What financial benefits do you get from CRM?

How do you relate business results to your CRM system? By system, I mean everything related to your use of customer relationship management, including strategy, processes, people, and technology.

When you make a financial investment, you expect something in return. What financial return do you expect to get from your investment in CRM?

Do you expect to increase sales from new customers? From existing customers? Back-end sales? More transactions? Higher pricing? Referrals?

Now for the million dollar question: HOW?!? How EXACTLY does your CRM system help you achieve your goals?

It's great that you're collecting more and more data. It's great that you're using your website to capture leads and automatically send that data to your CRM database.

But SO WHAT? How does this help you increase sales and profits?

Are you managing your leads more effectively so that none fall through the cracks?

Are you getting a better conversion rate because your entire sales team is able to use the centralized customer and opportunity information to do a more thorough job during the sales process?

Are you building relationships with customers with some sort of drip marketing program enabled by the CRM technology?

Are you retaining customers by keeping them customers happy by responding to their requests for support faster, and resolving them faster?

Are you reducing variable costs because it is less expensive to win a sales opportunity using your CRM system?

Are you reducing fixed costs because it takes fewer resources to build profitable relationships with more leads and customers due to the automation tools?

How are you measuring all this stuff, anyway? How do you KNOW that you are obtaining the benefits as a result of your CRM system?

If you are considering a CRM system, or if you are using one now, then stop and examine the financial benefits you expect to receive, and be sure to tie the benefits DIRECTLY to specific aspects of the system.

If you don't even have any formally agreed upon expectations of financial benefits, then stop and figure out how to use CRM to get significant and measurable financial benefits.

You'll be glad you did.