CRM, should be a part of ever customer's business applications to maintain strong communication between your organization to your customers and prospects. When there is a national crisis or economic downturn, a natural reaction is for companies not to consider investing in technology such as a new business initiative to implement CRM Systems.
However, it is proven that businesses who make investments during economic downturns regain pre-recession growth rates. Harvard Business Review did a study on this called “Roaring Out of Recession” A few of the study’s findings:
- Firms that cut costs faster and deeper than rivals don’t necessarily flourish. They have the lowest probability—21%—of pulling ahead of the competition when times get better.
- Companies that reduce costs selectively and invest relatively comprehensively in the future by spending on marketing and other key areas have the highest probability – 37% of regaining pre-recession sales and profitability levels.
- Companies that invest in, for example, marketing during a recession may produce only modest benefits during the recession but adds substantially to sales and profits afterward.
Why CRM Now? Capitalize on Every Opportunity:
Simply put, if your Sales & Marketing teams do not have a centralized tool to maximize every lead/prospect, sales opportunity and customer relationship – you should be very concerned. From a marketing perspective, increasing your interactions is important as is changing your messaging to reflect what is top-of-mind is key. Possibly most important – analyzing what marketing investments are working (double-down on these) and what is not (pull-back any spend).
Sales Leaders need a tool to manage teams and assure every opportunity to either generate revenue (leads/opportunities) or protect revenue (manage existing customers). Any loss of sale and therefore revenue really have a profound impact on companies during slow times.
Why CRM Now? Change Management & User Adoption:
Available time – Your teams may have time available they normally do not and may not again post recovery. Using the increased bandwidth to properly plan and implement a CRM solution would be wise. Additionally, mind-set can work in your favor as nobody would argue that improving operations is not necessary in these tough times.
In an “employees job market” it is harder to drive behavior change around an initiative like CRM (particularly with sales professionals). When sales is making their numbers there is a “don’t need this” attitude toward CRM. Tackling a CRM initiative in tough economic times will allow you to take advantage of mindset.
Why Now? Many of your Competitors are not Investing in their Businesses
Referencing the Harvard Business Review study, a significant amount of businesses go into a purely defensive posture cutting staff, reducing expenses and generally not investing during a downturn. Businesses that take advantage of available time and invest in a CRM solution will undoubtedly outpace their competitors, even before the economic recovery.
At iCepts Technology Group, we offer 2 CRM Systems:
- (formerly CRM)
To determine the best fit,
