Member Article

CRM: The 6 things you actually need

Get the inside view on what companies really want from their CRM solutions.

Ask a consultant what CRM can do for you, and they could list the benefits from dusk until dawn…

… and according to a Gartner survey, you would listen because the CRM market is continuing to grow in West Europe:

9%

… is how much the CRM market is predicted to grow during 2014.

With…

50%

of the companies surveyed planning to increase spending on CRM initiatives in 2014.

But what do companies actually want from their CRM operations?

1. Up There, Not Down Here

CRM in the cloud? Or onsite?

50%

… of companies don’t have a preference for their CRM deployment.

But…

… of the companies that have decided on a deployment option…

96%

… want a cloud-based solution, not an on-site system.

But why head to the cloud?

Top 6 Reasons

• Reduced hardware and licensing costs.
• Reliable disaster recovery procedures.
• Efficient and cost-effective hardware scalability.
• Instant 24/7 access anywhere on the globe.
• Increased productivity.
• Software never goes out of date.

2. Best of the Best?

The vast majority of companies shun evaluating integrated suites or multiple applications.

Instead…

91%

… of companies want to evaluate best-of-breed solutions.

Whether it be marketing or sales force automation, they want what they perceive to be the optimum CRM solution.

3. Why CRM?

The top three reasons for making the investment for the first time are:

3. Starting a new company (12%).

2. A need for specific features (23%).

1. Needing to improve efficiency (60%).

But which services do companies want to improve or add via CRM?

4. The Final Countdown

The top six most important services to best-of-breed buyers are:

6. Customer service (3%).

5. Help desk (4%).

4. Call centre (4%).

3. Marketing automation (6%).

2. Field automation (8%).

And the service in pole position – by a huge margin?

1. Sales automation (76%)

5. The three key benefits of CRM sales automation?

It helps track, nurture and manage opportunities and leads…

… manages sales teams and their time…

… plus increases revenue by decreasing the time sales teams need to spend on support tasks.

6. New & Old

The top three requested software features?

Contact management – 35%.

Note-taking capabilities – 28%.

Reporting/Analytics – 26%.

While traditional in nature, scope is critical here with companies wanting to use reporting and analytics to also…

… analyse social and predictive data.

7. Clarity please

A primary concern for companies this year is CRM strategy:

“Participants overwhelmingly cited the lack of a clearly defined CRM strategy as their number one concern.”

Survey Analysis: European Organizations Struggle to Create a Clearly Defined CRM Strategy in 2014.

The solution?

A CRM consultancy can help companies create an effective, far-reaching strategy for their CRM deployment.

Learn more about how a CRM system can boost your own business’ bottom line and efficiency with The ultimate guide to: upselling and cross selling. Copy and paste this link into your browser: http://bit.ly/redspire-eguide

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Billy Lyle .