The low cost of CRM software today has created a feeding frenzy among small to mid-size businesses. Many are buying CRM software to automate their business and improve performance but don’t know where to begin. Unfortunately, very few have realized the value they had hoped for. In fact, in too many cases the CRM system is no longer even begin utilized. So, what went wrong? Ask yourself these two questions.

Do You Have a Business Process?

CRM is all about automating the internal processes that impact how you market, sell and provide service to your customers. If you do not have these internal processes in place, there is nothing to automate.

Do You Have the Experience?

Another challenge facing small to mid-size businesses trying to implement CRM software is the lack of experienced personnel particularity in the area of sales and marketing.

So even if you selected a good CRM solution for your business how will you implement it?

It’s for this reason that smaller businesses need to carefully assess these two aspects of their organization. If you do not have both, no CRM software in the world is going to provide you with the return on investment you had hoped for. Perhaps this is why so many small businesses have struggled with the implementation and use of CRM software.

There is good news here however.  Because the CRM sector has matured quite a bit, there are several very good companies that provide a quality CRM product, and have the expertise in sales, marketing and customer service to help you define your internal processes and present you with best practices for automating those processes so that you do realize a nice return on your investment.

The key to success is selecting the right CRM company that offers not only the software, but the service and support that will ensure your success.