How To Evaluate The Best CRM Software For Your Small Business

2. Choose evaluation criteria. (Cont.)

• Customization

  Is it easy to customize and meet your business needs? Look for a CRM tool that allows you to easily customize sales stages and add custom fields, filters and tags so it makes sense for your business.

• Data Migration

  Can you easily import and export your data? If you’re already using a CRM system and you’re looking to change vendors, a big concern is data migration. Do you need specialized help to import and export data or can users easily complete this process themselves?

• Customer Support

  Will you receive strong customer support? When selecting CRM software, you’re not only selecting a product, you’re selecting a partner. How would you rate your interactions with each company you are evaluating? What are their customer service and support options like? Review forums and online reviews to better gauge this factor.

3. Provide scores for each criterion.

After short-listing your top CRM vendors, using the above list as a guide for relevant criteria, rate every vendor for each criterion and draw up a score card.

4. Tally scores for each CRM vendor.

Collect all scores for each vendor and each criterion in one excel spreadsheet table. Fill out the score cards and tally the numbers for each vendor. Consider the vendors with the highest scores.

5. Compare results and choose a CRM vendor.

After filling in your table and tallying results, choose the vendor with the highest score. Following these steps will put you on the right track to select the best CRM solution for your small business.

This article has been edited and condensed.

Gligor Chavdarov is Marketing Strategist at VIENNA Advantage, a German-based software company that provides innovative and future-oriented open source solutions such as: ERP (enterprise resource planning systems); CRM (customer relationship management systems); DMS (document management systems); application development framework; POS (point of sale) and more. Connect with @viennaadvantage on Twitter.