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hey I'm Bruce Taylor and recently I was interviewed for tech for business comm and I was asked seven questions about CRM now in the beginning the year I did a class called introduction to CRM customer relationship management systems and I thought these questions were really good and I wanted to share some of these with you in this video because I think hopefully you'll find this interesting if you're learning about CRM you're doing an implementation in the planning phases wherever you're at I hope you find some of the answers to these questions beneficial to you now the links to my class is down below as well as the article that was written in tech for business comm so let's get started the first question is how would you define CRM to a layperson well essentially a CRM is a tool that is used to centralize all the data business has on its customers as vendors its relationships puts it all into a centralized repository the companies can use to track their sales their marketing their vendors build reports analyze their sales and marketing power there's sales pipelines but everything is into the central repository anybody whose function it is that interfaces with the customer whether its sales service a vendor whoever interfaces with customers or your vendors best information is going to go into this CRM system because what we're doing is we're building relationships with these people so we want to know what they bought are they having any issues with the products how they're is fine to marketing keeping track of things like birthdays contact information our history of phone calls email letters any collateral that we might have as well as any relationships with our suppliers or vendors etc but it is this tool is what it is it is a tool to bring all this data in and in a structured and meaningful way so the next question is at what point should a business implement CRM practices like specific software into its business well here's my thinking on this all right the sooner the better really what you want to avoid is all your sales people having their own you know silo of data in other words you know when sales persons give me an Outlook no one is keeping Excel Excel you want to avoid that right from the beginning if it's all possible that's a good reason to get started with CRM right away anybody that communicates with that customer is very very important anybody you having relationships in terms of you know vendors as far as etc government officials whatever you people that you have these relationships with the sooner you get them all into one organized repository the better as far as specific software well CRM is a type of applications a specific kind of application there's many different kinds of choose from but we'll get into that a little bit later question number three what are the key advantages of adopting CRM practices especially for smaller businesses say ten to four hundred and ninety nine employees well is is critical to small business to make sure that they're not losing business right they've been one of the benefits of having a CRM system for it a small business any business is to keep track of opportunities deals etc making sure quotes are sent out making sure customer follow-up is taken care of making sure leezar is signed properly making sure that customers service is being handled properly and this is extremely critical to any business a small business can't afford to lose a deal because they forgot to make a follow-up call it makes you more efficient and gives you the ability to compete with the bigger companies that are very much to have CRM integrated as a way of life and because of a low cost or low barrier to entry to CRM tools there's no reason not to start using CRM on day one there's too many benefits the ability to track your pipeline look at that sales funnel and follow trends and what's going on and having your finger on the pulse of your business and that CRM system is the heartbeat of your customer and business relationships okay the next question is are there any potential downsides to a CI CRM implementation well there's a couple that come to mind right away first is lack of buy-in from either management or the employees right some people don't want to do the data entry now we used to educate people we still do that if it's not in CRM it didn't happen and that kind of helped but you always are going to have people that are generally resistant to any kind of change in the way they're doing things unless they see the benefit that's why I think it's really important to get people involved in the project before the implementation so you can make it as smooth as possible and then make it you know as automated as you can but yet effective now the second potential down shot to a CRM implementation is a poor implementation in other words there was miscommunication between you and your consultant or your team that's putting this in as to functionality or the fact that maybe your business process your sales process for example doesn't really flow very well you've not taken the time to kind of architect how everything works before trying to put into a CRM system and that can cause a lot of aggravation that's one of the biggest reasons why certain saram implementations are abandoned is because it was poorly implemented to begin with okay the next question is what tips can you share for businesses trying to find the best CRM software or system for them well I think this is going to be think of it as a project this is going to be something that is going to pay for itself many many times over again and the better built this foundation if you will of your your customer and business relationships needs to be very solid so think everything through very very thoroughly make sure that when it's time that you hire can I recommend you to hiring a consultant whenever possible this experience with multiple CRM systems but make sure that you've got everything worked out you fully understand what it is your mission is what you want to accomplish in terms of customization reporting workflows even the email templates mail templates etc make sure you have all this worked out in advance question number six are there any key advantages to going to a cloud-based CRM well there's in my opinion multiple advantages so before we analyst cloud stuff right we had on-premise CRM system but the problem was is that the data was back at the office now mobility is very very important all right so here's one of the advantages right now the cost to the the cost to get into a CRM system when it's hosted by somebody else web-based is dramatically lower then purchasing the servers the server licenses the client access licenses for a on premise CRM system so you save a lot of money and you can get into a CRM system very very quickly because you don't have to worry about that somebody's already done that work for you so that's one advantage right there secondly a web-based CRM are hosted CRM system allows you to use mobile devices normally most of them come with the mobile application of some kind so you can use your phone a tablet your laptop anywhere you have there and access you should be able to get to your data so mobility is also very important now another benefit is also going to be the fact that someone else is hosting in their data center so they're going to be making sure that the software is maintained and up-to-date this is something you'd have to do if you have your own server your on-premise software you have to make sure that the upgrades were handled smoothly etc and finally you wouldn't you don't have to worry about the backup as much on a hosted system like that because there care at the data center so a whole lot of headaches or potential headaches is off the table furthermore there might be some tax benefit as well generally speaking when you buy software the hardware and all that you it's going to be taxed a little bit differently or a capital expenditure versus an ongoing cost such as you know paying your monthly subscription fees so get with your accountant about that but generally that's a better way to go if possible and finally the last question is is there anything you wish people would ask you about CRM but they rarely do and I think what was surprising to me the most is so many companies never really fully engaged about their return on the investment knew they wanted it they knew they needed it but they were more hung up on the upfront cost of the implementation then fully understanding everything it could do and now this is an investment that has a tremendous amount of return and that is one of the things that I've seen especially smaller companies in startups and so forth their very own enough about the cost I get that understand that every everything is precious but this tool part with a proper implementation working with the right consultant getting everything set forth correctly in the very beginning is going to make you it's gonna make you a lot of money that's the idea behind you're not gonna let deals slip through your fingers when somebody quits not going to lose that book of business because you you still have access to that customer information it is a money maker but I'm kind of I've been disappointing the past so I had to steer the conversation back so this is an investment in your business to grow your business and that's one of the things but that is one of the areas to me that was kind of discouraging because of getting hung up on the upfront cost and not really analyzing what that return on that investment would be and those are the questions that I was asked for the tech for business.com article I'm actually going to be a new class on choosing a CRM system and I've got some experience with a number of CRM applications I'll share with you in a future class thank you so much out for your comments down below take care