CRM: It Doesn't Have to Be That Complicated
CRMs are a mystery to most people. They hear something from a friend about SalesForce or HubSpot – they see advertisements for Mailchimp or Constant Contact on TV -and then they are bombarded with Facebook Ads trying to get them to sign up for a new CRM.
Many small businesses understand the need for more sales and marketing help and have signed up for one of these CRM platforms. But then reality sets in:The advertisement said this CRM system could do anything. They said the system was simple to learn, and they even provided an easy way to get help and support.
“That’s all great - especially because I can call technical support for help. But where do I start? What would I even say to the person on the support desk?”
What happens next is the sad part of this story. The business owner logs in and pokes around here and there, trying to imagine how this great tool can help THEM. However, they have so many questions that they don’t even know where or how to start. Even when the software tells them: “START HERE!”, that still doesn’t help because every business is different.
So the brave business owner tries to get in there a few times over the next few months but unfortunately can not find the benefits for his business. So he gives up . The next time he hears “CRM,” he thinks to himself:
"I have tried CRM's - and they don't work for me."
Our poor small business owner was so close to the gold, but could not see it.
Here’s how to take the mystery out of CRMs...
Forget everything you think you know about CRM’s.
Open up the file folder in your brain labeled “CRM.” Now, toss that folder in the trash. Forget about your past experiences with CRMs and forget everything you have heard from friends, colleagues, and advertisements.
Great! Now, we have a clean slate to work with. Now, we can start thinking about a CRM in simpler and more valuable terms.
Imagine a CRM having only one purpose...
Getting YOU organized.
If you are like most small business owners, you are probably great at what you do (i.e., Real Estate, Chiropractic, Auto Repair, etc.). But you might not be so great when it comes to using technology to get and stay organized.
Most entrepreneurs have information about their past, current, and prospective clients in filing cabinets, spreadsheets, emails, and sticky notes. Oh, and that’s just half of their clients – the other half? Well, they keep those in their memory!
Not having a single place to put all your client info is a disaster waiting to happen. Or that disaster may have already happened. Have you ever forgotten about a past client and later learned they took their business to your competitor? OUCH!
Now, let’s see how a CRM can help here. Think about a CRM as just a fancy Rolodex. Imagine having a single place to find all of your contact’s names, addresses, phone numbers, and your notes about them. That would be valuable to you in so many ways.
Here is how you get there:
Get yourself a CRM – any CRM will do, as long as it is easy for YOU to understand.
Then, take all of your contact info from all the nooks and crannies where you store that information and enter it into your new CRM. You can transfer the data electronically if the data is in a spreadsheet, in your old CRM, or in some other electronic format. If not, then getting it into your new CRM will be a manual process.
The next time you have client data in front of you – put it in your CRM! You will never again have your contacts haphazardly spread all over your office.
Your CRM is the one place you put all of your client information. Period.
Now isn’t that easy to understand? We have just taken all the mystery and confusion out of CRM’s.
You: “But Jeff! Can’t a CRM do much more than just act as a glorified Rolodex?”
Me: “Yes! But that is for another blog post.”