Tips to choose the right CRM – Part 2

The company’s management needs to track performance and have a vision for short and long term growth. Here are the elements to consider for addressing these objectives.

For Management

Dashboards and Analytical Reports: Does the CRM provide the reports required by management?

The information you see in your CRM is essentially the data entered. Think of the key indicators you want to see as a manager, and make sure that the CRM you choose will easily provide you with this information without having to rely on your IT Team to provide reports.

Business Intelligence: The data acquired should help you meet the needs of your clients or facilitate decision-making in order to compete. Systems that easily manage multiple sales processes and adjust them based on rapid analysis of sales data (reports, dashboards, etc.) will improve the agility and performance of your business.

While data analysis is important, too often, sales managers spend a lot of time managing data rather than interacting and collaborating with their teams. The right CRM tools will provide the information easily so they can concentrate their efforts on selling.

For Sales

Here are some basic features that will help your team strengthen their relationships with customers and accelerate their sales:

  • Contact Management
  • E-mail Editor for marketing
  • Interactions monitoring
  • Dashboards for sales activity, forecasts, opportunities funnel
  • Opportunity Management
  • Opportunity scoring
  • List Management
  • Document Management
  • Telephony Integration

Mobility: How important is mobility for your team? Do they need access to information while on the road?
Today’s representatives use smart devices and tablets on a daily basis. They expect having access to information 24/7. And if they can access the CRM outside the office, they will be more effective in completing a transaction.

Ease of use: Even the best CRM is useless if your employees hardly use it or not at full capacity. Make sure you select an easy-to-use solution, with an intuitive interface, full documentation and good user support. The time you spend training your employees to use a CRM should be as short as possible. The advantage of a CRM is to increase efficiency, rather than waste time.

Automation: Which automation features are useful?

Make sure that the chosen CRM can automate tasks such as call logging, task reminders, calendar and alerts, automating email, automating alerts from your web properties, etc.

Customization: Is it easy to customize certain functions? A CRM that allows you to easily customize your sales stages and add custom fields, filters and tags that will be specific to your business.

Data Access: Can you easily import or export your data?

Most CRM solutions on the market offer much more than a spreadsheet, such as the ability to track each customer’s behavior, track overall sales, analyze trends, and manage communications across multiple channels. A good CRM will help your sales, marketing, customer service, or even your entire business, to put more attention on the relevant customer details in everything you do.

User Support: Check the level of support provided to ensure it is adequate. Check the costs, SLAs, turnaround times and other items that are needed to get the kind of support that will be needed for your team.

If you’re considering acquiring a CRM, you will not only have to purchase a powerful solution but also involve your users so that its adoption and use are maximized to enable you to realize its full value.

Don’t miss my next blog! I’ll talk about best practices to get your team to adopt your CRM.


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