If you’re running a startup or an evolving business, you might feel overwhelmed once you have too much customer data. Managing it is a must if you want to do effective sales outreach.
Here is what you should know: You don’t need to have been in business for long before data becomes overwhelming. Without a system, keeping track of it can become an a literal headache.
As sales consultants, we have witnessed the struggle to stay on top of leads. When the “database” is haphazardly thrown together on, to call it messy is an understatement. What can erupt after a few mis-entries, mis-sorts, and accidental multiple field deletions is more accurately describe as chaos.
Let’s not get started on notes, attachments, documents, and to-dos for each record. Things start falling between the cracks.
The result is often poor employee performance and poor customer experience.
Preparing For Outreach Campaigns
As leadership, all of the above can ruin the chance for you to achieve your goals.
Enter the CRM to save the day.
And, what exactly is a CRM?
CRM is an acronym for “Customer Relationship Management” and refers to a database. To explain it in very basic terms, it’s a software database that converts all that information into electronic, actionable format. CRMs can be used to be organize your data in a bare-minimum kind of way, or they can be used in more sophisticated ways. For example, some CRMs can be used to run multi-channel account-based marketing campaigns, or for bringing together related business processes across departments.
By housing your customer information in a CRM, you can access your information on command, and automate some marketing, sales, and customer service processes. You’ll also be able to track your team productivity and attainment. This will help you to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
A CRM Success Story
On one of our first CRM setup projects, we were hired to help a manufacturing company refine its sales and marketing processes. The first thing that we noticed when walking into their office for the first time was their circa 1990 filing system.
To access customer files, you would have to get up and hunt for them around the office. There were huge binders with customer records organized by segment and alphabetical order. Inside each binder were printed out pages of emails, invoices, and other documents that were grouped and stuffed into sheet protectors.
More often than not, misfiled documents were hard to find when you needed them. Sometimes, necessary paperwork vanished altogether, and if it ever surfaced, it felt like nothing short of a miracle.
Besides the record-keeping debacle, sales goals and activities weren’t written down or tracked effectively.
The business owner was frustrated at the lack of progress; it was evident that his reps were spending too much time chasing paper, but not the right kind!
There were two obvious solutions:
- Convert and organize all customer records to a digital format where they could be stored and managed.
- Establish goals and track them automatically.
Taking action on these solutions allowed us to define and track success. They eliminated time-wasting file scavenger hunts and could now attend to taking care of customers and growing the business.
Picking A CRM For Your Outreach
Finding a CRM that seems to fit can be easy. But you must have the right expectations.
Most startups change CRMs 2-3 teams before they find the right one, so it’s best to understand your needs, do your research, and pick carefully. Finding a CRM that has everything sales teams wish for is hard, no matter the budget. Most systems will need tweaking to fit your needs. Luckily, most CRMs are customizable. Depending on the level of customization required, you may need support from a programmer.
Here are a few points you should take into consideration:
Pricing – Figure out your budget, then determine what systems are available in that price range.
Functions – What features do the systems available in that price range provide you?
Can you build multiple pipelines? Can you sync the system with your email or make phone calls through it?
Decide which functions you need and pick the CRM that delivers on your top priorities.
Customization – Is there a CRM that specifically caters to your industry or line of work?
Systems that cater to specific industries with specialized workflows tend to be on the pricier side. If your line of business is common, you may still be able to find a budget-friendly solution that is intended to support your needs.
Integration – Can your CRM integrate with the tools you regularly use to interact with your customers? If so, this will be a plus.
User-Friendliness – Your CRM will guide your team through your biz-dev operations. It should be intuitive and easy for most to jump into.
Note whether your CRM system has an FAQs section or a video library that’s particularly helpful. If you see an easy way to chat with or call support when you can’t figure out an issue on your own, that’s even better.
A CRM Is Not Foolproof
A CRM is a tool, not a miracle worker. That’s to say that the success you derive from adding one to your process largely depends on you.
One of the major, common errors made by startups is not having their CRM setup correctly. This often affects functionality across the board, and reporting/analytics accuracy.
If a CRM seems easy enough for you to figure out without watching the tutorials or having a few post-onboarding sessions, watch them and attend the sessions anyway. There’s a very high chance that you and your team will learn something. If you don’t use it properly, you may end up as frustrated as you were before you bought the CRM.
Once you have a CRM, take special care to fill in all critical fields and take adequate notes. Be prepared to plan for periodic system clean ups so your data remains valuable and up-to-date.
If you plan to try out a few CRMs, know that making a switch can be somewhat manual. Transferring data can be tricky and may not be completely seamless, so try to input as much data as possible into mappable fields.
When Will Your Business Need A CRM?
It really depends on your overall business development strategy.
You might consider systems like Zendesk, Salesmate, Zoho, Freshteams, Bitrix, Agile, HubSpot, proprietary systems, and many others. When our clients aren’t ready for a CRM, we build customized Excel databases that allow us to keep all their sales data in order.
We’re CRM agnostic but can make recommendations to our clients selecting a CRM. We also map out sales processes, sales playbooks for their new systems, and support with system setup that doesn’t require development help.
It’s often helpful to see side-by-side CRM comparisons before making a decision. Website like pcmag.com provide comprehensive insight into various software and may be a good place to start.
Do you have any questions about whether a CRM could help your business? What experiences have you had while shopping for, or implementing one?
Let us know if you have any questions or ideas about CRMs for your business development outreach!