10 questions that will help you to choose the best CRM

1. What bothers you in your current job?

The first step to choose the perfect CRM system for you is to identify pain points you’re facing at work. The task of a new tool will be to eliminate or at least to minimalize them. Sit back and make a list of all the things that bother you in everyday work. The longer the list, the better, because it means you’re aware of your needs.

2. What requirements must CRM meet?

If you don’t know what requirements your CRM must meet, you should use MoSCoW method. It’s a prioritization technique used in business analysis and software development. It’s goal is to achieve a common understanding among stakeholders on the importance of meeting each of their requirements for them.

Answer these questions:

• What requirements MUST the chosen solution meet?
• What requirements SHOULD the chosen system have?
• What requirements COULD the chosen tool have?
• What requirements WILL NOT be implemented in the solution?

It is important that all stakeholders take part in the analysis. It will result in a compromise of the needs and expectations of many people. It should be communicated in the beginning of planning works and accepted by the beneficiaries of the system. This will help to avoid a situation of the system implementation that is used only by one person – its initiator.

3. What are your priorities?

Sometimes the list of requirements is quite long, and the budget we have is insufficient. Don’t worry, this can be handled. Write down all of the functions you would like to be met by CRM of your dreams and then prioritize them. There are systems that can be built in a modular way, e.g. Salesforce. Nothing stand in the way of implementing solutions in the stages, from the most basic and expected functions to those more extended, when an additional budget appears. A small step approach is a proven way of the IT system implementation, based on agile methods of management. You can read more about that in article “7 steps to implement CRM effectively”.

4. What functions do you need?

A CRM system might fulfil various functions. The most basic one is the customer knowledge management, a space in which you gather history of contact with a customer, reported issues, complaints, information of undertaken activities or the dates of signing contracts. Another function is planning. A good CRM will help you to plan your day, it will tell you which customer you should contact and what activities should be undertaken to increase your sales funnel size. This is a tool helping to consciously manage time. Next CRM function is analytics, a very helpful one, though rarely used. CRM can be a tool for sales forecasting, monitoring launched campaigns and their results or for analyzing customer profiles and sales cycle length.

5. What indicators you want to monitor?

CRM allows you to monitor the data from various perspectives. Do you want to know what the sales opportunity process or lead conversion rate looks like? Or are you interested in selected sales opportunities in total as well as by salespeople employed? Consider which indicators you want to monitor to be more effective. Determine the ones that will help you support decisions on taking further actions or on modifying existing ones.

6. Will you use the system on mobile devices?

It is widely known, that salesperson work requires mobility. You may carry your laptop with you, but it’s heavy and uncomfortable. Nowadays it’s even unnecessary, because you always have your smartphone with you. It’s much easier to share your CRM data to your small, agile device you always have in your pocket, isn’t it? This is not only convenient at work, but also it provides you the access to current data, regardless of time and a place in which you are. So, could you use Mobile CRM?

7. Do you want to analyze collected data?

You have an appointment with your supervisor. You have to prepare reports presenting the results of the sales team. You want to know what sales look like divided into salespeople and products in comparison to the previous quarter or the year. You want to choose, whether the report will be in a tabular form or a graph. The summary should be generated in just a few clicks, without having to change configurations in the whole system.

Reports are one of the most important functions of CRM, essential to the sales measurement and the analysis of undertaken actions. Reconsider it carefully what abilities to generate those summaries should have the chosen CRM.

8. Does the system have to be scalable?

Today you hire four salespeople, but you see that your organization is dynamically growing. Your plans assume that in two years you will double the number of your customers, and in next five – you’ll be one of the leaders in your industry. What it has to do with CRM? You should reconsider what solution will be the best for you. You can implement the tool adjusted to your current needs or choose one that will develop together with your business.

9. Does modern look matter?

When you think of CRM, do you see rough table charts full of data not so easy to filter? Forget about it! There’s a lot of modern solutions in the market, that in a clear and innovative way show information. Add to this the ability to build 360-degree view of customers (i.e. enrich their records with all the data necessary for your business) and the pleasure of using it is immediately at a high level. Simple, intuitive, colorful and requiring just a few clicks. What more can you ask for? See for yourself how easy to use is CRM, try the Salesforce demo version.

10. Will modern tools come in handy?

You can implement CRM based on the basic functionalities. However, if you’d like to be up to date and you’re into modern tools and also you want CRM to support your custom actions, there are solutions that will help you with that. Live chats, automated fulfillment of data in offers, instant invoicing, tools to communicate with the coworkers. These are just some of the possibilities. Will they be helpful in your organization? It’s entirely up to you.