My question to you is; why wouldn’t you be using a CRM system?
CRM’s refer to allons between a business and its customers. CRM systems not only help manage your business and relationships with clients it also provides s number of important benefits to both small and large companies including increasing revenue and decreasing costs. What business or business owner wouldn’t want to do that?
We are not talking about the obvious such as how much of your budget to spend or about technical considerations, we are talking about what questions to ask and what decisions to make before searching for the Customer Relationship Management system that best suits your organization.
Here are three pertinent reasons your business needs and can benefit from having a CRM.
1. YOU NEED METRICS
How many successful projects have you had in the past week, month or even year? What is your conversion ratio and what are the best methods to make sure you are reaching your customers? Knowing your business metrics is critical to your business growth and success. A CRM will give you instant metrics of dozens of aspects of your business plus it allows you to create custom reports to better track metrics to your specific needs. Once you have those reports at your fingertips, you will never look back. Just think. No more time wasted on excel spreadsheets!
Part of our job here at KTL Solutions is to show or demo business solutions to our clients. These solutions can range from Budgeting/Reporting, AP Automation, Warehouse Management, to Customer Management software. One of the first requirements we hear from most customers is that they need the software to work for them, not the other way around.
All businesses are unique, and everyone has a different way of conducting business. Established organizations have processes already in place. These processes can be extremely difficult and disruptive to the entire business if they have to change to accommodate a new software solution. More to that point, it does not make sense to purchase a “solution” that requires you to change the way you do business. Software is an investment. It takes money, time, and man power to implement a solution so at the end of the day it should work for you, not the other way around.
We have observed over the last few years that bidding on contracts with the Federal Government is becoming easier and harder; a contradiction yes, but true just the same.
It has become easier because of the standardization of the award vehicles and bid consolidators like INPUT. The task of finding the right contracts to bid on and the less complex responses required make it easier; but now that it is easier, there are many for firms competing, which makes winning contracts harder.
In my last blog, I discussed how to get the most out of your ERP system. The key elements presented were: have a maintenance plan; train, re-train, cross-train your users; understand your business Model; take advantage of what the ERP system has to offer; and develop a strong partnership with your Business Partner. In this blog, I wanted to dig a little deeper into the relationship with your Microsoft Business Partner and how your organization may benefit from this relationship. Your Microsoft Business Partner can be key to the future success of your ERP system.
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