How to choose a CRM for your company?

There are many CRMs to choose from, and many seem similar to each other. In reality, choosing the best one depends on your goals.

To help you, ask yourself these questions: 

• Why do we invest in CRM?
• What operational business challenges do we need to solve?
• What processes are we missing that we should implement?
• How many people will use the CRM?
• How much customer information do we have?
• What other software do we use that CRM should integrate with?
• What budget do we have? 

The biggest mistake many first-time CRM buyers make is evaluating vendors before deciding on their own goals. By focusing on vendors, you end up reverse engineering their offerings to define your needs, rather than focusing on areas of real business value for your company. For example, a mobile CRM sounds state-of-the-art, but if you're only running an on-site inside sales team, it may not be the best solution.

If multiple solutions are really similar, we recommend:

• Contact the supplier and review your list of requirements with a sales representative.
• Read product reviews and ask your peers which system they use.
• Compare prices and focus on the features you need.

When in doubt, you can call on professionals. LANEfor example, can help you not only to find the most suitable solution for your company on the market, but also to implement it in an optimal and integrated way, while training the people involved. 

Small business owners who buy a CRM for the first time often underestimate the number of features they would need. 

In addition, using a system that is too complex means that you will have to invest even more in configuration and customization. This can be both wasteful and unnecessary when your challenges can be solved using less robust systems like these CRMs.

In the next section, let's look at the features you need to know if you are a small business.