Does Your Company Need Small Business CRM?

Companies of all sizes can derive value from a CRM solution. Whether you have a sales force of one, or one thousand, or you manage one hundred or one hundred thousand clients, CRM technologies can help you dramatically improve the way you run your sales, marketing, and service departments.

But, not all companies need the power and complexity of enterprise-scale systems. Consider a small business CRM solution if your company manages less than 500 customers and/or has less than 50 staff members supporting customer-facing operations. Small business customer relationship management is also ideal for companies with minimal complexity in their procedures, where the efficiency and productivity of each individual is more important than coordinating intricate processes across departments.

What is Small Business CRM?

Small business CRM, or “CRM lite”, provides basic contact management capabilities,
without all the complex functions that only larger organizations require. They are
designed to support limited groups of simultaneous users (usually 100 or less) over
LANs, rather than large user bases spread out over distributed, multi-server networks.
Some of the more advanced capabilities that come standard with enterprise-scale CRM
packages are usually offered as separately-purchased add-on options.

Many small business customer relationship management applications are available as
hosted or on-demand solutions. This approach makes CRM more affordable, allowing
smaller businesses with tighter budgets to avoid up-front fees and pay only for the
services and features they use. Additionally, hosted CRM eliminates long, complicated
implementations, so smaller businesses can roll-out their solution quickly, with minimal
impact on IT resources.

About Customer relationship management software

Customer relationship management (CRM) isn’t just for large corporations anymore. In
today’s increasingly competitive business environment, where customer service is a key
differentiator, the use of CRM technologies is not only beneficial – it’s critical, even for
smaller companies.

But, enterprise-scale CRM systems can be quite intimidating for smaller businesses.
They come with hefty price tags and complex implementations, requiring more financial
and IT resources than smaller companies can spare. Additionally, their massive
features sets often provide more functionality than a small business needs.

Until recently, only larger organizations have been able to reap the benefits of customer
relationship management. But, several vendors have emerged with “lite” or small
business CRM solutions, to satisfy the needs of the small- to mid-sized market and give
smaller companies the same competitive edge.

Use patience when buying small business CRM software

Don't rush your decision when purchasing small business CRM software. The small business CRM solution you ultimately choose will be based on many factors. Taking the time to consider them all before buying will help ensure that the CRM software you choose will not only serve your needs today but also allow your company room to grow, while continuing to give you years of valuable service.

Originally designed for larger firms, CRM software for small businesses is much easier to use and requires much less training than its larger counterparts. There are a number of ways you can go about making the most of small business CRM software. As you develop an implementation plan, you need to do the following:

1. Define exactly what your expectations are from your small business CRM.

2. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the small business CRM applications you are using.

3. Process the information you analyzed about your small business CRM software into an action plan that works for your business.

The Benefits of small business CRM software

CRM offers many benefits. Here are a few:

Revenue increases of up to 41% per sales person

Decreased sales cycles of over 24%

Lead conversion rate improvements of over 300%

Customer Retention improvements of 27%
Decreased sales and marketing costs of 23%

Improved profit margins of over 2%

Some believe that CRM is not only part of an overall business strategy, CRM is the business strategy. CRM is becoming as vital to an organization as the telephone or PC. It is no longer just an option for businesses.

The best small business CRM software for you

Customer relationship management software has been used by large businesses for years. However, it is still a fairly new tool for small businesses. To get the most value for your money, you need to track small business CRM software news and trends.



What is the best small business CRM software for you? There are a lot of small business Customer Relationship Management software avaiable today, and you should choose the one that is most suitable for your business.

You should ask yourself the following questions:

Do you really need a CRM solution?

Just what type of small business CRM software would make the best fit for your and your business?

How best to evaluate the CRM solution that you are considering?

What is the best way to really leverage your new or existing CRM investment?

Small Business CRM Software

Perhaps the biggest drawback to small business CRM software is the need for servers to operate the system. If you don’t have an IT person on staff to handle software maintenance, you just may decide the the cost isn't worth the benefit. Many new small business CRM applications come with software-as-a-service (SaaS) functionality that makes it much easier to operate. The benefits of this type of system are:


1. The small business CRM software is online, which reduces the need for IT technicians to manage the CRM software and dedicated servers to host it.

2. The adaptability of the CRM for small business software for other business databases.

3. The falling prices of SaaS small business CRM systems due to growing competition.