Solar CRM systems can be extremely valuable, but they can also cause huge issues. Click here to learn about five solar CRM nightmares and how to avoid them.
A solar CRM system can transform your business. CRM systems have been proven to increase productivity and revenue across many industries.
Your customers are your biggest asset in your business. How you develop and leverage those relationships often determines the success of your business.
CRMs can generate a significant ROI for your business, as long as you plan ahead. In fact, successful CRM implementation can yield an ROI as high as $5.60 for every dollar spent.
While that seems great, not every CRM rollout is successful. There are many challenges and pitfalls that companies fall into while trying to implement CRM.
Keep reading to learn what the most common solar CRM issues are and how your company can avoid them.
1. CRM System Doesn’t Take into Account All Requirements
Too often, CRM systems are left underutilized because CRM functions are copied across silos. The underlying assumption is that the requirements for the sales team will be the same for marketing or customer service.
Sometimes, businesses don’t do the research prior to investing in a system and just invest based on the lowest price.
The problem with that approach is that a business will likely wind up with a system that’s not tailored to their needs. They’ll have a system that works for a small business or an inside sales team. The reality is that they need a system that’s set up in the cloud for many employees that spend their days on the road.
2. Employees Don’t Use the System
You can have the best solar CRM, but if your employees don’t use it, your business just wasted a ton of money and resources.
There are a few reasons for lack of employee engagement. The first is that the CRM wasn’t designed for the team that would be using it.
To avoid this situation, you’ll need buy-in from your organization while you’re searching for a CRM. Open the communication channels to inform your team how CRM can benefit them.
It’s also an opportunity to ask for their input to learn what they need to effectively manage customers and stay organized.
If you’re investing in a CRM for your sales team, you might find that mobile access is a priority for your team.
Another reason why employees aren’t engaged in that training was minimal and expectations of usage were very high.
Instead of launching the entire system at once, set out a multi-stage launch and train your employees accordingly. This will give employees time to adjust and use the many features a solar CRM and the benefits of using the system.
3. Lack of Integration with Other Systems
If you think of CRM as a big address book in the cloud, you’re missing out on what a CRM can do for your business.
For instance, many CRM solutions can integrate with email and social media.
Both integrations offer more opportunities to connect with customers and deepen those relationships. Having social media integration is critical to give your team the ability to listen to customers and proactively address their concerns.
Not only that, sales reps have reported that they were 26% more effective because they could use social media to generate leads.
4. Security Issues
There are potential security risks if you have your customers’ sensitive information available for your employees. There are even more risks if your CRM is cloud-based.
There aren’t guarantees that your database is 100% secure, but there are steps you can take to minimize your risk.
The first step is to test your systems on a regular basis. This will expose any vulnerabilities in your systems.
You can also prevent information leaks by training your employees on how to handle sensitive data.
5. No Way to Measure Success
When a CRM solution is implemented, a business needs to understand how success or ROI will be measured.
It’s critical to outline the objectives for each department that’s affected by implementation. For example, a sales team might have to log three appointments and 20 customer touches a day.
If the CRM impacts your call center, then an objective could be to resolve a certain number of customer issues each day.
When objectives are set within the organization, it helps to ensure that they’re manageable. A business needs to take into account a ramp-up period as employees are being trained on and adjust to the new system.
The largest factor that is part of the decision to implement CRM is the ROI a company can expect to see. When calculating ROI, make sure you take all implementation expenses into account.
There will be employee downtime for training, IT expenses, rollout expenses. There are also ongoing costs such as system and software upgrades, maintenance and licensing.
Tips to Implement Solar CRM
For businesses that would like to implement solar CRM, it’s necessary to have a strategy around choosing a CRM solution, implementation, and training.
The first step to creating a CRM strategy is to identify what you would like to accomplish. The answer is most likely to increase revenue.
Now get specific as to how much revenue the business needs to generate. Once you have that number, break that up into smaller steps.
- How many sales will that take?
- How many appointments?
- How many proposals?
- How many calls?
That will help you determine the daily objectives for your sales team to reach those revenue numbers.
Focus on Relationships
A solar CRM strategy should also focus on the existing customer base.
You might be masterful at energy marketing, but do you want your sales team to spend time chasing RFPs?
When you continue to develop relationships with customers after installation, they’re more likely to become repeat customers and refer other business to your firm.
A CRM that will help sales reps reach out to current customers to make sure they’re not experiencing issues. Your strategy can dictate how often sales reps reach out to current customers.
Solar CRM to Increase Revenue
Relationships are at the core of any business. Whether you’re a large business or a small business, you need to invest in developing those relationships.
The right CRM will go a long way to develop customer relationships, increase customer loyalty and revenue.
Invention Solar exists to help clients solve challenges and generate profits through our focus on growing relationships and creating strategies. We build a solid foundation for growth through our marketing and sales strategies.
Contact us today for a consultation.
