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Grow Your Small Business with Mobile CRM

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and mobile CRM, once only viable solutions for the big corporate market, have become more affordable and available for small business.

Gone are the days of the quick and easy sale. Customers today demand better service and a long term relationship. The old adage of knowing your customer is more true than ever.

CRM is a means to locate, contact and manage your customer data using software tools and programs. Mobile CRM is about bringing customer and other key information to staff at the right place and time using mobile communications devices to improve customer service and loyalty.

Before you embark on a mobile CRM program, consider starting with an assessment.

Small Business Mobile CRM Assessment
To evaluate whether mobile CRM makes sense for your small business, ask the following questions:

  • What CRM or Sales Force Automation (SFA) tools do you use today to make your salespeople more effective?
  • Would mobilizing those applications result in incremental or substantial benefit to your business?
  • Will mobile access to these tools improve how our salespeople they do their work?
  • Will it save them time that could be used interacting with customer and advancing leads?
  • Would it improve their effectiveness in closing deals, by helping them close deals in a shorter time frame or with less calls per lead?

Common Mobile CRM Mistakes
There are two common mistakes that could jeopardize your mobile CRM implementation: involving end users too late and trying to mobilize non-essential CRM functionality. Here's how to avoid them:

  1. Involve End Users Early
    The success of a mobile CRM deployment depends on usage among your salespeople. To ensure high uptake, involve end users early in defining the scope of the project and in selecting the software or CRM solution.
  2. Focus on Mobile CRM Functionality
    Another common error is to begin the mobilization project with the intent of replicating the complete CRM desktop experience on the mobile device. A mobile handset isn’t the same as a desktop experience, so complete replication of all desktop functionality isn’t possible.

Instead, focus on those aspects of your CRM solution that you expect to drive the most benefit for your salespeople. Define key points within the CRM system that you want to adopt.

Mobile CRM offers small business the opportunity to attract and retain customers in today’s competitive environment for winning a greater share of the customer’s wallet.

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