There’s more to costs than just the price of a system
Often when discussing CRM systems with others, people will ask, “Will CRM cost me more in the future?” One way we respond is with a different question: “Where do you want your business to be in the future?”
If you are not investing, improving your business, and increasing revenue and customers, then over time, your business will dwindle. If you are not growing, you cannot stand still; the world is changing around you, which means you are shrinking. In order for your business to change and evolve, you have to invest more in your systems and infrastructure as your business grows.
For example, if your business increased from five to twenty people, you would need a bigger building to house people, more laptops, and more storage—more of everything. However, if your systems remained the same, would they still work with your growth? Make sure that you do not decide now on a system based solely on your current expenditure; you also need to invest in the right system for the future.
So, will my Dynamics CRM cost me more in the future? Absolutely, if you want to take your business further. These are our preferred customers; there is nothing worse for us than a customer that invests some money in a CRM system and then does not take it further. Over time, these customers erode that initial investment by going back to Excel or the original databases, and all of a sudden, they end up with different systems all over the place again. It is important to consider the investment in your systems and your processes to make sure that your business expansion and your systems expansion are in alignment.
Will CRM cost me more in the future? If you want to grow your business and you want to work more efficiently and effectively it absolutely will.
Consider these two scenarios:
- You could spend £30,000 on bringing a new person into the business, which is what we often do. Or…
- You could get a system to drive automation and manage activities, reports, or KPIs that would actually cost £10,000-£15,000. In this case, you could then recruit someone else on a lower wage alongside the system to have the best of both worlds.
Think about your expenditure as it relates to people in your business. As the common saying goes, “Overhead in a business is on two legs.” If you can make your systems more efficient, than perhaps you can use the people in your business more efficiently.
