Having trouble choosing your new CRM system? Here's a 5 step guide to help you on your way

With so many CRM providers offering their services in today's market, it is easy to become overwhelmed. EASY2CLICK have over 30 years CRM experience and have created a 5 step guide to help you navigate the field, so that you might find the right CRM system for your business.

Acquiring new customers and retaining good customer relations is a necessity for any business and perhaps also one of the main reasons why technology analyst Gartner predicts high CRM investment in the years to come, especially online.

Online CRM and automatic CRM activities are giving Danish as well as International businesses the opportunity to become even more targeted in their sales process. 

Putting the customer in focus

Having a good CRM system at hand is making it easier for businesses to put their customers in focus and, with automated CRM activities, it also frees up time to follow up on leads and customers in person. Today there are numerous small and large CRM providers promising to help you do just that, but how do you choose the right one? 

As EASY2CLICK CEO Mikael Moeslund argues, you want to make sure that the system you choose actually creates value for yourself and for your business, "you want returns on your investment, that goes without saying. Thus a new CRM system needs to positively contribute to your workflow. So you have to ask yourself: Will the CRM system help you acquire new customers and promote good relations with existing ones? If the answer is yes, it's a win for both your business and your customers." 

5 steps to help you choose

So how do you navigate the many CRM systems, and what should you be considering in order to find the solution best-suited for your business and your CRM needs? The team at EASY2CLICK have put their heads together to help you answer just that, and have come up with a 5 step strategy to guide you and your company to the right CRM system. 

1. The system's role - What does your company need?

Before you even begin to evaluate the functionality and user interface of different CRM systems, it seems sensible to take a step back and look at the basics. What is it exactly that you want the CRM system to help you with? Registering customer history? Recording sales sales activities? Creating reports, or sending automatic e-mails to free up time for a personal follow up? Do you need the system to be accessible internationally, that is, do you need traditional or cloud CRM?

2. Functionality - Be honest, how much functionality do you really need?

When you have identified your business' needs the next step becomes a lot easier - namely deciding on your CRM system's functionality. Consider your business size; a smaller business may be able to get by with fewer features than a larger company. Thus it can be beneficial to make a list of the most important features you want, based on the needs already identified. The various CRM systems on the market will offer a million different things; the question is whether you need them all, and whether you 're willing to pay for the most advanced.

3. Configuration and Customization - Will the CRM system work well with other systems?

As you have already identified your business' needs and the functionality that may fulfill these
needs, the next step is to consider the more technical details. Usually a company has multiple
technical systems helping to structure their workday and their contact with the customer. Therefore it
seems sensible that your new CRM system should communicate well with these systems. Will the CRM system be able to retrieve information from your customer database, can it be connected to your e-mail client, and can it exchange information with the company's ERP system? And last but not least, can the system be tailored to your business' sales process?

4. Price - What are you willing to pay?

Once you have defined all of the above, you have a good starting point to begin choosing your new
CRM system. Now you need to consider price. How much are you willing to pay to acquire a more
structured sales process? How many users will you need, and how much will it cost for each? Is training and service included in the price? Would a "basic" CRM solution be enough, or would you pay for more features? Are the prices transparent or are there hidden costs?

The team at EASY2CLICK CRM know that businesses have various CRM needs and that price transparency is a must. That is why they offer CRM solutions on 3 different levels ( http://easy2click.com/crm-pricing/crm-versions/ ), so that businesses may choose according to their needs. There is no reason why you should pay more for features that you don't need when you can pay a little for what you really need.

5. Usability and "free trial"

Now, how do you find out if the CRM systems are user friendly and deliver on their promises? Many CRM providers offer a so-called "free trial" period, giving the businesses themselves the opportunity to test just that. EASY2CLICK has, for example, chosen to give companies a 14-day free trial ( http://easy2click.com/crm-pricing/free-crm/ ), with free access to educational materials ( http://easy2click.com/success-with-crm/your-crm-success/ ), support and training, as it is clear that you have to become familiar with the CRM system before you know whether you have chosen the right one. 

"We want people to have confidence in our system and we know that we get that if the users themselves see how it all works," says CEO Moeslund.