Assessing Your Investment in Free CRM Software

You’ve seen the ads. The CRM software is free, forever or on a trial basis. Installation takes seconds. Learning takes minutes. Enter some contacts, play around with reports, and voilà! Within hours, everyone is tracking leads, analyzing pipelines, and monitoring customer interaction.

And then the CRM fairy leaves the building. Reality sets in as limited functionality and inadequate understanding of the software prevent you from accomplishing more. You began this journey to assess the benefits of a CRM solution but without assistance or the ability to tailor the software to your needs, your opportunities for success are also limited. Faced with disappointing results and a greater time investment than expected, many organizations choose to abandon the effort and regroup.

Set Realistic Expectations
The consumerization of business software has yielded many benefits in terms of user interface, mobility, access and yes, price. But it has also created false expectations about the effort required to implement a fully functioning CRM solution. It’s not necessarily hard but realistically, it’s not the push of a button either.

It is commonly reported that between 30 and 60 percent of all CRM installations fail. This has nothing to do with the price you pay or which CRM solution you choose. It has everything to do with having a clear vision of what success looks like, and planning your implementation and rollout with forethought and intention. As with many things, you get what you put into CRM, both before and after you begin using it.

Get it Right from the Beginning
Any growth-oriented organization will benefit from CRM’s process automation, in-depth data warehouse, and flexible reports. Whether you pay for the software or use a consultant to guide you, we highly recommend following these proven steps to implement or optimize CRM.
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Read more about our comprehensive approach for insights into realizing the full benefits of CRM.

• Planning. Do you have clear goals and expectations for what you want from CRM? Do all stakeholders agree with this vision? Do you have a detailed, phased project plan to help you accomplish specific goals? What changes are needed to streamline and improve current processes and workflows? Don’t go any further until you can fully address these considerations!
• Implementation. Now is when you install and configure your chosen CRM software, and migrate data from spreadsheets and legacy systems. Consider deploying user acceptance testing as a strategy for delivering CRM’s value and planting the seeds of robust user adoption.
• Training. An educated user is an engaged user, so don’t skimp on training. Be sure to go beyond operational training too. Most people can figure out which key to press, but everyone needs help understanding WHY they’re doing what they’re doing and how it benefits them. Role-based training and advanced techniques are also helpful for improving user productivity.
• Reporting. Collaborate with your stakeholders and make sure CRM’s reports, dashboards and analyses give them the information they need to do their job and meet organizational goals. Purposeful output is essential to transforming raw data into business intelligence that improves decision making and yields better results.

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Free or otherwise, don’t waste precious time on any CRM system until you’re prepared to invest in the effort needed to ensure its ultimate success.
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If you are disappointed with the results from your Microsoft Dynamics CRM system and don’t want to start over, it may be possible to fix your current issues and successfully relaunch CRM. Contact us at [email protected] to discuss how we can help. We specialize in optimizing CRM and can get you back on the path to productivity, growth and better business results.