Part 5: How do I choose the best CRM Software for my business?

The best CRM software can automate manual tasks & augment existing business processes.

Pinpoint and evaluate your business' real needs before moving forward with any purchase.

CRM software is meant to fit your business needs; your business shouldn't have to change to fit it.

How to Find the Best CRM Software for Your Business

When you're looking for the right CRM software it's important for you to evaluate your actual business needs before moving forward with any purchase.

CRM software is meant to fit your business needs; your business should not have to change to fit the software. Choosing the best CRM software involves connecting your various daily processes and figuring out how the CRM software can eliminate manual tasks and augment your existing processes.

Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Business to Find the Best CRM System:

  • Does your business have a large customer and prospect database? If so, you need to find a CRM system that enables anytime, anywhere access for all users to input and edit details on all customer contacts. It's important that you have the ability to put down notes for each contact, as well as extensive activity and task tracking so that you can always refer to past calls and the details of those conversations. Depending on the size of your team, online collaboration with user permission controls should be supported to ensure your users only have access to what they need to be effective.
  • Does your business create invoices and quotes from various departments? Today a great deal of businesses actually do this and do not leave it down to the accounting department. This plays a part in choosing the best CRM software because you want to make sure that the users that need to regularly send out invoices and quotes have the ability to do so in a single click. Invoicing features also ensure that you always have a detailed history of your customers purchases, and/or upcoming payments so that nothing ever gets lost in the shuffle.
  • Does your business use various forms of marketing to attract new customers? Depending on the level of your marketing efforts, you may need to choose CRM software that provides extensive marketing capabilities. This would include detailed lead scoring, so you know whether to nurture or close leads, customer segmentation, contact list management, mass email capabilities, and detailed reports. Getting marketing campaigns right can be difficult for the untrained, especially if you don't have any “hard data” to highlight the target market. When you use CRM you will be able to identify these trends and be able to get the most out of each and every marketing campaign for your business.
  • What other processes do you want to integrate with your CRM software? One of the biggest advantages of CRM solutions is that they tend to be flexible enough to integrate with your other business systems, or come in all-in-one packages. If you have existing systems in place that you don't want to replace, then the best CRM for you will be one that easily integrates with that software. However, if you're running on a blank slate, or have no problem replacing your different software systems, then you can look for an all-in-one CRM solution that includes the different pieces that you need such as accounting or project management. In fact, purchasing an all-in-one CRM solution can help you to lower user license costs, and the time train each individual on how to use the different business systems.
  • Does your business have some form of contact management or CRM solution in place already? Oftentimes, when businesses start out they'll choose the cheapest CRM option or some free form of contact management. These systems may work in the short term, but eventually you'll find that they lack the features you need for your growing business. These free solutions, may have limits on the number of contacts allowed or emails sent, and may lack other features such as lead scoring and detailed reports which become more important as your business becomes more sophisticated. If you already have a CRM solution that isn't working for you, think about the additional features you need to help your business run more smoothly.

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In Part 6: More than a CRM - A Business Management Software