Short for Customer Relationship Management, a CRM system is the key to managing and synchronizing your business communication and information. While CRM has been around for decades, it has gone through massive development in recent years. CRM systems are no longer considered trendy but rather a standard requirement for doing business in the 21st century.

Although there are a bewildering number of CRM systems available, the major players tend not to change very often. We recommend choosing a system with a solid history of sales and development, preferably one with a thriving user community. You don’t want to entrust your business to a tool without a proven track record, and you want to make sure you can get the help and support you need once you make the switch.

But even accounting for these basic considerations, the CRM market is robust enough that several products qualify. How do you know which is right for your business?

Here are the most important factors to consider:

1. Is it easy to learn?

Some CRM systems are more difficult than others. More expensive systems may have technical features that are unnecessary for some organizations, such as the ability to perform billions of transactions a second. Small and medium businesses in particular may not want to invest in a highly complex system that no one has time to learn, regardless of the depth of features. In fact, internal resistance to learning a new system is the number one reason CRM implementations fail. It’s simply not possible to reap the benefits of your new CRM if no one uses it.

2. Does it play well with others?

For any CRM system to work, it needs data. A lot of that data lives inside products you already own, or that your customers or suppliers already own. To get the most from your CRM, you need robust integration. Ideally, your CRM would also be modular, allowing you to customize which apps and features are most relevant to your business and to only pay for the ones you need. Of course, bringing your entire operation under one software suite is the most elegant and easy-to-maintain solution to the integration problem!

3. Does it connect all your customer-facing departments?

In any business where customer retention is key, collaboration between sales, marketing, and customer service is absolutely vital to success. All your customer-facing employees need access to the same up-to-date customer data at every interaction, which means you need a CRM that connects everyone through one platform.

4. How much does it cost?

As with software generally these days, most CRM applications are cloud-based, meaning users connect to them via the internet and pay a monthly fee for access. Some simpler CRM products offer an on-site option, where you buy once for a certain number of users and then download to your local devices. That may seem simpler, both technically and financially, but it makes it hard for your CRM to scale with your company as you add more people. It also limits your access to product updates and bug fixes, and it requires you to maintain your own separate data backups. Cloud-based applications may actually be more convenient option. Still, make sure you understand the payment model. A good consultant can help you navigate the various bundles and should offer you a payment calculator to make sure your choice fits your budget.

5. Does it have robust reporting?

There is no insight without analytics, which are the key to honing your sales strategy and capturing the efficiencies of technology. But analytics need to be both fresh and flexible to have genuine value. Your team needs to understand them intuitively, and the KPIs and reports you define need to change with business conditions. A CRM with powerful yet intuitive reporting features will help you find vital trends and insights in your data.

6. Is it secure?

Customer data is valuable, but if it gets into the wrong hands, it can quickly become a liability. Any CRM you consider should come with industry-standard security in place so you can keep both your data and keep your customers’ trust safe from harm.

7. Can it grow with you?

If you have any expectations that your business will grow, then you should already be thinking scalability: How easy will it be to add more customers or employees to your CRM? How expensive will it be? As you add more specialized software applications to your processes over time, how easy will it be to connect them to your CRM? You won’t want to start again from scratch because you outgrew your CRM, so be sure to consider the future when making your choice.

How to measure the success of your CRM system

Your CRM will help you measure the success of your sales efforts, but you’ll also want to measure the success of your CRM itself, which should offer a good return on investment.

When setting your overall customer relationship strategy, consider measures of success for your CRM, which might include:

• The level of adoption in relevant departments. Do you have employees that never bothered using it?

• The available CRM features you’re actively using and any you’re under-using.

• Whether sales increased since you implemented it.

• Any change in customer resolution times or customer satisfaction scores.

• Whether it has improved customer retention rates.

The metrics you use to gauge success will depend on the goals you set. But if you’re making an investment in a CRM product—especially if it’s a costly one—you want to make sure it’s returning the investment in the way you intended.