Why startups (also) need a CRM

Does anyone know if Mr. García called yesterday? Did they send him the proposal? What proposal did they send him? If you have an SME, you know how difficult it is to get clients at the beginning, and therefore, the importance of keeping them happy. The question now is, how can a CRM system help us with our startup?

The entrepreneurs know how important your first business contacts are, which is achieved through other clients, other startups, friends, and even graphic designers. Everything is going well, but once you are acquiring more responsibilities you find a lot of emails in the inbox, excel tables, appointments, and calendars without any order. With a CRM in a matter of seconds, you will see which of your colleagues was in contact with the client, which proposal was sent to him, and if the client accepted the proposal. This makes teamwork easier!

What a CRM should offer a startup

A CRM system for startups should be a system designed for small businesses. Of course, if we want something big, we must think big, but when you are starting a business it is very important to know how to invest, since every penny costs, so it is best to look for something cheap, but of good quality. So use technological tools that meet your basic needs. You will not need anything else and this will help you save a lot of money.

In addition, the following five criteria will help you choose the right CRM system for your startup.

Allows to segment and classify customers

It is important to have a categorization of contacts (for example, by city, by economic activity or by-product, as a frequent customer, or as a star customer). This will be very easy to do, if you use a keyword or tag function, which you could use, for example, for specific mailings or even to find, in seconds, that client who is on the phone and who is not we know his name. So you will always have all the information you need at hand when you need it most.

Simple handling and intuitive design

In small and medium-sized companies, nobody has time or money for induction days, especially since managing software must be intuitive and practical. For companies that have pure CRM specialists on their payroll, this is different, but even this would not be necessary for a company that is just starting out.

You have to understand the CRM solution after an hour, otherwise, it is not good and the benefits should be immediately apparent. If you get the impression that your software does more work than good, get rid of it as soon as possible. Do not waste your time, nor that of your colleagues!

The information is available when it’s needed most

SMEs and freelancers find it easier to trust web-based systems and Software as a Service (SaaS) since there is no need for installations or downloads if they provide local software, which is quite practical since you only need to connect to the website and there you will find all the information you need, as well as when you check your E-mails.

These cloud solutions make the software independent of the device or operating system because then it does not matter if you access it from the Mac that is in the office, from the Windows at home, or from your smartphone while traveling on the train. Information will always be easy to access.

Coverage of basic needs

A simple design not only makes the software easier but also makes it faster and improves data quality. This will be faster because the functions or areas that cannot be used continue to drag during each loading process, this, of course, has an effect on performance and is especially evident with software that is used over the Internet or from the mobile. So it is better that you lean towards a CRM system that is designed to meet your basic needs and not a reduction of software for large companies.

Reasonable prices and without contracts that tie us

In the market you will find a wide variety of CRM software, there are very good quality ones from € 19 per month with 3 users and a thousand contacts. CRM prices vary depending on the number of users, the number of contacts, and the storage capacity required. However, it is advisable that you do not get tied up by any type of contract from which you can not easily get out.