Where To Start with a CRM
For new businesses, the prospect of CRM can be daunting. There are so many options and systems out there, it’s difficult to know where to start. In this post we’ll explain what you need to do to get started in the right way.
When To Start?
We recommend starting with a CRM as soon as you start your business. Why? Because without a CRM, your sales process is organic – calling people you know, advertising in hopefully the right places, asking clients for referrals. These are all great things to do, but unless you have a system for sales, they will run out of steam quickly.
Starting with a CRM as soon as you start your business means that you are starting out with a system for sales, which means you can scale your business easily as we’ll explain below.
The Sales & Marketing Machine
Running the Sales & Marketing element of a business consists of a number of repeatable steps:
- Get people to contact you about your service (marketing)
- Determine if they are a good fit for your business (qualification)
- Sell your product or service (sales)
- Maintain communication in order to sell future products (marketing)
A well designed CRM solution will enable you to put in place a process for these four steps. In turn, this will allow you to grow your business in a predictable way. For example:
- If you need more enquiries, you need to improve your marketing
- If you’re getting lots of enquiries that look to be a good fit, but not many sales, then your qualification process may need work
- If you’re getting lots of enquiries, but few of them are a good fit, then you are marketing to the wrong people
The important thing to notice about this is the relationship between marketing and sales. Marketing generates enquiries, these enquiries are qualified and then passed on to the sales team who sell the product.
But We’re Only A Small Team!
If you’re only a small team, this is critical to get right. Without the right sales and marketing processes in place, you risk wasting valuable time selling to the wrong customers, who will never buy your product, or wasting time generating enquiries in the wrong place.
