Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is software that helps the business owner develop new clients.  It is more than a contact program.  It holds basic client information plus a history of the relationship.  This includes phone email and social media.  It is used for cross selling and introducing current clients to new products or services.

 Small businesses try to save some money by simply managing their client lists through a spreadsheet.  For a company to prosper, this is way too basic.  CRM can manage calendars and set reminders.  Some will also work with a messaging system. 

Zoho

One of the forerunners, this offers a full range of options.  Besides CRM applications, its office suite has the basics of word processing, spreadsheets, databases and presentations.  It also includes web conferencing, wikis, project management and others.

Zendesk

Base CRM was purchased by Zendesk and is now Sendexk Sell.  Designed for the sales force, this tool will direct questions about new product lines straight to sales.  A real-time operation it can filter information quickly allowing your rep to close the deal quicker.

Freshsales

This program will allow you to personalize including renaming modules to correspond to your company’s lingo and creating custom fields.  It can also handle foreign currencies and languages.  It has companion programs of Freshcaller and Freshdesk.

Salesforce

This program will automate a lot of the routine and boring functions of the ordinary day to leave you to the fun stuff.  It allows customization so your sales team can function well. 

Close

Autodialing is one of the features that the sales force likes because it produces the phone numbers in groups, increasing the chance of the sales rep making the sale.  It also includes a pre-recorded voice mail.  It also assimilates with other programs like Mailchimp, Zendesk, and Facebook. 

Agile

Will merge your appointment calendar with the phone system so you have an automatic system for new calls, plus follow ups.

 All of these features can be tempting.  However, you may want to sit down and decide which features you will actually use and are beneficial to your operation.  There is no reason to pay for something that is extraneous or that your team won’t use.

Also, don’t overlook the tried and true methods that work for your business.  For example, email.  If you are successful in your email campaign, don’t ignore it.  Be sure that your CRM software will integrate and enhance your successes.

Pricing will always be an issue.  Most CRM software is priced per user and has a specific laundry list of what is included.  Be sure the features you need and want are in that menu, or you will need to adjust accordingly.

Beyond the upfront cost, there can be costs for training.  You also need to be sure you have the correct hardware for this program and if it will integrate with your existing software.  This can boost the cost significantly.  Then you need to budget for upgrades and sometimes there is a cost for the ongoing support.

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- The Capex Team