Ever wondered whether your business is the right size to get value out of an investment in CRM? That’s something only you can answer. The reason is, it’s not about size, it’s about growth, and the symptoms that surface as a result.
In a previous article we talk about some of the common pains that lead to a business considering a CRM. Now we want to tackle some of the assumptions you might be making about investing in a CRM solution that might be holding you back from taking the leap.
We work exclusively with Microsoft Dynamics CRM so, naturally, we’ll focus on this solution by way of example.
Assumption 1 – Mainstream solutions like Dynamics CRM are only for very large companies with call centres
Not true. The underlying assumption here is that Microsoft Dynamics is complex and expensive and that’s not really the case. It can be complex, but at the core, it’s very simple. And it’s certainly not the most expensive solution on the market.
The beauty of Dynamics CRM is that it’s so scalable. And scalability means you can scale up or DOWN. If you don’t need all of the functions, focus on the ones you do. We can even hide the parts you don’t need so you have a ‘clean’ solution without the distractions of the extraneous functions.
The advantage of this is that the functions are there when you do need them, without having to upgrade or change solutions. See Assumption 4 for more on this.
Assumption 2 – We don’t have enough people to justify it
This raises the question, how many people is enough people. Well the minimum number of Dynamics CRM licences is five, so if you have more than five people who interact with clients, you’re definitely not too small by this definition. [Edit: As of 1 December 2016 there is no minimum number of licences}. And that’s not just sales people – that’s anyone who needs to access client records. Even the person who answers your phone might need access to create phone call records and set tasks for call backs.
Really, size doesn’t matter. If you’ve got more than a couple of people accessing the same records, your current Excel spreadsheet methods of sharing, tracking and updating information are likely to start causing big headaches. Or if you’ve got more than a handful of clients that you have ongoing relationships with, a CRM is certainly going to help you keep track of things.
Assumption 3 – Cheap or free is better for your first CRM
This is a common fallacy and false economy. By all means, do investigate different CRMs and try them out for free. Use this process to work out what your needs are.
But beware! A cheaper CRM is only cheaper now. But later, when you find that you need more functionality that your cheap CRM doesn’t have, you’ll need to migrate to a new solution that does. By then, you’ll have a database full of data that you need to migrate.
Believe us. You do not want this if you can avoid it.
Migration of data is not a job for the faint hearted. You’ll need to pay someone like us to do it for you, and the costs can add up especially when the data structures are different between the systems and if you’re managing documents within your CRM.
Choosing a flexible solution now, that can grow and flex with you, is going to be more economical in the long run. A flexible solution like Microsoft Dynamics CRM means that when you want to add functionality or make further customisations, your data stays right where it is in the same format, while your CRM functions are expanded.
Assumption 4 – CRM only focusses on Sales pipeline – we’ve got bigger problems
If sales pipeline management is only part of your problem, the good news is that it’s also only part of the solution. Sales pipeline management is just one business process that you can manage and support in CRM. We’ve customised some pretty awesome solutions for clients who need to manage everything that comes after the sale – tracking the stages of the project to deliver their product or service to the customer.
Buy a flexible CRM like Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and the world is your oyster.
Assumption 5 – We need to have an IT department to manage something like this
Nah. Not these days. The game changer was a thing called ‘the cloud’ or ‘SaaS’ (Software as a Service). You don’t need expensive infrastructure like servers. You don’t need to manage upgrades or patches. Your data and your software is stored securely by Microsoft (within Australia). It all happens magically and remotely with 99.9% up-time guarantees attached.
CRM is a business solution, not an IT solution. You just need some business acumen to know how your own business needs to function. No IT boffins required – we’ll supply those.
Want more reasons to get moving? Contact us – we’ve got a million reasons to get into your first CRM.
