What are the best CRM systems for a small B2B company?

If you are a B2B company, you will probably need sophisticated functionality like multi-level SLA support, customer satisfaction surveys, timer-based escalation rules that are driven by complex criteria, automated issue re-assignments, etc and these really stretch the limits of some CRM systems. So ask potential vendors for a demo that proves they can do exactly what you need before you buy.

See http://www.focus.com/ugr/research/crm/how-pick-right-crm-helpdesk-bpm-vendor for more details on how to find the system that best meets your needs.

I have used http://www.zestcrm.com for a week now and I love it. Best CRM so far IMHO. It's easy to use and super fast!

We use salesforce.com and it's great...is also allows us to automatically track any web activity generated from marketing (through web-to-lead coding) and automatically sets the Lead Source as Marketing: Website (we actually have a variety of codes). We make the Lead Source a mandatory field and our sales team uses it. We then establish annual goals for Closed Business generated through Marketing Activity and through a simple dashboard report track that on a real-time basis.

Great points raised by all. The best advice I could offer your community member is to first identify and prioritize the key business challenges they wish to address with a CRM investment. For example, do they want better forecasting, more rigorous management of opportunities, more profitable territory management, detailed contact and account tracking, marketing campaign management, customer service or sales analytics? Does the community member expect to stay small or is scaling their solution with company growth a consideration?

With B2B, in particular, you are usually working with multiple decision makers and often multiple divisions. Complex decision cycles are often found in many B2B relationships and a good B2B CRM solution will allow ease of customization to the sales process. Finally, be sure to identify the support network available for each solution. Most companies find that once they initiate a CRM solution, previously unidentified needs will emerge.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM could be an answer, yet we don't know much about the core requirements and the nature of the business. Some key differentiators can be (between many others);

-- Product/Service nature
-- Lead & Opportunity Management/ Long or Short Sales Cycles
-- Campaign management tied with the above
-- Heavy Proposal Management or not
-- Relationships (key issue for complex organizations/common in B2B scenarios)
-- Is service automation required and at which level?
-- Integration needs with other systems (what are they, underlying technologies etc)
-- Company IT infrastructure
-- Microsoft "culture" (esp. Outlook) of end-users
-- many many many more

Again, no single answer to this question and certainly no silver bullet to all business requirements.

Neil, I've passed that link/article to various members of my company and all agreed it was a good read.

Back to the question at hand. Since most CRMs share 75%+ functionality - I would give the nod of best CRM for a particular Companyby consideration of the following points (the unique 25%):

- Unique needs of the organization
* Heavy Email Marketing Needs?
* Robust Customer Service/Support Needs?
* Visual/Dynamic Workflow Needs?
* Heavy use of Custom Screens?
* Project Management Integration Needs?
* Web-lead Capture and Automation Needs?
* Field Level Security Needs?
* Audit Trail Needs?
* Customer Portal Needs?
* Access to back-end data through Schema availability?

- Existing Backend systems and other Small Business Applications?
* Integration with QuickBooks?
* Integration with MAS 90?
* Existing DBMS?
* Other Integration Needs?

- Most suitable delivery method (SaaS vs. On-Premise vs. Hybrid)
* Is Offline Access Needed?

- Budget constraints
* Does the provider have pricing considerations for the small business?

It's premature to suggest options until more information becomes available. I'll be glad to extend an offer of my resources once the scope is better fleshed out.

For perspective, I'm a Surado Small Business CRM (http://www.surado.com) user myself.

A company needs to know their goals and objectives in order to really answer the question. The answer is that ultimately there is probably more than one reasonable alternative and then it comes down to preference for deployment method, level of investment, and personal preference.

We try to help customers answer these questions with our How To Choose series of software selection guides. They are product agnostic but may help the customer decide what they need without the help of a consultant.

http://www.netatwork.com/howtochoose_form.asp?id=crm_learnmoresection

I agree with Danny. A company does need to know their ultimate goals, objectives, and needs before embarking on a vendor search. For example, you won't want to pay for marketing automation features if you know that you're not going to use them. Coming up with a detailed list will be very helpful through out your research process.

Most vendors will provide very similar features with different user interfaces. Many buyers are hesitant to take demos, or to interact with vendors, but don't let them intimidate you. It is absolutely necessary to take demos from around 3-5 different vendors in order to see what features and UI's that you prefer to use.

One vendor consideration that has not yet been mentioned is Landslide. They have a very strong web-based SFA tool (not necessarily a full CRM solution), and tend to focus on working with companies in the B2B space. Their tool will solve reporting issues and help to shorten lengthier sales cycles. They also have the advantage of offering 24-hour live help desk support.

As you know, Focus has quite a bit of information available to buyers and researchers. Feel free to download some information, and ask the Focus analysts if you have any questions!

Trevor,
So far the answers above seem to based on understanding who your company is and what you want to do today.
Choosing CRM software based only on the "now" understanding of your organization could be dangerous if your organization morphs or grows significantly in the future. If your CRM selection cannot morph and grow with you, you'll be forced to "switch horses in mid-stream". The cost of doing that is huge, not only in technology challenges (new hardware, new integations etc.) and product costs but also in terms of new solution learning time and lost productivity for each of your users.
Make sure that you do the right visioning for your company's future first so that your CRM selection is then based on that visioning as well as your needs today. Look especially at mobile computing as you do that visioning.

