Top 5 Reasons Why Your Company’s CRM Needs Management

A while ago I bought a little plant at one of those big-box stores like Walmart. It was on sale, and it seemed to be doing well for the first month. But then all of a sudden, its leaves started drooping; it looked like they’d been doused in swamp water or fertilizer that had gone bad. When I checked under the pot, there was like this gross tree fungus growing below it – like some sort of thing that’s supposed to scare people away from touching shrubs around their house!

After I’ve asked my friend, who coincidentally was a botanist in our local Botanical Garden, he had to state a fact, that there is not much I can do to resurrect poor plant as I have overdosed fertilizer and actually have killed it way before it showed signs of withering.

Just like with the plant, your customer relationship management system requires proper care. It is not just another software that requires monthly payments. It requires knowledge and something more valuable than that…your attention.

CRM systems are an indispensable part of any organization with sales management, which can be difficult to manage on your own, yet not everyone can afford (or want) a full-time certified Salesforce Platform (or another CRM platform) administrator on staff. Fortunately, the subscription economy brings so-called managed services to the table and enables virtually any company and sales team on the market to benefit from professional services.

What is CRM Managed Services

CRM managed service is a professional service that provides oversight and administration of CRM software for businesses. The service can be tailored to any business size and CRM platform. It includes all the necessary features for your company’s sales teams, such as technical support, consulting, training, data migration, customization, and more. CRM managed service could be used for current CRM platform, if business already has one, or with new implementation.

The Benefits of CRM Managed Services

My favorite part of CRM managed services is that you can align them with your budget. If you’re a small company looking for a helping hand with some minor maintenance tasks requiring technical expertise, you can easily pick a basic plan from one of the managed services providers. On the other hand, if you are a large corporation, you can easily scale your high-demanding CRM solution, because vendors usually have plenty of staff to offer and you do not have to think of human resource-related things and management of your development team (which requires skilled talent, by the way).

Now why would you want to get managed service for your CRM System? Here are five “whys”.

Reason #1: Costs

The most significant reason to get CRM managed services is the cost savings. CRM managed service providers have the staff, tools, and experience to help you get the most out of your exisiting CRM software (or get you the right CRM) while saving you time and money.

CRM managed service providers also offer a wide range of services that can save you time and money. Services include support, training, data migration, customization, security, and more. Customer relationship management managed service providers can help you with training your staff on CRM software so that they become self-sufficient in their use of CRM software, saving you the cost of having to hire a CRM administrator or consultant full time.

Costs of hiring a full-time administrator

Let’s do a little math.

• On average, a full-time Salesforce administrator salary is $97k according to glassdoor.
• Your administrator is not trained to do everything, so you would need to outsource some minor staff additionally to what you are paying in salary. Let’s assume it’s roughly 25% of your Salesforce admin salary and is $25k
• You have to pay for the office, computer, insurance, holidays, and other incentives to your employee, which accounts for another $25k
• You have to manage your administrator. Yes – this is something no-one is accounting for. Let’s estimate this as another $5k

So, what’s the bottom line? That’s at least $152,000 a year.

Oh, and do not forget that your salesforce admin will spend tonnes of time in idle mode. No one can actually evenly plan their salesforce jobs the way that you would utilize your employees 100% of the time.

Managed Services Costs

Now, let’s do the same maths for the managed services. For the sake of mental experiment, I need to pick a random example of the use case, like Salesforce CRM for a small business.

Managed Services plans (I’m using my company as an example of the Salesforce Managed Services vendor and our pricing starts at $1,049 monthly). So here’s the math.

• Managed Services Fee per year approx. $12.5k
• Sometime during the year, you would require some extra services, which are not included in your plan, let’s assume these are the same as with in-house admin case and account for $25k annually in total.
• You would need to spend some time with your account executive from managed services vendor, so let’s assume that’s another $5k annually in your time costs.

So, what’s the bottom line? You would spend $42.5k annually for virtually the same amount of Salesforce effort done throughout the year. That’s X3.5 times less or $109,500 in saving annually. That’s Tesla Model S you are saving…every year, go and check their configurator on the website.

If that doesn’t convince you, I have another few other reasons ahead.

Reason #2: Depreciation of Investment Value

You might think, that this article is all about money? Well, yes and no. Liberal values like four-hour long working days, reduced CO2 emissions, and sustainable thinking are great, but let’s be honest – in the business world we should make most of our investment ahead of our competitors. And the best way to measure ROI still are numbers with dollar signs upfront. Change my mind.

The good and the bad about CRM investment is that the moment you make a decision to implement it in your business, your intellectual asset starts depreciating…or growing. Depending on how you manage it.

Example

Think of your CRM as a real estate. If you keep it in good condition it gives you a small return every month or every year. But if you neglect it, CRM value decreases and sooner or later you will have to invest much more money to bring it back to a good state.

Opposed to real estate, the difference between losses and gains of well-managed CRM is much higher. If you manage your CRM properly, it could become your business multiplier, yet if you just leave it to rot on your servers you would lose all the investment made with it over a few-year period.

Reason #3: Accountability

Let me share some experiences from my professional practice. I’ve seen tens if not hundreds of CRM administrators who simply do not care about their users, CRM data, customer engagement, or company results. They just don’t have that gene…or they are simply too busy with their own work to bother connecting the dots and see how CRM affects the sales process as a whole. The only thing they care about is their bonuses after quarterly business reviews.

This is where managed services come in – it provides an extra layer of accountability for your CRM. No more hiding behind CRM data and complicated excuses because it’s all in the hands of professional CRM administrators who are accountable for CRM implementation success.

At the end of the day, there is a sales rep on the managed services vendor side who is accountable for not losing a customer and poor CRM performance is the number one reason for the customer to withdraw from the contract.

Reason #4: Technological Advancement

The managed service provider has a great deal of experience working with a variety of customers. This experience can be leveraged by the customer to help improve their business and CRM strategy.

For example, the provider may have experience working in a particular industry or with a certain type of customer. This knowledge can be translated to help the customer improve their business processes and operations. Additionally, the provider may have access to new technologies that can be used by the customer to improve their business at no additional cost.

And do not forget about ever-changing versions of CRMs. Proper version release management could extend your project lifecycle and leverage the process of digital transformation even further within your company.

Reason #5: Unbiased Opinion

A managed service provider can always bring an unbiased opinion to the table about a business process. This is because they are not affiliated with the company, and can provide an objective view of what is happening.

This is extremely beneficial to a company, as it can help them improve their business processes and operations without any bias. Additionally, the provider can provide recommendations on how to improve these processes, which can be very helpful.

Bottom line

CRM managed services provide a number of benefits to companies, including higher ROI from CRM, better accountability, benefit from technological advancement, and unbiased opinion from professionals. These services can help companies improve their business processes and operations, which can lead to increased profits.

Hope this article was a valuable investment of your time. If I have convinced you, do not forget to check out our Salesforce Managed Services offering.