In today's fast-paced business environment, customer relationship management (CRM) software has become an indispensable tool for companies of all sizes. A good CRM system allows businesses to streamline their sales, marketing, and customer service operations, improving efficiency and enhancing customer satisfaction. When Salelytics divested in 2019, we had to make a decision about how we were going to approach our CRM needs moving forward. In this article, we’ll cover our CRM journey and some of the benefits that led us to choose a customizable CRM.  

Our CRM Journey 

For context, we divested from West Corporation in 2019. Before then, we were just an offshoot of the company under West Revenue Generation Services (catchy name, right?). While under West Corp., our Sales Team was grouped into the same Salesforce instance as the majority of the organization (In Salesforce, an instance is the specific server cluster that your version of Salesforce is hosted on). This made it challenging to customize pieces of the CRM to be specific to our Revenue Generation group. It also could be confusing knowing which record to utilize for your business unit, as within the same instance multiple business units were serving multiple organizations. 

Upon divestiture, we had to evaluate how we were going to obtain our data from the SFDC (Salesforce) instance under West, as well as identify a CRM that would suit the needs of our Sales Team. Once Salesforce was determined to be our platform moving forward, we worked with the West Salesforce Admins and members of our IT group to develop a plan to capture key data points to import to the new instance. 

It was crucial for me to meet with the sales team throughout the process to learn and understand what they found worked well in the West SFDC and what they were hoping to have in the new instance. 

Once we built out the framework, we focused on continuous improvement to add fields or other areas of information to ensure the Sales Team not only had a smooth transition but also a high adoption level. The key to maintaining adoption is keeping a pulse on the team. Having an open line of communication helps the team provide ideas and suggestions, letting us make adjustments to see what works more efficiently. 

Our team employs the platform daily, and with the integrations utilized through bi-directional logging, they can focus on key initiatives and existing/prospective clients instead of extra administrative logging.  

Essentially, by building a CRM that focuses on our needs we are able to maximize our strengths and minimize the amount of time used on nonessential tasks.  

Why use a customizable CRM? 

Using a customizable CRM offers your business a variety of benefits. 

1. Adaptability to Your Business Processes

One of the standout advantages of a customizable CRM is its ability to adapt to your organization's unique business processes. Every company has its own way of doing things, and a one-size-fits-all CRM solution may not accommodate these specific workflows. With a customizable CRM, you can mold the software to match your existing processes seamlessly. Whether it's configuring lead management stages, customizing data fields, or designing custom reports, a CRM that can be tailored to your needs ensures a smoother integration and helps your team work more efficiently. 

2. Enhanced User Adoption: 

User adoption is crucial for the success of any CRM implementation. If your team finds it challenging or counterintuitive to use the CRM software, it defeats the point of the system. By opting for a customizable CRM, you can design a user interface that aligns with your team's preferences and work habits. Tailoring the CRM to match their workflows and incorporating familiar terminology and navigation will make it easier for your employees to embrace the system. This, in turn, enhances user adoption rates and ultimately leads to higher productivity and better data quality. 

3. Improved Customer Insights: 

A customizable CRM allows you to capture and analyze data that is relevant to your specific business needs. By customizing data fields and layouts, you can gather essential information about your customers, prospects, and leads. This customization empowers you to track and analyze data points that are unique to your industry, enabling you to gain deeper insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends. With these valuable insights, you can make more informed business decisions, develop targeted marketing campaigns, and provide personalized experiences that delight your customers. 

4. Scalability and Flexibility: 

As your business evolves, your CRM system needs to keep pace with your changing requirements. A customizable CRM offers the flexibility to scale and adapt as your organization grows. You can easily add or modify functionalities, create new modules, or integrate with other business applications, ensuring that your CRM remains aligned with your evolving needs. With a customizable CRM, you have the freedom to optimize your processes, automate repetitive tasks, and continuously refine your customer management strategies, enabling your business to stay agile and competitive.