Two big confusions business owners have when they are Planning to buy CRM.

In this article, I will be clearing out two big confusions through which a CRM buyer goes through while buying a CRM solution for their business.

If you too are confused between CRM & ERP and if you are not sure whether your business really needs a CRM. Then this article is for you.

Confusion:1 Whether your business needs a CRM or ERP tool or both?

A lot of buyers find themselves in a dilemma, whether their business really needs a dedicated tool for managing their business?

And then they get further confused, whether their business needs will get fulfilled through CRM or ERP

CRM – Customer Relationship Management
ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning

While comparing these two tools, a lot of buyers think through the perspective of “Which one of these two is more useful or better”. Some buyers think that there is only a difference of a few modules in CRM and ERP. 

However, the difference is much deeper. The philosophy and psychology of both platforms are very different.

ERP is built to measure your money and material. For example your accounting, finance, invoices, product stocks, operations, etc

And CRM is purely built to manage your people and process. For example your sales process, sales funnel, reporting, day to day activities, customer service satisfaction and many more things.

This was the fundamental difference between CRM and ERP.

To understand the difference between both the tools in details, watch the below video. 

Now the question is, as these both the tools are built with different psychology and are made for different purposes. Then How do big organizations manage their process?

All the big organizations go for ERP solutions along with one dedicated CRM Solution, for managing their sales and service process.

However, this doesn’t imply to everyone & every size of organization.

In organizations with a small team, those who have ERP solutions, can make a few customization and they may be able to manage it.

But if the team size is more than 5 members, then for managing both sales and service processes,  you will require a dedicated Solution Image.

Now, I am sure this question may come to your mind,  “Can’t we add CRM modules in ERP” or “Add ERP modules in CRM itself.” Is it possible?

The answer is Yes. But this will make things very complex for you and your team members.

Your team wouldn’t be able to use it properly & neither would they be able to take full leverage of the tool.

“The product which is made with a certain philosophy and a certain purpose is only useful to fulfill that purpose”

Now let’s address the next big confusion of buyers, i.e.

Confusion- 2: In what situations, Our business should have a CRM?

A lot of buyers come to us and ask us, “Sir, we belong to this XYZ industry. Now you tell us, do we really need CRM in this situation”.

So here is a thing, “It’s not your industry that decides whether you need a CRM or not, It’s your sales process and after-sales service”.
And yes, your team size is important.

Here I am listing a few situations, when you should have a CRM. You can watch the below video, to understand them in detail. 

Situations where you must have CRM:

1. When your team size is more than 5, 
2. When your business process requires daily follow up with customers.
3. When your team is unable to follow up with your customers at the right time due to high inflow of inquiries. 
4. When you provide after sales service such as product warranty, annual maintenance contract, or any other services.

Now, if you think CRM is a costly solution. Then i strongly recommend you to read this article.