My 78 year old mother-in-law just bought a laptop and a connection to the World Wide Web. When I asked her why she decided to do such a thing, she said “because all my friends are doing it”. Well after the usual lecture about her friends jumping off a bridge and her joining them, my husband and I promptly took on the task of teaching her how to use it.

What a challenge and what a joy! It’s like she is seeing for the first time. Question one: Have you turned it on yet? “No, I can’t figure out how to open the lid!” Wow, this will take some patience. Her first email contained the entire conversation in all caps in the subject line. After a not so quick tutorial, the second one was all lower case, but at least contained in the body of the email this time. However she misspelled a word and didn’t know how to change it so she ended the email with “(spelled a word wrong)”. This is fantastic! At this point her new computer is a very expensive recipe book, but we’re hopeful!

Now the challenge becomes convincing her that she doesn’t “need” all the cool gadgets and applications she sees on TV. “But the ad says it will make it easier and faster.” But you don’t need all those things; you just need to learn how to properly use what you have!

The same is often true of the CRM shopper. They want the one that everyone else is using or the one who spends the most money on advertising. It must be the best – right?

The truth is, most mainstream CRM solutions have similar standard features so the key is to determine what sets it apart from the rest.

Here are some guidelines for choosing a CRM:

• How long have they been in business? New solutions come and go. If the company you are considering is brand new, you have to consider what will happen to YOUR data if they go under. And do you really want to be the guinea pig while they work out all the bugs? Make sure that the CRM provider you are considering has a long history of successes. A list of long time and happy customers is usually proof that the vendor has a good support plan and is doing their part to stay up with current technology.
• Do they have a business partner in your area? A cookie cutter solution will seldom give you the results you are hoping for. All businesses are not created equal so all CRM solutions need some level of personalization to your business. You shouldn’t have to change your business process to fit the CRM, but it should be easy to tweak your CRM package to fit your business. A business partner with developers and trainers can customize a solution to your business and train you to use it and/or customize it yourself.
• Can you deploy the CRM in multiple ways? You may start your business with two people, but a couple of years down the road you could have one hundred people. The ultimate goal is to grow the business right? The CRM that used to cost you $130/month for 2 users is now costing you $6500/month for 100 users. Always look for a solution that encourages you to grow your business!
• Is it “free”? I am sure that free software has a place for the very small business or single user environment, but if you commit to a “free” service you had better have patience. Free CRM is only free if your time is NOT that valuable and will try the patience of the saintliest of people. Not to mention the fact that while it’s free to you, someone is paying for it and all those advertising pop ups will tell you who that someone is.
• How many clicks does it take to get to the center of a CRM? A good CRM should be EASY. Even the novice user should be able to complete ordinary tasks with minimal time or training. It doesn’t matter how many cool features it has if you can’t figure out how to use them.

Hopefully this list is helpful in your quest for the perfect CRM. As for me, I will again dawn my trainer hat and patiently teach my mother-in-law how to open Word and we may even take on the shift and backspace keys.