The Seven Essential CRM Best Practices

The days of the traveling salesman are all but over. With the emergence of customer relationship management (CRM) software, sales, and marketing have entered the digital age. 

Modern CRM tools help businesses track, record, analyze, and manage customer interactions. They can be a game-changer for sales, marketing, and even IT, by helping companies understand the customer journey. Any business looking to grow and succeed should seriously consider investing in CRM. 

But which are the best CRM systems, and what’s the optimal way to use them? If you are thinking about adding a CRM system to your business, you’ve come to the right place. This guide lays out precisely how to select and leverage CRM for your business, with best practices for everything from planning to learning valuable lessons from the data. 

1. Define Your Company’s CRM Goals and Strategy

Analyze current customer management processes

Before you even board the CRM train, your first step should be to take a good look at what you’ve been using to manage your customer experience so far. Whether you’re moving from one software to another, or just entering the world of CRM, you’ll want to take stock of what’s working and what’s not. 

If direct phone calls and emails have long been an essential part of your customer service strategy, for instance, you’ll probably want to include them in your new plan. Chances are the Excel spreadsheets can go, but we’re not reinventing the wheel here – we’re just shopping for the best available tires.

Identify strengths and areas for improvement

It’s time to be brutally honest. Which areas of customer service do you do well, and which are lacking? What do you like about your operations and where are your current systems weak? Before making decisions, review your key performance metrics to inform your choices. 

Clarify your reasons for implementing a CRM

If you want your team to have maximum buy-in, it’s important to explain why you’ve chosen this or that CRM. It’s going to take time for your team to get up to speed on the new system. If everyone has a clear understanding of the system’s advantages, they’ll be motivated to learn and leverage it. 

Getting buy-in upfront from all departments, including sales, marketing, and customer service, will make for a smoother transition when you eventually decide on the right CRM for your business.

Set CRM objectives

What exactly do you hope to achieve with your CRM? Setting clear objectives, such as increasing customer retention, improving sales productivity, or streamlining marketing campaigns, will help guide your choice of CRM system. A clear set of goals will ensure that your CRM investment aligns with your business strategy and helps drive success.

2. Carefully Choose the Right CRM Solution

There’s nothing worse than spending time and money on systems and solutions that don’t work. Choosing the correct CRM system is essential to the success of your sales team, and your business.

Factors to consider

You want a CRM that includes three key capabilities: customizability, scalability, and integration. As you compare CRM systems, be sure to consider cost, ease of use, and customer support. 

Keep in mind that there are three main types of CRMs: collaborative, analytical, and operational, and you should know which best fits your needs.

Look at your company’s needs

What exactly does your company need? Nail down your key needs and consider which tools are most likely to deliver. If you think multiple areas of your business could use some CRM support, rank them by priority. Consider which features are most important and the price you’ll be willing to pay. 

The size of your company and customer base will likely shape your decision. Some CRMs only allow a certain number of users or can only process so much data without a drop in performance. Be sure to look into this. 

Consider the technological aspect of CRM implementation. Do you want in-house software or a cloud-based CRM? A small business’ servers might be able to handle the CRM itself, but if you’re processing millions of customers, a cloud CRM would be more efficient. 

An increasingly important qualification for CRM vendors, especially if you use them for lead generation, is their compliance with privacy laws. The nature of your business might require you to keep customer data confidential, so you’ll want to research these requirements before making a commitment. 

Talk to your users and gather input

Beyond business goals, consider the needs of the employees who’ll use the CRM system. This will likely be the marketing, sales, and customer support teams, but could be other departments as well.

Arrange a meeting with reps from these departments and ask what they’d like in their CRM. Which features would help the most? How often might they use the CRM? Some employees may already have their eye on a system and pitch it to you.

It’s crucial to have a CRM that matches employee needs, as well as your company’s main devices and workstyles.

Check your budget

Now that you know which CRM features you need, revisit your budget plan and adjust accordingly. Having a clear ceiling ahead of time will prevent you from being swayed by upselling efforts.

On the flip side, some CRM vendors like HubSpot offer free entry-level packages, which could save you a lot of money but may exclude features your business needs.

Also, consider when you’d like to pay: are you looking for a one-and-done payment, an annual subscription, or a monthly fee? The answer to this question might depend on your cash flow and revenue expectations.

Do your research 

With a clear picture of your needs and budget, you’re ready to start looking for a CRM. First, do some online research and reach out to industry friends and acquaintances for guidance. Expect to closely examine several CRM providers. 

