A Step-Based Approach to the CRM Buying Process

Posted by Steve Chipman on May 23, 2012

We recently introduced the concept of slowing down the CRM buying process in order to speed it up. Traditional CRM buying processes, which include rounding up vendors early on for demonstrations, can often have the unintended effect of slowing down the buying process or causing the process to grind to a halt altogether. With increasing CRM vendor parity, traditional approaches to buying CRM can end up compounding confusion rather than resolving confusion. (more…)

Tags: buying crm, crm implementation

Posted in: Buying CRM

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8 Reasons to Not Develop a CRM RFP

Posted by Steve Chipman on May 1, 2012

Traditionally, the RFI/RFP process has served to help buyers at companies understand important feature/functionality differences between multiple vendor solutions, so that a large group of potential vendors can be whittled down to a short list. An RFP can also represent an initial round of vendor scoring. RFPs have even been used to disqualify vendors early on. (more…)

Tags: buying crm, crm requirements, crm rfp

Posted in: Buying CRM

Should You Upgrade or Re-Implement Your CRM?

Posted by Steve Chipman on April 25, 2012

Many companies that have a CRM system that was implemented in, say, 2006 or earlier, are finding themselves “stuck” in an older version of their CRM vendor’s software, even though their CRM vendor has released several major, new versions since the initial CRM implementation. (more…)

Tags: crm implementation, upgrades

Posted in: CRM Upgrade

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5 Reasons to Define Your CRM Requirements First

Posted by Steve Chipman on April 23, 2012

In the CRM purchasing process, a common sequence of events for CRM buyers is to first go through a round of vendor demos and to then decide on and commit to a specific CRM vendor. After the purchase of the CRM system, the next step is to go through the exercise of defining detailed CRM requirements. Finally, a CRM implementation is performed based on those defined requirements. (more…)

Tags: buying crm, crm requirements

Posted in: Buying CRM

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iPad Apps For Popular CRM Solutions

Posted by Steve Chipman on March 26, 2012

With the iPad taking enterprises by storm, the availability of a fully featured, CRM iPad app has suddenly become a must-have requirement for many CRM buyers.

The consumerization of IT isn’t something that’s coming — it’s here. IT managers have little choice but to support the demands of mobile users in the multi-touch device era, which was kicked off by Steve Jobs when he famously rejected the idea of a stylus in his design concept for the next generation smart phone. (more…)

Tags: buying crm, mobile

Posted in: Buying CRM

8 Ways Your Old CRM System Frustrates Your Marketing Users to No End

Posted by Steve Chipman on March 24, 2012

The ways in which companies market their products or services has changed significantly in the last several years. Marketing has become less outbound and more inbound. It has become more social media focused. (more…)

Tags: buying crm, inbound marketing, marketing automation

Posted in: CRM Features

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What Does CRM to ERP Integration Really Mean?

Posted by Steve Chipman on March 19, 2012

Often, people who are involved in the CRM buying process for their organization express an interest in integrating a new CRM system with their legacy ERP or accounting system. There are many ERP/accounting systems on the market, ranging from QuickBooks to Microsoft Dynamics GP to SAP. (more…)

Tags: crm implementation, CRM Integration, crm requirements

Posted in: CRM Integration

Developing B2B Landing Pages That Integrate With CRM

Posted by Steve Chipman on March 14, 2012

If your company sells B2B, odds are that your sales team members are getting at least some of their Leads from your company’s website. We’ll look at two levels of automating the creation of new Leads in CRM from website visitor form submissions. (more…)

Tags: crm leads, crm web forms, inbound marketing, marketing automation

Posted in: Marketing Automation

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How Much Attention Do CRM Vendors Give to CRM?

Posted by Denise Kitt on March 13, 2012

Many CRM vendors also publish non-CRM products. Should you be concerned to what degree a vendor focuses on CRM compared to other product lines, or is a vendor’s overall financial commitment to CRM a more important factor? Below is some general information as to how much relative revenue each vendor obtains from its CRM applications. (more…)

Tags: CRM, crm projects, crm revenue

Posted in: CRM

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Should Your Company Renew Its CRM Contract?

Posted by Steve Chipman on February 16, 2012

Your organization’s CRM contract is coming up for renewal and a large check needs to be written to your CRM provider. Even though you knew this day would eventually come, it’s still a really big check. Your users have been happy with your current CRM solution, but there are less expensive CRM providers out there that offer more or less the same functionality.

Should you switch CRM providers?

(more…)

Tags: buying crm, Data Migration

Posted in: CRM Providers

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