My company (AMB Marketing) is a Certified Consulting Partner with Maximizer CRM. We chose Maximizer because it provides so many capabilities without the expense that comes with add-on-module = add-on-cost based systems.
We also work with Surado (mentioned above) which offers some excellent, gui based workflow creation tools along with solid CRM software capabilities. You may wish to take a look at those two CRM software products.

However, everyone has a favorite CRM product but that does not make it the right one for you.

Good hunting. . .

Trevor,
Several posts discuss the need to know what you want in a "CRM" system. Almost all CRM's have similar features for business including contact management, lead management, notes/history, etc. I recommend you ask yourself who in your company will be using the system the most. If you looking to increase the productivity, accountability and visibility of your field sales team then chose a system that caters to your reps and their needs. Telenotes is designed as a Sales Productivity System to help outside reps stay in the field and not in the office at their computer doing data entry. Most CRM systems are very robust yet at the same time they are very cumbersome and require too much time to keep the data up to date.

Also, make sure your users have the information with them when and where they need it. Again, if this is for your field sales reps, make sure it's accessible on their mobile device and not just in the office. With all the options out there, your reps should not need laptops and air cards to access their data...most BlackBerry's or iPhone type devices should be sufficient.

Pick your users and cater to their needs and everyone else in the company will benefit from the system you select.

Best of Success!
Tom

GoldMine Premium Edition CRM has been very successful in the SMB market for the last 20 yrs. and could be a good option for you. You can obtain more information on some of the latest features of Premium Edition at http://www.moreproductive.com/GoldMineCRM.html

Trevor

You will get as many answers on this as there are products/services as everyone either has their own favourite or is pushing their own barrow.

You need to think about your needs today and into the future. What business goals can you achieve with a CRM deployment? As Neil said, CRM is a strategy not just a product.

Whilst I do work with Salesforce.com, I am not pushing this in the hope of getting business as I am not in the same geography as you ..or even close! :-)

However, I would recommend it to any small business owner. Why?

1. Excellent SaaS platform (ie MORE than a CRM) on which you can build your entire business, thus containing your IT costs as you grow. Store your business content, integrate your accounting, inventory etc. These are all possibilities without you having to purchase/own/maintain a single server.

2. You can start small with Salesforce.com, get a comprehensive CRM that is great for B2B and then upgrade as your needs grow and change I dont know what the license pricing in the USA is but here in Australia it is as low as $AUD420 per user per year. There is no financial penalty for starting with one of the smaller Editions and upgrading as your business grows and needs change.

3. One annual fee that covers your license/s, support, online training and quarterly updates. A fixed cost. My small business clients love that.

4. Any customisations you and/or your implementation consultant go with you when you upgrade from one Salesforce.com edition to another. No ugly migrations!

5. Reporting is outstanding, comprehensive and easy to set up -- this will help you make better quality business decisions faster when you need to.

My other piece of advice is to JUST DO IT! Now! My consultancy often works with SMBs who have accumulated data n spreadsheets and Outlook contacts for years. Generally, this data is of poor quality, riddled with inconsistencies and duplicates. As a result, it takes a lot more time, effort and money to get this data into a shape that can be imported into a CRM. Start early with CRM, have extremely useable data on which you can base your business decisions. The earlier you start, the earlier you will reap the benefits

Hello,
as some person answered allready, the question is not the tool but what you want to do with... I never saw a CRM's project going down because of the tool :-). Many question have to be answered before you start a CRM project as for example what do YOU except from a CRM and what YOU want to achieve with it. Your needs are important, your goal are important but the tool isn't in my point of view... CRM mean share the information, are the people in your company ready to share their information? Even if this question look very simple, the answer is not always as simple as it's look like...

So before starting anything, take time to think about the 2 main points : What do you except from your CRM and do you want to do with, the choice of the tool will come later and even if it is not easy, it's for shure not the hardest part of this kind of project... :-)

Good luck

To reiterate other comments, it depends on the business application not the CRM application. The volume of prospects and customers you need to manage will affect even if you need a CRM systems at all for an SME.

Hello Trevor,

We offer hosted CRM that has Contact, Calendar and Sales Management. The sales management has standard features for leads, opportunities, accounts and products. One feature that distinguishes our CRM is the ability to define multi tiered product pricing and keeping track of product availability. Sales quotation can be generated automatically based on the product details/pricing already in the system.

Check out: http://www.borneosoft.com

You can check our CRM features:

Blog (NEW): http://www.borneosoft.com/docs/blogfeatures
Contact: http://www.borneosoft.com/docs/contactfeatures
Calendar: http://www.borneosoft.com/docs/calendarfeatures
Sales: http://www.borneosoft.com/docs/salesfeatures
Product Management: http://www.borneosoft.com/docs/productfeatures
Chart/Reporting: http://www.borneosoft.com/docs/chartfeatures
Mail, Notes and Document: http://www.borneosoft.com/docs/mailfeatures
Auto Creation of Quotation: http://www.borneosoft.com/docs/quotationfeatures
Team Management: http://www.borneosoft.com/docs/teamfeatures

Regards,
Luke