An effective CRM system can strengthen your sales process on many levels, but which one is right for your company?
At some point, it’s no longer possible to have a complete overview of your prospects and customers in spreadsheets and documents. But you still need to make sure, that sales are working the right leads at the right time.
That’s why you need a great CRM system.
There are A LOT of options out there, and it takes a lot of consideration and research to choose the right one for you. Because with the right CRM system, you can:
- Get an overview of all interactions with prospects and customers
- Integrate and target your sales and marketing activities
- Build and strengthen relationships with existing customers
- Improve collaboration between sales and marketing
- Generate and nurture leads into customers
Here at Radiant, we have a clear favorite, when it comes to CRM systems. But before we’ll tell you which one, here is a list of 3 things that you should consider before choosing your CRM system.
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Your CRM system should solve your problems
With so many CRM systems, it can be difficult to choose the right one for your needs. And not just that, you also have to consider your budget and future needs. It might be tempting to try out a few different vendors and evaluate them based on their functionality. But that’s not the best way to move forward.
Before you start looking at systems and solutions, you might want to ask yourself the following questions:
- Which sales and marketing processes are ineffective and what do we want to improve?
- Which sales and marketing processes aren’t integrated yet and which ones do we want to add?
- How many employees are going to use the CRM system?
- Do we use other software that needs to integrate with our CRM system?
When you consider your company’s unique needs, it’s much easier to narrow down the exact points to prioritize in your new CRM system.
3 tips for choosing your new CRM system
We’ve listed our 3 best tips to consider when choosing your new CRM system. We’ll then give you our absolute favorite and tell you why that might be the right solution for your company as well.
1) Know what you need – present and future
The needs you have today, aren’t necessarily the same 2 years into the future. That’s why your new CRM system must adapt to what you need. It should be flexible and scalable so it grows with you.
It’s also worth considering, whether or not all employees need all functions, or if different units need different functions.
2) Integrated with your marketing efforts
A CRM system’s purpose is to streamline your sales and marketing efforts. That’s why you need to make sure, that those functions are included, or at least possible to integrate. If it’s not, it’ll be difficult to use. If it’s difficult, it won’t be done. The CRM system should integrate with all aspects of your marketing, from website to social media, paid advertising email, and calling.
On top of that, your CRM system should also integrate with the rest of your business. That could be Office 365, ERP system, and financial or HR software.
3) Support and employee training
No matter what CRM system you choose and how good it is, you won’t see the full potential without a world-class implementation. And that includes, maybe most important of all, training your employees in the new system, so they can take full advantage of all functions.
You should consider the support options that come with the CRM system. You could maybe even think about getting assistance from a certified partner to scope and implement, as well as train employees in the system and new processes.
HubSpot CRM & Sales as a Service
It’s no secret, that HubSpot is our absolute favorite system, when it comes to CRM, sales, marketing, and beyond. Radiant is a top-ranked HubSpot Platinum Partner and we use HubSpot for all our Sales as a Service clients.
Not only is HubSpot a powerful and simple CRM system – It can do so much more. It’s an effective marketing automation platform helping you plan, execute and track a range of marketing campaigns along with all your sales activities. It’s an all-in-one platform that is easy to use but powerful enough to help everything from small businesses to large enterprises scale their growth.
Maybe HubSpot is the right CRM system for you? Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to talk about your options and need our help in guiding you toward the perfect CRM system for your company.
FURTHER READING: What is HubSpot and can it help increase your B2B sales?
