRM software that will provide these teams with the data they need to be more productive to the company.
Always look at the bigger picture when you’re looking at acquiring new software or hardware for your company. It needs to help your teams grow, be more productive, and stay motivated. All of these are only possible if you figure out what you can use the CRM software for in the future, not just for right now.
5. Discovering hidden gems
If you’re a start-up or a small business looking to expand and scale the business, you need to figure out the types of data you need your CRM to collect and provide for you so you can get there. If you choose the wrong CRM system, you might not be able to do this for a long time.
Before you commit to buying CRM software for your small business, be sure to take your time with it, discovering its hidden features. Chances are, there are some in there that can help you, maybe not today or tomorrow but sometime down the line.
6. The right stuff
Different businesses operating in different LOBs have different goals and different needs. You need to keep this in mind when you hear about the top CRM software and think about buying. Although it might be tempting to go with what’s hot right now and what’s trending, doing so might prove to be detrimental instead.
Don’t forget about your goals and whom you’re working with and for whenever you’re looking around for CRM software. If you’re looking at scaling the business you’ll need a system that allows you to make calls, create automation, manage sales performance, and more. Integrating your existing CRM with external tools can cause you to lose valuable time and money so it would be best to get a CRM software that can do it all for you.
Say goodbye to buyer’s remorse
It’s never a good feeling when you buy something only to realize afterward that it’s not what you want or need. Especially for a growing, high-potential business like yours, such mistakes can be costly. You need to take your time and get to know the software first before locking down a purchase.
Bitrix24 has built an all-in-one CRM software for your business to use. Whether it’s managing your customer database, generating or managing leads, sales data analytics, or something else you need, you can be sure you’ll find it in Bitrix24’s CRM software. Try it out for free today and unlock the possibilities for your business. Schedule a demo so you can also get a special preview of additional features that may be highly useful for you in the future.
