The importance of a CRM project and the associated challenges
Several challenges are associated with choosing a CRM and implementing it:
- the sharing of sales information
- The necessity of digitalizing customer relations
- The need for a management tool
The 3 challenges of a CRM project
- Understand the CRM market and the different types of solutions
- Define the objectives of the CRM project and its ROI
- Initiate a collaborative project approach
Solution typologies
There are several types of solutions available on the market.
“SUITE” Solutions
These solutions enable complete management of a company (productivity, invoicing, etc.) and go beyond simple customer relationship management.
These solutions are offered by Salesforce, Zoho CRM, or Microsoft, for example.
Generalist solutions
These solutions cover the entire customer relationship: sales, marketing, and customer service.
These solutions are offered by Hubspot, for example.
These are part of a CRM project where customer relationship management is necessary at all levels.
Specialized solutions
There are specialized solutions available for every level of customer relationship:
- Sales: managing the sales team with Pipedrive, for example
- Marketing: manage inbound and outbound campaigns using tools like Sendinblue or Mailchimp.
- Customer service: managing multi-channel requests and complaints using tools like Zendesk
Key takeaways for a CRM project
It is necessary to know your needs well (price, SaaS or on-premise solution, online support or hotline) in order to adapt your CRM project.
It is also necessary to define your objectives and ROI, and to clarify several essential questions:
- What will this project bring to the employees?
- What will be the benefits for the client?
- What will be the benefits of this CRM project for my company?
To go further, you can consult this white paper "Setting up your CRM software".