Another important tool is a report writer that permits you to design your own CRM reports. Most CRM solutions provide a report writer, but it may not be that easy to use unless you’re a techno wizard. If your front office staff has to contact your IT department every time they need a new report, you haven’t found software that improves your operations. Try creating a custom report or two when you evaluate the software to check out its ease of use.

Good CRM analytics will let you slice and dice your CRM data to answer important questions:

• Which customers are highly profitable? Which customers are most loyal?
• Which sales representative has the best lead conversion rate?
• Is it better to get any new customer, no matter how small, and upsell later, or are small customers largely unprofitable?
• Look for good analytic tools that will answer these and other questions that will give you insight into how to improve the performance of the business.