Best Practices for A CRM Implementation

Many companies subscribe to an online CRM product with the expectation of increased productivity, improved reporting, sales forecasting and data consistency. Most times these expectation are not met because the product is not optimized to the company’s specific workflow. Below are some high level best practices to make sure the implementation of your new CRM is easy and effective.

Get People Involved

Make sure all relevant parties (sales team) are involved in the implementation to assure the end goal and business processes are aligned across the organization. It’s important the system is set-up to help with lead management, productivity and effectiveness of every user and not become an administrative burden without benefit.

Don’t Overcomplicate It

Keep it simple at first! It’s easy to fall into the trap that everything must be perfect right off the bat. Complicating the workflows lengthens the implementation cycle causing leadership to change launch dates. Keep in mind things will change. As a leader you will need to evaluate whether to spend internal resources to make changes or hire experts that can help implement change quickly and efficiently to drive sales quickly.

Continuous Improvement

Make sure to listen to your user community to see how things are going. If they are providing constructive feedback they are using the product and want to succeed.

As you can see it’s not that important to just have a database of customer names, contact information and purchase history. If you truly value your customers you need to think about long term relationships vs. customer management with the right implementation. If you need help with your CRM implementation or determining the best CRM contact us and we will be happy to help.