Ultimate Guide to Investing in a CRM Software for Start-ups

Any entrepreneur will easily say that the customer is always the king. For you to remain competitive, you have to ensure that your clients get the best experience from using your products or services. But, that’s only possible if you have sufficient and pertinent information about them.

A Harvard Business Review article attributed customer focus as the single most significant winning strategy for the fortunes of Singapore Airlines.

A CRM system is a significant tool for enhancing customer focus. Any business, whether start-up or a global corporation, needs an efficient way to identify useful insights about customers, retain and organise crucial information about clients and optimise the sales and marketing efforts.

But how can you identify and settle on a CRM software that gels with your business to enhance productivity?

Below is a guide on what start-ups should consider when investing on a CRM:

Clarify Your Objectives of Acquiring the CRM software

Before you settle on a CRM software, make sure you are clear about your objectives. You don’t want to invest in a multifaceted system just to store data. You need to be clear on what data to collect and how you will use it to optimise your business functions.

You can ask leading questions to establish your goals including:

• Do you want to improve your staff’s organisation and efficiency?
• Do you want to depersonalise customer information from staff and enable continuity in the absence of a staff member?
• Is it geared to enhance customer experience?
• Do you want to fuel sales and marketing teams with better information to enable better targeting and improve conversions?

When you have your core goals clear, you can better analyse different systems to come up with the best CRM software suited for your business.

Find Out if the CRM can Link with Other Software in Your Industry

Technology is meant to make work easier. The same applies to the best CRM software. Find out if the CRM software can integrate with other software that you use in your business. Also, establish if it can link with popular software in your industry. For instance, if social media is an excellent place for you to prospect for leads and conversations, make sure you get a CRM system that can quickly draw the information and avail it for analysis.

The whole point is to make your work easier by getting a CRM software that can flawlessly gel with your current tools.

Establish Whether the CRM can Collect Valuable information and Generate Relevant Reports

Based on your objectives, you will know what reports are relevant and whether the software is sufficiently custom made for your business.

• Can the CRM software generate reports and forecasts for each sales rep?
• Can you retrieve reports on customer interactions?
• Can you get differentiated reports on customer feedback?
• What are the valuable filters?
• Where is your data stored?

Defining these parameters before purchasing a CRM software enables you to compare apple to apple with your targeted outcome in mind.

Check out Market Reviews

The internet is awash with review sites. There are too many opinions online on the “best CRM software”. These reviews may seem cumbersome or a little tedious to read. However, they’ll tell you a lot about the software designs and target markets. Also, you’ll get loads of information on how suitable a particular CRM software is for your business.

Use the above guide to invest in the best CRM software and propel your business.

Find out more about our in-house developed, super easy to handle CRM system, QuickDesk: