Customer Relationship Management I: Benefits of adoption

Your business contact list is small and manageable. Your appointment dates and times are committed to memory or your desk-top calendar. You have time to take loyal clients and prospects to lunch. You recall how your product or service meets their needs, as well as the names of their three kids and spouse. Is this a flash from the past?

A growing roster of clients can quickly make sustaining strong, meaningful business relationships all consuming. To keep a growing business client centric there are benefits to engaging a Customer Relationship Management program, or CRM.

In this article, Kim, a 12-year veteran of the Communications, Marketing and Sales Industry who helps clients choose and implement CRM, talks about the benefits of engaging a CRM program.

CP: What questions do I need to ask of my business to know if CRM would be a benefit?

K: Whether you are selling a product or service, a CRM enhances your ability to build and maintain outstanding client relationships. But there are a million kinds of CRM software out there. Like a car, the minute you drive it off the lot, there is something new on the market. Before you decide on CRM software, you need to know what about your business processes could be improved. Also, you need to know what business results you are looking to retrieve from your CRM. For example, do you want it to help you in marketing your business, or for sales automation?

CP: What are some benefits to acquiring and using CRM software?

K: If you have done your homework and are using CRM to its full potential, the benefits can be immeasurable. CRM software can become part of the client cycle from the minute you identify a lead, as well as give you a financial analysis of your opportunity pipeline years into the future.

CP: What is the time commitment to set up a CRM and implement it?

K: A small business would need, minimally, six months to a year to launch a CRM. This is assuming that all levels of leadership are completely bought in and committed. To predict how long it would take a company to launch, consider the following steps:

1. Give yourself time for software research and to find the one that fits your business. 
2. Decide what kind of support you need: will you seek online support, or hire a company in the city or town where you reside that represents the software you invested in? 
3. Evaluate your business processes. This step is crucial and often over-looked. Examples may be: how do we define Tier 1, 2, and 3 clients? If we are in the business of presenting proposals, what is the current process? Can we do it better? How do we qualify leads? How are we gathering intel to evaluate our opportunity pipeline? These are different for every company, but it is imperative you use this as opportunities to not only automate certain processes, but to ask “can this be done better/differently”? This step is also a great time to enlist the support of software experts that can tell you, on the spot, a) if it is possible and b) what the implications are from a programming and upkeep perspective.
4. Purchase the software and do beta testing. Input data and test the processes you plan to improve using CRM (you might start with the one or two things you absolutely have to do, such as entering the information for several clients and testing it to ensure you are getting the results you expected). 
5. Train employees or the department that will be responsible for upkeep of CRM. 
6. Implementation. Entering already existing data and making CRM part of your daily business duties.

The time commitment after launch is ongoing; entry of already existing data can take a company a long time.

CP: Can CRM help you identify potential clients?

K: CRM is not intelligent. You have to create your own idea of leads and then follow up.

CP: If a business is considering CRM, how would it get started?

K: To start, shop around. Some softwares are not first and foremost a CRM product. For example, they might be a finance product with a CRM arm. Know what you want to get out of a CRM and make sure you are clear on what function of CRM you are paying for.  Often, to add capabilities of the software, let’s say, to add a quoting ability to the CRM, it costs extra. If you are buying CRM software off the shelf, check whether it comes with some support for set up.

CP: Is there an advantage for a small business to use CRM?

K: CRM can be expensive to buy and implement, but for a small company, there is still an advantage to review business processes and be in a position for growth.

If a business’ CRM is maintained, it becomes less and less of a time commitment and can yield important information about your business, as well as maintain strong client relationships.

Check back next week to learn about how to overcome some of the challenges of CRM implementation.