The 5 best tips for choosing a CRM

Are you looking for a customer relationship management solution that manages your customer data centrally and can be optimally integrated into your SAP system? In this blog post, we have compiled the most important tips for choosing the right CRM system.

Before you begin the CRM selection process, it is crucial to understand the benefits of a CRM solution for your own company. What benefits do you expect from a CRM implementation? Are there specific pain points or challenges in the current sales, marketing or service processes that could be solved or improved by a CRM system? A detailed analysis in advance is the first step on the way to a successful CRM implementation.

It is important to identify all relevant stakeholders who could be affected by the CRM solution. These can be office staff, field staff, account managers, management, sales managers, customers, suppliers and partners. Each of these stakeholders has different expectations, requirements and interests in improved sales, marketing and service processes.

Before considering the selection of suitable CRM software, it is advisable to analyze the entire customer journey. This includes all touchpoints at which your company interacts with customers or prospects in the sales cycle, the service process and the marketing cycle. This will help you understand what the typical customer journey and the individual touchpoints of your potential customers look like and where there are still weak points or opportunities for improvement.

A CRM implementation is not just about software, but above all about the people who are involved in the project and who will later work with the CRM software. Effective change management is therefore crucial and important for a successful CRM implementation.

Involve the relevant employees in the project at an early stage and convince your team of the benefits of the CRM solution and also take cultural differences between employees into account. A kick-off event, small events during the project and a closing ceremony after the CRM
introduction ensure that all employees are always kept up to date on the progress of the project and feel part of it.

The introduction of a CRM system is a complex project. In order to maintain an overview and work efficiently, it is important to work with a professional project management solution. This is the only way to transparently record the schedule, budget, milestones, protocols and decisions and distribute tasks.

We recommend the project management tool smenso to our customers. A German solution based on the Azure platform. Alternative project management platforms are Asana, Wrike or monday.com.

It is important to think about the topic of interfaces as early as the planning phase. Consider how data is exchanged between the systems (e.g. CRM and ERP) and which system has data sovereignty. All interfaces should be clearly defined and documented in advance.

All data will then come together in reporting at the latest. It is therefore important that you know in advance which systems are involved and where the data sovereignty for the respective data record lies. It is therefore best to decide on the right solution – preferably integrated into the existing system landscape and with few interfaces.

To summarize: the successful selection of a CRM solution requires thorough planning and preparation, a careful analysis of the customer journey, the involvement of the relevant stakeholders and good change management. With the help of these 5 learnings, you can make your CRM implementation a success and ensure that your company can benefit from the advantages of a CRM system

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