By now you already know the benefits of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management software). You have already researched multiple platforms, spoken to representatives, and chances are you have even tried to launch one for your organizations. Why hasn't team adoption successfully happened yet?

The answer is simple. You need to SELL a CRM to your team to guarantee it will be successful! Even a perfect piece of software can go unused unless you have everyone on board with how this will make their job easier, faster, and better. How do you ensure your team is sold on it? INCLUDE THEM!

Make your team a part of the decision process.

A CRM has a great upside to the management staff - however, a launch like this needs to be presented as a benefit to the sales team. Take a deep dive into the everyday sales process for YOUR team and include everyone that touches a lead, current customers, and even vendor relations. For larger organizations, appoint department representatives and utilize surveys to find out what your team really needs from a CRM. Some great questions for your team are:

  • How are you currently tracking your customer/lead activity?
  • How are you sharing that activity with your team?
  • How are you communicating with your customers/leads?
  • What do you use to set up reminders?
  • How are you storing your contacts database?
  • What does your typical sale process look like?

Integration.

The questions above will help you determine what integrations are necessary for a CRM to meet its full potential. Some integration can be as easy as setting up email communication, calendar reminders, and multi-platform compatibility. Other connections can be more involved, such as the communication between a CRM and an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning software).

Simplicity.

This is a big one. Training a team - even a small team - is time consuming and expensive. The less you have to walk through with your people, the faster they will take it and run and the less intimidated they will be to use it.

Some CRM's come as a "plug and play" platform that will do things like easily connect to your email, website, or even an ERP - but they come with a lot of additional functions. This requires lengthy training and a good chance of information being misplaced, the software being misused or worse: the software not being used at all. New processes are hard enough to sell. Imagine your skeptical, busy sales team member logging in and seeing a bunch of stuff that does not pertain to their job or the company. Good-bye!

Sell a CRM to your team with a custom CRM.

The biggest benefit to a custom CRM is that it is built for YOUR team with only the pieces they need to find SUCCESS! An easy process that works on all platforms and actually benefits all departments - AND gives management custom reporting? SOLD!

Scared of the word "custom"?

We get it - custom sounds expensive. What about long term use? What if we need someone else to work on it in 5 years?

Our development team has built a custom CRM in our CMP (Complete Management Portal) that allows for us to easily set up the perfect platform to meet your team's needs. We have pre-built functions that allow us to get you up and running while keeping cost low. We also head up the training with you to ensure a successful launch. Our CMP solution can also be attached to multiple API (application program interface) connections for email, calendar, and most importantly, ERP communication.

CMP is written in PHP, the most common web programming language in the world (as of this writing). This means at any time you can find a PHP developer to work on your custom CRM. Our CMP is open-source and licensed (non-distributable) to you which means you can take it with you and have it modified by another team (but not resell it). All software has its pros and cons but imagine having a true relationship with the developer of your customer relationship software!

CMP will grow with your needs.

As your team's use of their new CRM increases we can begin to add new features that will increase the software's functionality. The CMP platform evolves everyday with its use by our customers with both small and large teams. We are continually adapting to the needs of the people that are in the field and leveraging that data for the managers in the office. For a sample of the additional tools we have built read 5 Ways You'll Find Hidden Income Using the Complete Management Portal.

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