Bill
To echo what many have said here already, the single most important factor to any CRM is buy-in and usage. If the sales people do not see a benefit and/or are not held accountable for usage the system will fail. The same goes for BDC, Internet, Management, etc...If any part of the team isn't taking full advantage of the system you aren't going to get a good return no matter what you spend. There are a lot of good tools out there, many of them have been mentioned in the thread. My advice as someone who has been in the industry and specifically in this field for several years is to not get caught up in features; many of the sales demonstrations you have seen have no doubt centered on the things that one provider can do that none of the others can. While that makes for a great demonstration it really wont give you much insight into how you and your team are going to use the tool on a daily basis. Most CRM tools handle the basics well enough, what really differentiates the best tools in my opinion are the following: 1) email deliverabilty, ask the references the % of transaction and marketing emails that are delivered to the intended customers. Ask the rep what the company is doing to ensure white label status with email providers and what kind of reporting they have to back up any claims. 2) work flow. How many clicks to complete basic tasks, when you click on something is what you expect to happen what happens? This will be a huge determining factor in long term usage. 3) after sales training. what is the commitment of the vendor to your long term success and usage of the tool? While some provide on site training quarterly ask who provides that training. Is it the sales rep? You might want to consider additional training options as having a full day of training every few months at the store can be disruptive and it can take a long time to "onboard" a new employee. Interactive (live) online training that is on-demand might be a good alternative especially when combined with prerecorded classes available anytime. 4) after sales support. will you have a dedicated account manager or support contact? Is support only for incoming calls or will you have scheduled monthly calls to discuss usage metrics and find ways to improve. I know this is a long post but I thought it might bring up a few questions for you to ask as you make your final decision. Let us know what you decide.
To echo what many have said here already, the single most important factor to any CRM is buy-in and usage. If the sales people do not see a benefit and/or are not held accountable for usage the system will fail. The same goes for BDC, Internet, Management, etc...If any part of the team isn't taking full advantage of the system you aren't going to get a good return no matter what you spend. There are a lot of good tools out there, many of them have been mentioned in the thread. My advice as someone who has been in the industry and specifically in this field for several years is to not get caught up in features; many of the sales demonstrations you have seen have no doubt centered on the things that one provider can do that none of the others can. While that makes for a great demonstration it really wont give you much insight into how you and your team are going to use the tool on a daily basis. Most CRM tools handle the basics well enough, what really differentiates the best tools in my opinion are the following: 1) email deliverabilty, ask the references the % of transaction and marketing emails that are delivered to the intended customers. Ask the rep what the company is doing to ensure white label status with email providers and what kind of reporting they have to back up any claims. 2) work flow. How many clicks to complete basic tasks, when you click on something is what you expect to happen what happens? This will be a huge determining factor in long term usage. 3) after sales training. what is the commitment of the vendor to your long term success and usage of the tool? While some provide on site training quarterly ask who provides that training. Is it the sales rep? You might want to consider additional training options as having a full day of training every few months at the store can be disruptive and it can take a long time to "onboard" a new employee. Interactive (live) online training that is on-demand might be a good alternative especially when combined with prerecorded classes available anytime. 4) after sales support. will you have a dedicated account manager or support contact? Is support only for incoming calls or will you have scheduled monthly calls to discuss usage metrics and find ways to improve. I know this is a long post but I thought it might bring up a few questions for you to ask as you make your final decision. Let us know what you decide.
