What are the top 3 questions to ask before purchasing a CRM solution?

The three questions that you must ask are:

1) Can the vendor demonstrate the system executing YOUR processes (not just a generic sales demo). Of course this requires that you take the time to specify them in sufficient detail before the demo; but you will have to specify them at some point in any case and you can avoid a costly failure by doing so up front.

2) How much will it cost to put into production and maintain? This initial cost must include a quote implementation services, ideally on a fixed price basis. Many people neglect to factor in the maintenance costs over the next five years, but if every change to the system requires the use of consultants, they will far exceed the initial deployment costs.

3) Will the company be around for a while? The CRM field is crowded with venture backed startups and less than one in four of them are expected to grow. Look for a company that has been around for at least five years.

For a more detailed analysis, see http://www.focus.com/briefs/crm/how-pick-right-crm-helpdesk-bpm-vendor/

Someone else alluded to it, but there are far more questions to a variety of audiences that should be asked prior to purchasing a CRM solution.

Here are three internal and three external that you should consider:

INTERNAL

What are the desired outcomes of the initiative? (What are we trying to solve/achieve?)


How does this initiative align (or not align) with larger organizational goals and initiatives?

What are the benefits/risks for each group of stakeholders participating in the initiative, and how will these benefits/risks be addressed?

EXTERNAL

Why is your solution the best for us now?

Why will your solution be the best for us 3 years from now?

Can you help us quantify the advantage/return for our business in exchange for our investment/partnership with you?

Within each of these questions are dozens more. The more comprehensively you can define and address each of these areas, the better off you'll be, and the better chance you'll have of adding real and differentiating value to your organization.

One of the questions I recommend you always ask at the procurement stage of whatever you are procuring is: Can you demonstrate to me how you ensure that your product/service is fully inclusive of the needs of older and disabled people. In 2020 50+ of the UK population will be 50 plus. It has never been so important to ensure that customer services are fully exclusive and exclude no one if this rapidly increasing sector of the population are to be valued and retained as customers. Ask them for real examples and case studies, don't just take their work for it!

There are numerous considerations that should roll up into a business decision on a CRM system, so just three is a bit tight...

Look at your current infrastructure and consider how that will evolve over the projected life of the system (figure at least 5 years).

How do we sell? Are we team sellers or solo? Are we primarily account managers or are we constantly selling to mostly new customers? Do we interact with numerous people at a prospect or mostly individuals? Some systems lend themselves more readily to one process versus another...

What "outputs" will we want from the system and who needs them? I.E - reports, dashboards, word and email templates...?

Do we need integration - either now or later - with mobile devices? If so, what will this look like?

How signficant will we be customizing the system?

What are the tasks that will make up the typical users' bulk of use? (say 80% or more) How easily (and quickly) can these tasks be completed in the systems under consideration?

There's a few...

That’s a tough call because you need to ask a lot more than three questions! But for businesses to decide which CRM solution will best fit their needs, I’d probably start with these three:

1) Can you provide me with reference sites and/or case studies of your CRM solution in use in my industry or vertical? Then ask for the details of key contact(s) at some of the sites so you can talk to people that have implemented the product.

2) Can you show me the long-term roadmap for your CRM product? Most of the main vendors have these, but CRM is a long-term investment so you need to be sure your product will not only be around in the foreseeable future, but will be developed along the lines your business needs it to be developed.

3) How is your CRM product supported and what does this support include? For most CRM products there are a variety of support options available, for example direct from the vendor, by their business partners, or by both. You need to be assured that the type and levels of support provided, when it’s available, response times, upgrades and so on, are right for your business needs.

One question that I nearly put into the top three was about deployment options: is your CRM software available as a cloud-based solution, or on-premise, or both? This is important as there are plusses and minuses to each, and the type of deployment you choose needs to fit your business needs and strategy.

Once you’ve had these questions answered by a number of vendors, you should be able to shortlist and continue the process, drilling down with further questions. These could be based around functionality, its ability to grow with your business, flexibility, how easy it is to configure and customize, its user and partner-base, ease of use, what the implementation process involves, typical implementation times, prices and costs etc, the list goes on!

It would also be worth looking at how independent research positions the product in the market and within your niche or vertical. It may also be worthwhile talking to an independent CRM specialist, as they won’t be tied down to any particular product or provider, they’ll be able to talk through the questions with you and help you find a CRM solution best suited to your business requirements.

At it's core, CRM is supposed to improve the productivity of our sales people (and by the way it provides a great amount of management information--but that's not why we install CRM).

In making a purchasing decision, we should be asking/examining:

How does it help our sales people become more productive, efficient effective? Do our sales people agree with that?
What's in it for our sales people to be using the solution? If there isn't anything in it for them, then they won't use it, regardless of management dictates.
How will we ramp the learning curve for our sales people in getting productive and getting the expected value from the system?
As a bonus: Is management committed to using it as well (too often, managers refuse to learn how to use it, just getting reports. If managers won't use it, then why should sales people?)

Great question!

# Should we invest in a standalone CRM product, or would we be better off with an offering from a single vendor that offers both CRM and accounting/enterprise resource planning functionality?

# Would an industry-specific CRM product best meet our needs, or should we plan to have customized, more "horizontal" CRM?

# Would open source CRM technology be a good fit for an SMB?

http://www.businessbuyguide.co.uk/quote/crmsystems_seo/businessbuyguide?osadc...

1. Are we clear on our business strategy? (CRM is about business not technology. Too many companies think they can implement CRM without first being crystal clear on the company's strategy.)
2. Are we clear how our CRM will enable our business strategy?
3. Do we understand how each of our stakeholders will win by adopting the CRM? (i.e., are we going to be forcing compliance or will compliance come naturally because of productivity gains, etc.)