Weigh the input of respected contacts and colleagues, as well as customer ratings and reviews on sites like Trustpilot. You might even call the CRM’s customer service to ask a few questions just to be sure their customer service meets your expectations. 

Keep in mind that most CRM providers offer several package options. If your company is growing, make sure the CRM solution will scale with your operations and that the provider is able to provide additional services in growth areas for your company. 

Test it out

Once you’ve found a CRM that seems perfect for your needs, schedule a free trial with a sales rep so your staffers can test it out and see if it delivers on its promises. Have your employees evaluate their user experience and make sure it’s compatible with their software, devices, and workstyle. 

If the testing experience is a bumpy one, ask the provider if it offers training and post-purchase support. 

Negotiate a price

Once you’re confident in your choice, negotiate a deal with the sales rep. Ask if they offer discounts for small businesses or for including add-ons. Sales reps want to make deals – especially as most rely on commissions – so you could save a good chunk of change if you choose to negotiate. 

Once you’ve come to an agreement, go ahead and finalize. 

3. Plan Your Roll Out

Successful CRM implementation often requires a massive effort, so be sure not to underestimate it. You’ll need to allocate sufficient time and resources to installation and training. Essentially, implementing a new CRM means a wholesale reorganization of operations. 

You want to come out the other side of this investment the better for it, so take the time to get it right. How will you roll out your CRM? Will you train supervisors first and then integrate the rest of the team?

The introduction is crucial as CRMs require a clear implementation plan with well-considered steps and timing. Don’t just wing it. Prepare a CRM onboarding, implementation, and training strategy before you turn on the system. 

As the CRM goes live, encourage user adoption and engagement by setting clear goals and hosting seminars on how to best use the new software. 

4. Provide Comprehensive Training

As you roll out your CRM, you’ll need to provide training across your company. Organize classes to cover the technical and conceptual aspects, while also creating training modules and materials and offering workshops and ongoing support to make sure your staff masters the system.

In the training, lay down some ground rules for using the CRM. Encourage teams to personalize their communications and create incentives to boost CRM use. Establish expectations, workflows and responsibilities for each team member to drive CRM usage across the organization.

5. Prioritize Data Integrity

One of the biggest benefits of CRM is its ability to organize and analyze data. You can ensure your software reaches its maximum potential by establishing data-entry standards for your staff. 

It’s a good idea to standardize data tags and naming conventions across your organization. And before you implement the CRM, clean up your data supply to help smooth the transition. 

Once your CRM is in motion, conduct regular data audits, implement data validation tools, and activate duplicate detection mechanisms. Encourage your team to take responsibility for data quality and make corrections as needed. 

Soon after launch, you should start mining your CRM data for meaningful trends and patterns that could shape management decisions and help customize your CRM use for your business.  

6. Foster a Culture of Collaboration 

A significant advantage of modern CRM software is its purported ability to integrate all business functions. With sales, marketing, operations, customer service, and management all using the same platform, everything should be streamlined and in one place. 

Before CRM you always had to dig through troves of old emails. With CRM, all those emails and other messages are all in one place. The goal is to strengthen collaboration and enhance the customer experience by ending the days when callers were passed from department to department seeking answers. 

Some systems you’ll want to integrate into your CRM are marketing, sales, and customer support. With your CRM handling menial tasks like organizing leads and sending out emails and surveys, your sales team will be freed up for more important work. 

It will help foster a culture of cooperation by setting organizational goals and standards around CRM. This is a tool that should help your entire firm work smarter and more efficiently. You may want to embrace it as your main platform for collaboration and communication.

7. Continuously Monitor, Measure, and Improve Performance

Continuously monitoring your CRM is the best way to optimize its performance. Identify and track important metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the impact of your CRM and how it might be improved. 

Mine the data and leverage your CRM’s predictive analytics to get the most out of your tools. Continue to refine the processes and make data-driven decisions. Besides customers, a CRM can also track and analyze the performance of your sales reps. 

You should be able to see which reps are meeting their quotas and how they interact with customers. Your reps should always know how they’re performing compared to the rest of the team, providing a constant incentive for everyone to put in their best effort.

As it gathers data, your CRM should be able to find trends, make projections, and guide your decisions in advance. It’s best to work with your CRM to create detailed reports that inform strategy. 

Conclusion

Installing a robust CRM system is a great deal of work, but following a handful of best practices can make it all worthwhile. You and your business can get the most out of this essential software tool, driving long-term sales growth and broader success. So follow these steps, maximize your CRM benefit, and take your company to ever greater heights.