Small business owners each have different management styles, so choosing a CRM (customer relationship management) vendor, supplier or distributor with a product or service that best accommodates your own management theories and approaches is no easy task. How could it be when there are more than 800 companies all clambering for your attention, let alone your business?
The fact is that it’s far too easy to make mistakes, and costly ones at that, especially when you don’t even know what you’re looking for from the outset. And this problem seems to be particularly pronounced where the CRM selection process is concerned because the failure rate is off the charts and could be as high as 80 percent, according to some estimates.

What’s a Confused Small Business Opportunity or Other Small Business Owner To Do?

We recommend you start by accessing this FREE white paper by recognized leading independent CRM experts CRM Outsiders titled, “The 10-Step Guide to Buying the Right CRM Solution.” It’s chock full of ideas to help you make the inevitably challenging project of finding the right CRM provider to save you money, enhance your customer focus and make managing client relationships much simpler.

Starting from the basic premise that buying a CRM solution is not your typical technology purchase, this guide enables small business opportunity seekers and owners to think carefully through the buying process. It moves you through a series of ten concrete steps broken down into two critical stages: Knowing Yourself and Knowing Your Unique Requirements.

Avoid These Common Mistakes

Moreover, it identifies and describes the three most common mistakes to avoid when making a CRM purchasing decision, and that alone makes it a worthwhile read.

Chief among them? It’s a big mistake if you don’t start with a candid analysis of what is driving your need for change where servicing your customers more effectively and efficiently is concerned.

Secondly, it’s also a huge mistake to get so enamored with a particular CRM feature that you lose sight of what’s really going to work best for you and your company. In other words, putting form over function is a bad idea.

And lastly, failing to clearly define your CRM goals from the outset—or even changing them midstream — could be akin to shooting yourself in the foot, all of which is why reading this FREE white paper, with so much to offer in just eight pages, is so helpful BEFORE you make a bad decision.

Get started on finding just the right CRM solution for you as a small business owner!