A CRM system is much more than a data repository. What you want this tool to do and how your employees will use it is as unique as the way you do business. When you begin shopping for options, it can be very helpful to spend time defining specific and measurable goals with which to evaluate CRM platforms available on the market.

A good first step is to define your sales team’s top priorities. Look for products that automate repetitive sales tasks, so that reps can focus on closing deals rather than being bogged down with manual data entry.

Beyond that, what is it most important for your management tool to do? Spend time evaluating data storage, potential, and current client database reporting, lead tracking, training, sales pipeline management, reporting, and marketing outreach functionality when considering a CRM program.

Collaborate with your entire team and solicit their input on what they deem to be essential goals.

• Do you want to formalize and document your sales and delivery workflow?
• Do you want to increase time management skills for your reps?
• Do you want to automate sales outreach? Do you want to reach a particular deal close rate within a certain timeframe?

Choose several top goals as benchmarks when you are assessing CRM systems.

Different CRM systems have different features. They may focus on different client communication modes, different ways to log and analyze sales data, or different pipeline management tools. You are seeking the CRM software that best fits the way your company does business today, with the ability to expand into future markets as well. Have your team look at where most of your company resources are invested right now. Identify key workflows, as well as soliciting insights from your team into areas of improvement.

Narrow down your CRM choices to those which align with these workflows, and desired areas of improvement and market development.

Are you looking for…

• streamlined automation?
• increased communication between teams?
• new lead management tools?
• integration between the sales and marketing departments?

Combine the top desired features with your company goals to narrow down the list of new CRM products you will consider.

Tracking KPIs, such as sales metrics, provides vital information used to set business goals, evaluate workflows, and identify areas that need improvement. But this data analysis should not only be the purview of the managerial staff. All employees are stakeholders – when the company does well, they do well. A CRM platform that provides your sales team with the ability to examine key sales numbers within a powerful business intelligence module not only saves time but elucidates areas of concern as well as improvement. This data can help measure the success of all your teams as well as your workflow process. Consider not only sales activity data, but lead projection, revenue, support services, and marketing data as well, in your evaluation of CRM products.

Avoid purchasing a CRM package that is cost-effective but offers minimal features to fulfill your company’s requirements. By using software designed to meet the needs of your industry and, more importantly, the needs of your business, you will be optimizing your investment and saving time in the long run. When your software developer is familiar with the specifics of your industry, they can provide a workflow process that makes sense. They should also have professionally trained call center personnel to provide detailed and expert customer training and support for all the members of your team.

When you’re learning a new software system, it can feel a bit like learning a new language! Some terms which reference common vocabulary can vary in different platforms, such as referring to a prospect for sale as a lead vs an opportunity.

It can be a lot easier to adopt a new software system if the terms and options in drop-down menus are familiar. Many CRM companies, including SalesChain, allow the setup of custom drop-down items, helping maintain some consistency and familiarity in the everyday terms your business team uses.

For example, we allow the configuration of different action types when a user creates or completes a task in our system. Your business can designate a certain call you’ve made as a “First Contact” or “Touch Base” rather than using the default “Call.” However detailed you want to get, whatever vernacular you use, this configuration step can help users feel more at home in the system.

In SalesChain, some drop-down options will populate automatically as your system evolves. For example, users who can see multiple sales reps in the system (managers, admins, owners, etc.) will see the “Sales Rep” drop-downs evolve automatically when a new user is added.

Any document generation system should be robust enough for you to import your own document templates. If you have to switch your entire paperwork library while also dealing with the switch to a different software platform, the changes in your business can get a bit overwhelming for your team.

We built SalesChain’s document generation system with flexibility in mind. We help our customers import their templates for:

• Proposals
• Lease Agreements
• Order Forms
• Service (Maintenance) Agreements
• Equipment build sheets
• Lease buyout acknowledgment letters
• And more

This can help make your team’s transition easier since the documents they’re using will already be familiar, and, as a bonus, can help make your branding more cohesive.

After the prospecting and order processes are done, your fulfillment automation system needs to reflect the workflow steps that your team follows. SalesChain can help you to design customized delivery workflows that best represent the working steps needed to complete each type of product or service that your business offers. For example, fulfilling an order for two copiers involves different steps than providing IT services for a law firm. Each step of the process may be defined with characteristics that include:

• Sequence of work
• Dependencies
• Assignment of responsibility
• Notifications of assignment and completion
• Trigger dependent steps

Handling commissions manually through spreadsheets is a process that is prone to error. A structured commissions system provides a concrete and highly accurate alternative.  It is configured upon onboarding and can reduce the number of errors in commissions – saving the processor and the company time and money.

