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What questions does one need to have answered before meeting with a CRM vendor?
We've been researching CRM products and are ready to start engaging in conversation with vendors and resellers. Before we do so, what questions should we have answered ourselves? Is there a checklist that we should go by? Aside from the number of users, what other questions should we have answered?
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3 Answers
Hi Tom,
First of all, you need to identify your need and separate them based on its importance, i.e., must have, good to have, and nice to have. And also we need to look at it in terms of the potential benefits that it can bring. And not to forget, to look at cost savings. All these will provide robust platform when you choose CRM products.
When you choose CRM product, there are basically two platforms. The first one is a software that you need to install and maintain. This also include open source CRM (non hosted) that you can download and install it in your server. The second one is the SaaS, Software as a Service. It is hosted solution where generally, you pay monthly subscription. From here it really depends on what you are looking for. Most, use the CRM as productivity tools for the sales team. Although more advance system gives more at the higher price.
If you are looking for CRM tools that is easy to use and that save time and effort, you might want to have a look at http://www.borneosoft.com. It has many of the CRM tools that you might want to use. Again, as I said, it really depends on your needs.
The one question that you really must answer before spending time on a CRM vendor is this: Will their product fully and reliably support your business processes at a reasonable cost?
There are certainly checklists that will help you answer this question. For an example, see http://www.crmusersguide.com/findcrm.php, but these checklists are generic and just a means to the final goal of finding the right system for your organization. You must be willing to edit or entirely re-write any such checklist in order to tailor it to your particular needs.
For a detailed how-to guide on finding the right CRM for your company, please see: http://www.focus.com/ugr/research/crm/how-pick-right-crm-helpdesk-bpm-vendor/
Hi Tom,
I want to add my two cents, by bringing up maintanence and support into the discussion. If all goes well, your CRM-system will be a key system for you organization and you should strive for a long term relationship with your vendor, so it is important to know how they can support you after the initial implementation is done.
A few examples of topics to bring up both internally and to your vendor:
- What is the maintanence fee and what is included?
- How will our users get support?
- How will our admins/developers get support?
- What is the response time?
- Multilingual support? 24/7 support?
- Upgrades?
etc
If you will meet with IT-consultants that has partnership with CRM-vendors, this is extra important, as they might not have a support organization set up for this. So be very specific in what kind of support agreements you need and what the vendor can offer you and what it costs you.
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