Comments on: For Start-up Businesses, CRM Software is Not the Answer

By: Intelestream

Intelestream — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:53:00 +0000

It is important for small businesses to use management software if they want to grow and compete with their larger competitors. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an important business concept that puts the customer at the center of all interactions and its payoff is high, allowing your business to be more productive in many ways. Applications can be accessed online, with a web browser and an internet connection. Intelestream has developed intelecrm (www.intelestream.net/intelecrm), an online CRM solution that specifically targets small and medium sized businesses. The pricing model is unique in that subscriptions are based on a flat fee for unlimited users. This means everyone in a small business can be actively involved with the CRM, creating a powerful tool across the whole company. A free trial can be acceded here http://www.intelestream.net/lp/lp-intelecrm-free-trial2.html.

By: Intelestream

Intelestream — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:53:00 +0000

By: abassseo

abassseo — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:01:28 +0000

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By: abassseo

abassseo — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:01:28 +0000

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:01:00 +0000

By: John Bailo

John Bailo — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:56:38 +0000

I would also say that in the early phase of customer acquisition you resist the impulse to put everything in a table, or database. At the point you start deciding on field names, you’ve limited the types of data that you want to track…that is something you might do in a mature stage.

Alternatively you could follow a methodology of customer “stories” more akin to social networks. In other words, write essays about your customers, use text descriptions and histories that don’t pigeonhole people.

By: Michel Chiasson

Michel Chiasson — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:47:10 +0000

Good article Pamela. While I agree that for the most part a crm is not ideal for startups, I differ in the reasons why I agree with you. While you state that early on, more time should be spent understanding the makeup of the decision making process of the customer and its profiling, I think that the reason why a crm is not well suited for a small business is that it takes time. Time out of the sales process, time out of the “making sure that this one new client is happy” process…time out of the business..which, when you start, is so critical.
Honestly, if one launches a business and doesn’t know the profile of their customers and what motivates them, they might never need a CRM as they will be gone before the very problem hits them. I went to your site and read about Batchblue. I would probably push it on customers earlier than you would, but on a module by module basis, so that they can leverage some of it benefits, while not choking the small new org that has to focus on dollar activities. My 2 cents

By: Brian Vellmure

Brian Vellmure — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:29:51 +0000

Pamela,

Good article – a ton of helpful tips and nuggets in here. I agree and would argue that the software is NEVER the answer for ANY SIZE company.

However, as you point out, it can and should become an invaluable tool for enabling the growth of SMBs.

New companies have a great advantage of building a system the right way from the start (instead of trying to fix things down the road).

Creating a culture and associated business processes around capturing and leveraging the right information to help build meaningful long term relationships – to find, acquire, and keep the right customers so that you can wow them to the point that they tell their friends and colleagues is the key!

While critical at the start, the system becomes even more important as your business grows and scales. Enabling “1 to 1″ conversations when you’ve got multiple offices, departments, and touch points relies on a system that helps to capture and make accessible the right information at the right time.