Writing a post on "Why you need a CRM system" feels a little like writing "Why you need a respiratory system." It's not an option, a luxury, or an upgrade for your business. It's vital to survival. But, unlike the lungs you were born with, businesses don't often begin with a healthy CRM system. Oh, they have a system, but it's on life support.
You see, every business has a CRM system. Think about it. "Customer Relationship Management."
Do you have customers? I hope so.
Do you have relationships with those customers? Healthy or not, you do.
Do you manage those relationships? Effective or not, you do.
The problem is not that businesses need to be convinced to manage customer relationships (i.e. adopt a CRM system). The problem is that businesses need to realize that a conglomeration of Excel, Outlook, iPhone contact lists, SIRI reminders, post-it notes, and chicken scratches on the backs of business cards is not a viable CRM. It's an iron lung. Sure, it works (kinda) but there will always be a sense that vitality and health are far off.
At it's core, a
CRM software like AddressTwo might not do anything that you're not already trying to via other means. So what's the difference? Scalability and sustainability.
First, a
CRM system like AddressTwo is
scalable. Try as you might, you cannot effectively share the data from Excel or Outlook across sales teams. Even smaller--forget "sales teams"--do you have an assistant, or does your spouse help out in your business from time-to-time. Your business does not have to be very large before the post-it notes stuck to your computer screen become obsolete.
That simple realization accounts for over 75% of our AddressTwo's new customer acquisition. That means, 3 out of 4 times that a company buys AddressTwo, two things were true: 1) we were their first ever CRM software; and 2) the catalyst for purchasing was a new hire or some other form of team growth.
But that's just the immediate pain that pushes people to finally take the plunge. And when they feel the next pain--the pain of learning a new software tool--what keeps them using it? Why would anyone opt to learn something new if it weren't absolutely vital to their business?
That's where the second half of CRM comes in. A CRM system like AddressTwo is also
sustainable. The fancy terms are things like "data continuity" and "transition planning" but in layman's terms what we're really talking about is having information stored safely forever where you can always access it. Eventually, the glue on the back of that post-it note gets covered in dust and then what? Moreover, what happens when the person who really needs that sticky-note is your assistant, not you?
There are a million reasons I could tell you to buy a CRM--any CRM, for the love of God--but if you haven't yet reached the point of needing one, there's one simple reason: your business isn't there yet... and if you resist the efficiencies that technology can afford you, I dare say, it may never be. What will you choose?
