Essential CRM Features for Small Businesses

The contact database is the key component of any CRM system, no matter how rudimentary. It should allow you to enter and maintain information about customers and prospects, such as name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address.

If you sell to larger customers that typically have several contacts, look for the ability to manage a group of related contacts at one customer. This will allow you to quickly change information for all related contacts when the customer’s address or other details change.

Reporting and analytic capabilities show wide variation among CRM applications. At a minimum, look for the ability to generate standardized reports that list customer and prospect contact information and sales lead opportunities organized by customer representative.

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 technowizard. 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. I recommend you attempt to create 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 up-sell 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.