There is a vast array of CRM business benefits that can be realised. Some of these may include increased cross-selling, cost reductions, customer satisfaction scores, or changes in first-call resolution. These are just some of the benefits that could be used in calculating the return-on-investment (ROI) for a project.
To determine the impact CRM business benefits, have on your organisation, baselines for key business measures need to be established. These baselines become the starting point that can be compared against once the solution is in place. This also helps ensure that benefits are correctly attributed to changes effected by the CRM system, rather than other factors.
How to define your CRM Business Benefits
Below are some best practices ideas to follow when determining your CRM Business Benefits.
- Define CRM success for your organization at the outset
- Pre-set corresponding metrics and data requirements
- Determine the business processes required to capture the data
- Determine user interface implications and accessibility requirements
- Plan for end-user training, especially if you are making changes to existing processes
- Consider data hygiene—ensure the data that’s captured is clean
- Scope the CRM project clearly and budget for all costs
- Secure management buy-in for any expansion to the original scope of work
CRM Business Benefits – Outcomes
Comparing actual results to established metrics will enable you to determine whether your CRM strategy is working, and how effectively. If results aren’t as expected, then further analysis should enable enterprises to determine why an approach isn’t working and quickly make alterations to improve performance. It also will enable companies to evaluate whether the original goals were realistic and to reset goals if needed.
Every organization has a different vision for their CRM project. Every vision brings with it a variety of business value propositions that can be attached to bottom-line results.
Though ROI definitions vary, CRM business benefits returns should be measured in terms of overall business value—how the system supports a vision and yields both hard and soft benefits—and not exclusively on metrics. Nonetheless, determining how success will be measured, benchmarking pre-implementation figures, and ensuring the system is set up to capture the necessary information are necessary to allow accurate calculation of quantifiable ROI metrics post-implementation.
How a CRM can help
A CRM system benefits an organisation through the visibility of its users activities. This visibility is fundamental to managing sales performance and control of the sales process. This visibility enables management to understand why, when, who and how opportunities are being won, stalled, or being lost. If it cannot be monitored, it cannot be managed. The visibility offered within the CRM system also allows management to make educated business decisions based on hard data. A CRM system will enable structured data to be used to access performance. This assessment should indicate which sales person is out performing others.
How ProAptivity can help you with your CRM Strategy
ProAptivity are an independent CRM solutions provider with over 30 years’ experience in helping clients successfully onboard user-customisable CRM solutions. We focus on the implementation, training, and support of highly customised CRM software solutions. Our CRM software supported by our training provide customers with the tools needed to deliver successful business process management.
Fundamentally, we help organisations embed CRM best practice throughout their organisation. This helps organisations become more competitive, customer focused and ultimately more profitable.
If you need help in understanding why my business needs CRM, maybe some of our video’s or eBooks could help! Alternatively visit Maximizer CRM for more information. You can contact us today on 0330 223 6362 or via email at info@proaptivity.com. Contact us today for a free CRM consultation that will assess if your business is CRM ready.
