7 Signs You Need a CRM Now

Workforce, education, and economic development organizations often face challenges with coordinating efforts among staff and partners in a region. If each organization tries to engage business and industry on their own, whether as a customer, a partner, or a funder, they often end up creating frustration and confusion among the very businesses they are trying to serve. When many stakeholders in a region call on the same businesses or industries, the duplication of effort wastes time for all involved. As the number of stakeholders grows, failing to coordinate efforts across multiple funding streams and entities contributes to inefficiency and actually decreases the amount of business engagement, rather than supporting its growth. In this environment, organizations need insights into the business engagement activities of other partners in order to create a seamless environment to interact with business and industry.

Many organizations track business customers and industry partners using excel spreadsheets and email; while this may be "low cost," these processes aren't scalable when coordinating business engagement efforts across organizations. CRM (customer relationship management) applications are a way to improve efficiencies and ensure that processes within your organization and among partner organizations are automated. For example, let's say a workforce organization completes a job order for a prospective business customer and because a consultative sales approach was used during the meeting, there is a discovery that the business also has a need to develop a marketing plan. The workforce organization should be able to seamlessly provide a warm referral to a partner organization that has marketing plan development in its portfolio of services (e.g., small business development center). Rather than sending an email or picking up the phone, this transfer should be automated through a CRM at the click of a button. Additionally, the workforce practitioner should be able to track when the marketing plan was completed for the business prospect, and maintain control of the contact.

Here are seven signs that you are ready for a CRM now:

1. Everyone's business contacts are noted on excel spread sheets, in WORD documents and/or on post-it notes.
2. The organization has to convene regular face-to-face meetings to understand who is working with what business and what service the business has used.
3. Processes have not been clearly mapped out for business engagement activities such as job orders, on-the-job training, internships etc.
4. There is not a single database in which to promote services to business and industry.
5. Contacts are part of an individual's records versus organizational knowledge.
6. Prospective business customers or partners tell you that they've already been      contacted at your program or service by another organization or individual.
7. There is tension or a sense of competition among regional partners around who is      working with which business entities.

If your workforce, education or economic development organization is struggling with these issues, it's time to consider a CRM to help meet the goals of connecting businesses to government-funded services, partnering in sector strategies and creating work-based learning opportunities.

There are a multitude of assessment questions that you will need to consider before you start comparing CRMs and how you can use them for your vertical's specific workflow processes and funding requirements. Before you invest in a CRM, request a copy of our free guide: How to Evaluate CRM Tools to Meet Organization-Specific Needs.
 

Comments

[Irsa Chaudhary]

We are using Funnel CRM from last 6 months and its great for SME's