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When I speak to small businesses about a Customer Relationship Management (CRM), especially fast-growing businesses, I always tell them that they need a CRM because:
You need a system to retain all of your IP and customer data
A Spreadsheet is a very inefficient way to run a business
Ultimately, increased productivity and more time to spend focussed on your customers means a far greater likelihood of success. We’ve all heard those statistics about how many small businesses fail in the first 18 months. CRM gives your business the best chance of survival.
But all of that said, I am always excited to hear from real entrepreneurs about the difference a CRM has made to their business. So I grabbed at the chance to host the SME Panel at the Salesforce World Tour earlier this month in Melbourne.
I hosted a discussion about CRM benefits between four esteemed and successful start-ups all now reaping the benefits of putting a CRM into their business at an early stage. Speaking to a packed Breakout Session in the Melbourne Exhibition and Conference Centre were: Grant Ellison of Comms Choice; Jeff Downs of Redback Conferencing; Miranda David of Unleashed; and Matt Bullock of E-Way.
If you can think it, you can do it in Salesforce Matt Bullock, eWay
All of them had so much value and experience to share, the seemingly short 45 minute session didn't seem enough time. But for me the really interesting highlights were:
Grant Ellison spoke about the 360 degree view of his clients he got as a result of having all his data in one place. In particular he felt this gave him the edge over his larger competitors who just didn’t know their customers as well.
Jeff Downs talked about the productivity advantage he had received from using the Salesforce1 Sales Cloud. For him this meant total Return on Investment (ROI), “I’m getting Salesforce for free,” he said, “it pays for itself!”
Miranda David talked about the Single Source of Truth she saw in using the cloud-based system, and was impressed at the speed her team were able to move on new prospects, “we can contact a new lead within 15 minutes of it dropping” she told the standing-room-only session.
Finally, Matt Bullock talked about how much he loved the fact that he could get all the information he really needed to run his business on his mobile at the start of the day. This gave him the ability to prioritise and focus on what was important.
While these were the benefits, the panel also shared some important lessons. Finding a platform that can scale with the business is critical. While all businesses start off small, you have to think big and it’s vital that you choose a CRM that can grow as you grow. Both Miranda and Jeff said that the flexibility of Salesforce to adapt as they grew their business from a handful of employees to become inter-state, and even international, entities meant a lot.
If it isn’t in Salesforce, it didn’t happen. Grant Ellison, Comms Choice
Above all, they all agreed that enlisting the help of a partner to help deploy and manage your CRM was crucial to success, and those that had not done this regretted the time they wasted trying to do it themselves when they should have been focussing on what was core to the their business.
To discover and learn more about how a CRM can benefit your Small Medium Business, visit our Small Business Centre. You can also download a free e-Book on how to Grow Your Small Business With Salesforce.
