You know its a smart move to offer your own CRM to your small business customers. But where do you start? What are your options?
Here are four ways you can do this:
Option #1: Build Your Own CRM
Building your own CRM is a big decision. It’s a great solution for some and not so great for others.
If you have programmers on staff with the time and talent then this might be a good idea for you. When you build your own CRM and marketing tools, you have complete control of the CRM feature set and the user experience. You can make the product fit your needs perfectly. While this is a great option for some, it’s not a great option for most.
Consider this:
Building your own CRM will take your developers off of your own product and turn their focus on something that may not be your core business. Additionally, they are not just going to build it, they are going to maintain it and keep it fresh and up to date forever.
Also, can you afford to wait several months before your CRM is ready to go? It will take around eight to eighteen months to build a CRM from start to finish.
There might be better options for you…keep reading.
Option #2: Hire Someone to Build It for You
This is a bad idea, no matter how you slice it. There is no scenario, where outsourcing the build of a CRM is a good idea. You will throw endless amounts of cash at it, it will take years to complete, and it will absolutely suck once it’s done – if it ever gets done.
You may think you can hire cheap developers to build this, and if you talk to these developers, they will tell you they can easily do it. But if you go down this road, you will be kicking yourself for years to come.
The folks who have gone this route will tell you this:
- The cost was way higher than originally quoted.
- It took the programmer(s) three times as long as they said it would take.
- The product still doesn’t work after X number of months (or years).
- I have wasted so much time and energy on this.
- This was a really dumb idea.
Option #3: White Label a CRM
White Labeling a CRM is a smart idea if you want most of the benefits of building it yourself, without all the headaches.
When you white Label a CRM, you take a proven and reliable product and put your logo and branding on it. Then you load it up with your email templates, campaigns and landing pages. Then you price it however you want to and sell it as your own.
Here are some of the benefits to going the White Label route:
- You can get to market fast. Like in a matter of days.
- You can start promoting your brand instead of your customers seeing the brands of Infusionsoft, HubSpot, and Salesforce everyday.
- You can now offer your customers the total solution. When you can provide the complete solution for your customers, your offering becomes more “sticky” – meaning your customers will stay with you longer.
- You create a new, recurring revenue stream for your company. Your customers are already paying someone else for these tools, why not have them pay you?
Option #4: Resell an Established CRM
This is a cheap and easy way to go. There is little or no upfront investment and no learning curve for you.
Do you really need to hide the company’s name that built the product? Would it be OK if you have a co-branded product and let someone else do the billing and support?
Don’t get stuck into thinking that building your own CRM is your only option. There are other paths that will get you to your desired destination.