When you implement a new CRM solution for your organization, you are making a serious investment of time, money and people. You can achieve a vast number of improvements with the solution, but in order to prove this to management, you'll have to demonstrate a return for these efforts. To show a positive, tangible ROI for your CRM investment, you should be able to:
- Show a shorter sales cycle.
- Demonstrate an increase in closed business.
- Develop smarter marketing strategies that result in higher conversions.
- Improve customer satisfaction scores.
But how do you illustrate any of this without detailed, accurate data? And how do you show results if employees do not understand how to use the solution?
Think of your CRM investment like you would think of driving a car: if you don’t add fuel while learning the features of the car and properly maintaining it over time, what good is the car to you?
3 Steps to Increase the ROI of Your CRM Investment:
Step #1: Make User Adoption Mandatory
CRM User Adoption doesn’t have to be a challenge, but it does require strategy. One of the best ways to achieve successful CRM user adoption is by formalizing and defining each team and member’s roles within the project. Users want to see their input make an impact, so get the team involved early in the implementation or upgrade process.
A common misconception is that user adoption happens on its own, at the go-live point. The truth is that it actually requires significant effort and time invested upfront with help from your CRM partner. Users have to be informed of what processes will be delegated to the CRM solution, and the actual benefits the system brings to those processes.
Step #2: Leverage the Expert Resources Available
Between online search, CRM blog posts, virtual or live training, or CRM white papers and eBooks, you and your employees have thousands of expert resources available at your fingertips! Unfortunately, many organizations overlook this aspect citing limited time. We firmly believe you get out of your CRM solution what you put into your CRM solution.
The functionality in top CRM solutions like is robust, and you may easily be missing out on features that can impact your ROI. Resources such as classroom training and user manuals often uncover common uses for the system features that you aren’t applying.
Step #3: Strategize Your Solution
Finally, focus your efforts on utilizing more features that matter to your business, and less on the features that don’t. Increasing your utilization of CRM is important, but automating critical workflows and business processes can take it to the next level. Determine what types of experiences matter to customers in your industry, what processes matter to your business, and focus on adopting the features that affect those areas.
Let’s Recap:
Within your CRM solution, accurate data results in improved sales insights, useful marketing metrics, and a better customer experience. With consistent use and a little bit of time, your system will have a warehouse full of correlated bits of data that can be arranged to discover relationships, view activity histories, monitor sales stages, spot trends, create experiences, identify best practices and take your business to the next level.
For a high level estimate of your investment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, get a free
By Turnkey Technologies, Inc. – Microsoft Gold Certified Dynamics CRM and Dynamics ERP Partner of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Iowa and Texas.
