How can a customer relationship management software help me get serious about my sales process?

AE Technology Group
AE Technology Group
2 min readAug 26, 2013
crm

When a business purchases a system from a customer relationship management (CRM) software developer, it must be prepared to understand what it is buying. It is not a generalized solution such as document management or email exchange software that more or less operates identically no matter which organization uses it. Rather, it is a pointed, bespoke solution that will only help generate revenue if it is tuned to the ways in which your business generates revenue.

In an excellent Q&A session with Amy Larrimore of Empire Builders Group, the New York Times has explored the questions that small businesses must ask in order to make the most of CRM software. She makes several beautifully insightful points:

  • All organizations will need CRM at some point. A rolodex or even spreadsheet is last century’s solution and no business that seeks actual growth will be able to maintain all of its clients, prospects, and leads with purely manual tools.
  • Large enterprise is fully cognizant of all of the questions and risks it must assess when taking on a CRM system. Smaller businesses do not need anywhere near the same level of sophistication, but important details about implementation are likely to be outside of their realm of knowledge.
  • Small businesses must seek solutions that have the lowest IT overhead and the most custom flexibility at the fairest maintenance prices. magic spells against evil eye curse

Larrimore closes the interview with this great insight:

If you had 30 percent more qualified leads a month, what would you do with them? How many of them would you close? What would that look like for your revenue? If you’re not ready to get serious around your sales process, it probably isn’t worth the money, no matter what the size of your business.

CRM is becoming a pillar of modern business infrastructure, but it reveals its value only when a business chooses an experienced partner that is able to craft a solution to spec and make it the driver of a serious sales process.

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