A Quick Article To Help Small Business With CRM
What would I tell a family member who wanted to install a CRM for their small business?
If my uncle came to me and said, “Ron, I need to install a CRM for my small business. What would you recommend?” I would immediately tell him that there are 3 software packages he should probably look at if he really needs a tool to manage his small sales force. Those 3 software packages would be:
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM
- Sugar CRM
- Salesforce.com
What would I then recommend he do for his initial install of the CRM package he chooses?
I would definitely tell my uncle to consider his initial install of his new CRM package as “phase 1″. I would warn him that he is most likely going to have a few more “modification” projects after this initial install where he will be doing a few tweaks to his CRM package that he should not be doing during his initial install. I would then recommend that he hire a consultant to help him with the initial roll-out of the application to save himself some time and headache. And, I would also tell him to keep his costs and risks down by limiting the initial project and consultant’s work to the following:
- A set-up of the system just like you would an accounting system (including things like setting up his users, setting up the products, setting up sales territories, etc)
- Transferring his existing sales data into the new system
- Some training
- Have the consultant on site for the first day of go-live
What would I warn him of?
There are two main things I would warn my uncle of, and they are:
- Do not customize the initial install (i.e., modifying the fields and forms). Instead, wait till you have used the system for a couple of weeks before coming up with your customization decisions.
- Do not bother to set-up the system locally in your office. Have it hosted over the web by a company that can give it the care and attention it needs. Heck, he probably banks online so why not CRM online?
What I would tell him he should do after the initial phase 1 install is complete?
Give yourself a week or two to play with the system. It is not until you’ve played with it for a while that you can truly start deciding what you want changed. So many people rush down the path of customizing a system right away and end up going down a rabbit hole of endless customizations and consultant dollars.
Has your company gone thru a CRM install where they bit off more than they can initially chew? Do you know of a company that has implemented a CRM and gone down the path of over customizing the initial install?
