9 Questions You Must Ask Before Buying CRM Software

You’ve been lobbying to your VPs and directors for over a year, you’ve finally convinced your boss to back you up in your ‘quest for CRM software’, and now you’ve been given the go-ahead. Bravo.

I recommend you take a nice long look at a list of CRM software, filter them by a quality metric, and then work your way through these specialist questions that we have prepared for CRM buyers.

Now you must dive head first into the feature-laden, toolbox-full, ‘fully-integrated’ world of CRM selection. This will be fun, especially since there are so many different types of CRM available at so many different price points.

I recommend you take a nice long look at a list of CRM software, filter them by a quality metric (like Crozscore on Crozdesk), and then work your way through these specialist questions that we have prepared for CRM buyers.

As ‘Crozdesk’ we are vendor agnostic, which means we do not favor any one CRM product over another. These questions are solely designed to help you make the right decision in your selection of CRM.

Q1. Does the software serve your type of company?

Put another way, if you are a small business, does the CRM support small businesses, or is it better for large enterprises?

Q2. How does it rate for ease-of-use?

Will it be a challenge to train employees to use this? Is the interface going to serve the more technologically-challenged (but probably gifted in sales) team members?

Q3. Is the implementation bespoke?

If your company and your team have unique needs the one-size-fits-all approach may not work that well for you. Does CRM implementation include desired customizations?

Q4. Does it have all the features you require?

Most CRM tools have lead generation, prospect nurturing, sales quotations and invoices, and order tracking abilities. Does it have sales forecasting? What about competitor tracking? Will it help you nurture your sales prospects?

Q5. Will it work with the other software you already use?

Does it come with an API? Will it integrate with other software solutions and tools that you use?

Q6. Given the number of users you intend to have, what is the total cost of the software?

Some teams may have a high-turnover so you should consider the maximum team size to calculate the total cost. Find out if there are any additional fees. Do they charge for installation, or are there any other hidden costs? Reach out to them if you don’t find enough information, and do consider the cost to add additional users, if any.

Q7. Does the CRM come with 24-hour support?

On that note, is it easy to reach out to them? Most CRM software solutions do not have 24 hour support, so consider whether you really need this feature.

Q8. How does the CRM fare with security protocols and measures?

Will it protect your business data? Even more importantly, will it protect your customers’ data? What if there’s a disruption – will your data be safe and accessible?

Q9. What are the CRM’s limitations?

What are the things that the shortlisted CRM cannot do? This is probably the most important question to ask because it can be a major pain if you realize that you need a feature that isn’t being provided. For example, if you needed email marketing capabilities, you would then need to get another tool (like, say, MailChimp) and integrate it with your CRM, which can be expensive and time-consuming, and easily avoided with due diligence.

On that note, it might also be worth asking yourself if a CRM software solution is needed in the first place. We have witnessed some people use BuzzStream effectively as a ‘customer relationship management tool’, and there are some social media software solutions that can also be used as your CRM. It depends on your business model, your customer relationship management goals, and the strategy you’re implementing. The tools and features you require should be derived from that and not by the sales messages of CRM solutions because you do not want to pay for features you will not use.

I hope you found this exercise useful in your ‘quest’. Please leave a comment below if you need any additional help with selection of your CRM software and we will try our best to help you.