Factors to consider when selecting a CRM system

Helping customers select the right CRM software vendor.

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With eight years of experience implementing CRM systems and leading MO Agency to become the top HubSpot CRM partner in Africa and the Middle East, I've gained valuable insights into helping our customers select the right CRM software vendor, says Luke Marthinusen, CEO and founder of MO Agency.

Let's get my bias out of the way. I'm a big fan of HubSpot CRM. However, HubSpot is not suited to every single business. At least once a month, I'll tell a potential customer: “Rather go with this other solution – it's better suited to you.” So I hope you find the factors I share below useful and universal.

CRM is a crucial decision for any business looking to streamline its customer management and communications. Better customer management is key to business growth.

Below are 10 key factors that have helped our customers shape their selection process and ensured our success when implementing CRMs for our clients.

Because of my preference for HubSpot, I will not recommend any CRM system above another, except for a brief example in the section below to highlight that in the CRM world, one size does not fit all.

As I mentioned, all CRM systems have their strengths and weaknesses.

The most important factor when selecting CRM software is how well it aligns with your business needs. Every company has unique processes, sales cycles and customer interaction models.

HubSpot's strengths are ease of use and tight sales and marketing integration. Its weakness is its underdeveloped pricing and quoting system for large product sets and a complete lack of financial and stock systems.

Zoho CRM's strength is its low cost. Its weakness is its poor product support and complex scalability.

Salesforce CRM's strength is its ability to work for any business, big and small. Its weakness is the flip side of this – ultimate flexibility takes time, money and skill to configure well. Mistakes are easy.

Remember, alignment is not just about managing customer relationships, but enhancing them through strategic integration with your business processes.

As a company that has grown significantly since our inception in 2011, scalability in a CRM is non-negotiable for us. We really hit our stride and growth when we got serious about our own CRM strategy.

Your choice of CRM should not only fit your current business shape and size, but also grow with you. It should be able to handle increasing data, additional users and more complex business scenarios without compromising on performance.

If you are looking to scale your business, digital demand generation is probably high on your agenda. If this is you – and you’re spending in this arena or plan to – look for a CRM system that has tight integration with your website analytics, forms, paid ads and social media. Tying back these efforts to sales will let you know where to focus your marketing efforts.

It's very empowering to look at your CRM deal analytics and quickly note that your best leads with the highest close rates came from a certain campaign on Google Ads. You can confidently move budget to that campaign to generate more high-quality leads for your sales team.

More revenue, happier sales staff, higher sales staff retention. These are the knock-on effects of good CRM strategies in a business.

In today's digital age, where most businesses run multiple systems, a CRM needs to seamlessly integrate with other tools and platforms.

This includes everything from marketing tools and e-mail platforms to accounting and ERP software, and even customer service applications. The ease of integration impacts not only the efficiency of operations, but also the accuracy of data across platforms.

For example, we have a large fintech customer that had separate systems managing the sales and service functions. An unhappy customer would call customer support, and to get context on the customer, the service agent would stand up and walk over to the relevant salesperson. With 30+ customer service agents, can you imagine the daily time wasted?

Once we integrated the systems – the service agent could easily see the entire sales journey, what was sold and why it was sold right from their own desk. Happy customer and an empowered, happy service team.

The best CRM system in the world will only grow your business well if it's used. Adoption by your team is critical, and this is greatly influenced by the user experience. A CRM should have an intuitive interface that makes it easy for all users – from sales personnel to marketing staff – to navigate and utilise efficiently.

During my years of experience, I've emphasised the importance of a CRM that team members can use intuitively and effectively with minimal training. If you are assisting with CRM vendor selection at your business, you need to feel at home with the way it looks and feels. It must be intuitive to you – so you can promote it internally.

One of the best things about modern CRM systems is the automation of simple tasks. The CRM systems of old were terribly manual and accounted for so many failed CRM implementations. Users spent more time updating the CRM than actually interacting with customers.

Today, a good CRM system will automatically log e-mails and meetings from Outlook and Gmail – allowing your sales and customer service to focus on the customer and not populating the CRM. Follow-up tasks can be automated, and leads from a website can be routed directly to the correct person instantly for timely follow-up.

These factors put you a step ahead of your competitors in follow-up and task completion, making sure nothing falls off the radar.

Cost is always a consideration, especially for businesses keeping a tight rein on budgets. However, cost-effectiveness does not mean cheap. It's about the return on investment.

A CRM might carry a higher upfront cost, but if it delivers superior features, usability, scalability and integration that drive significant business growth, then it is worth the investment.

At MO Agency, we assess the potential ROI from a CRM system or even the relevant modules (sales, service, marketing) for our customers as part of our decision-making process.

Even the most intuitive CRM systems require good customer support. Whether it's troubleshooting, training staff or upgrading the system, having responsive and knowledgeable support resources can make a significant difference.

I know my own HubSpot CRM system very well, but I utilise the chat support feature inside of HubSpot at least once a month to fix the little niggles that inevitably arise with any sophisticated technology deployment.

Additionally, review the approved local partners for the software vendors. Can anyone be a vendor? Are there rigorous accreditation milestones the vendors demand from their local partners?

In most cases, partners are a great resource to utilise when setting up the software. And it's always great to have them on hand should you decide to expand your CRM scope in the future. Like any supplier – make sure you gel with them and their values.

In an era where data breaches are frequent, security is critical. Almost all good CRM vendors comply with international data protection regulations and provide robust security features to protect sensitive information. This includes data encryption, two-factor authentication and other secure access controls.

Some vendors make POPIA and GDPR a little easier to adhere to regional data privacy laws. Certain CRM systems are certified to store sensitive financial and medical data from customers, which require internationally recognised standards to be adhered to. For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets the standard for sensitive patient data protection. Not all CRM systems are compliant.

To truly leverage a CRM, you need good dashboard and analytical capabilities to gain insights into customer behaviour, sales trends and marketing effectiveness.

A CRM equipped with advanced analytics and customisable reporting tools enables businesses to make informed decisions that drive growth and improve customer engagement.

Some CRM systems require (and you may even prefer this) adding analytics platforms like Power BI to extract dashboards, reporting and data. My preference is built-in, easy-to-use dashboards and analytics with an additional option to connect the Power BIs and Tableaus of this world. Yours may be different.

Choosing the right CRM system is a strategic decision that can significantly influence the success of your business. The above factors have guided our decisions at MO Agency, helping us meet and exceed our customers' business objectives. As businesses evolve, so should their tools, and remember, all CRM systems have a place and happy customers. It's up to you to seek out experienced professionals and vendors to help you make an informed decision.

Considering these factors when choosing a CRM vendor will help ensure that your investment not only meets your current needs, but also supports your future growth and success.