Tools like SalesChain, which already include deal pricing data in the platform, allow businesses to process commissions quickly, easily, and automatically. SalesChain customers enjoy the consistent accuracy of pricing for both hardware and IT services provided by our catalogs made easy service and integrations to major IT distributors. This contributes greatly to the accuracy of commission figures.

No matter the complexity or intricacy of your documents, preparing sales commissions in Excel is a time-consuming process.

Generally, spreadsheets are created to track one task, and as it expands more formulas are added, which can complicate the process. All new data must be entered manually, and all-new formulas must be configured by your team. This takes valuable time and effort away from the other tasks of the normal workday. If you add in the complex multi-tier commissions structures found in most modern companies, spreadsheet maintenance becomes a major commitment. We often find that, within larger organizations, the resources of a full-time staff member must be dedicated to implementing this outmoded method.

Instead of emailing out spreadsheets or commission statements, accounting and sales teams can access their personal data at any time on the platform. By eliminating tedious manual tasks and streamlining communication between different departments, you can quickly and accurately forecast new sales commission structures.

Due to the reduction in errors, the automated nature of calculations, data integration, and clear reporting, commission administrators can expect to significantly reduce the time required to calculate and pay commissions.  Their efforts can be re-deployed to complete tasks that add more value to the company as well, helping businesses grow without adding more resources.

Your finance department needs to know what the commission cost forecast is for the year. Therefore, you need a reliable way to generate forecasting data.

This is another area where a good commission product pays for itself. It should contain the data model, the calculation engine, and the reporting power to support detailed forecasting. If you try to build this solution on your Salesforce cloud, you are doing it all from scratch.

With a platform such as SalesChain, all transactions and calculations are stored in the system, allowing the commission module to report comprehensively on sales commission information. Analytical and dashboard functions allow the user to slice and dice the information available in various ways. Additional reports can be easily created from the basic system.

In the modern business world, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) represents the digital equivalent of the 20^th-century Rolodex. CRM software is a front-office tool that is used by employees in the sales, customer service, and marketing departments to increase revenue by optimizing the customer experience. It is a powerful way to help manage all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and prospects. CRM systems are designed to log every interaction with both prospective and current customers across all communication channels. Sales performance management and sales incentive compensation can also be included in this software. Used correctly, the data set generated can create and drive complex workflows for an entire sales team and give management the ability to track employee progress in real-time.

The goal of a CRM system is to increase your business’ sales by helping reps better engage with their prospects. A cloud-based CRM gives the sales force accessible mobility while out in the field. CRM systems also provide a way to integrate the sales, service, and marketing departments. Data-driven sales strategies can inform appropriate marketing campaigns. Customer response to marketing can, in turn, provide further actionable data for the sales workflow. Creating a full digital view of every customer can help with lead tracking, customer follow-up, tracking customer behavior, and providing client support. A data-driven business culture facilitated by a CRM and marketing automation system can provide both better customer service and increased revenue. (SalesChain corporate website)

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems contain tools that integrate both front and back-office functions. The software contains modules for multiple different business processes, such as finance (including the general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, and financial reporting), HR, inventory management, order management, supply chain management, and distribution (including procurement, production, and fulfillment). By integrating these processes, the goal is to streamline operations and centralize information. Often these systems are customizable or configurable.

ERP and CRM systems are both enterprise business software tools that store and analyze data in a relational database. Customers can purchase these tools as either a traditional on-premises model or through software as a service (SaaS), where the vendor manages the software in its own data center and customers access it through the cloud. Both tools store essential business data from multiple departments in one central repository and both focus on revenue generation, automation, and increased efficiency and productivity through the reduction of error inherent in human data entry and manipulation.

In a word – YES! All companies, from small and midsize businesses to enterprises, should seriously consider implementing both an ERP and a CRM system — or a single platform for both. Companies running their financials on entry-level accounting tools like QuickBooks or even spreadsheets often turn to an ERP system when they find those systems are holding back their growth, are inefficient or they simply need something more robust. The same is true for businesses managing their customer relationships in individual sales reps’ email clients, spreadsheets, or contact management systems. Collating and centralizing sales data in a cloud-based and easily accessible format provides vital ease of use, efficiency, and accountability. Whether a company first invests in CRM or ERP will depend on its business model.