Amidst a climate of economic insecurity, businesses are wondering how they can trust that their potential or existing CRM software vendor has “staying power”.  Moreover, customers want to be assured that –- in addition to having the fortitude to overcome the national economic downturn — their software provider will maintain quality standards for their products and services. 

How can your company get this reassurance?  With the advice of a few top CRM vendors – including Hoyt Mann of PhaseWare and Kathy Sacks of iLinc – we’ve compiled a list of the “Top 5 Questions to Ask Your CRM Provider”.  For the sake of your company’s well-being – and for your own peace of mind – we encourage you to call your representative and ask the “tough questions” are essential in evaluating the solidity of your vendor and the viability of that vendor’s offering.

1. How many and what types of companies are in your user base? (Fortune 500’s?) 
2. What kind of service guarantee do you provide?
3. How do I protect myself from losing my data due to system failures?
4. What is the company’s long term plan for the financial downturn? 
5. In an SaaS model, ask to see the public Disaster Recovery Action Plan.

When it comes to CRM software, you want to have confidence in your provider’s ability to weather an economic storm.  Won’t you feel better knowing just how secure that software provider is?  Posing the critical questions is not just reassuring, it’s downright critical to ensuring the safety and security of your business’ data.  And remember: you won’t know unless you ask.

Contributors: Hoyt Mann, CEO, PhaseWare; Kathy Sacks, iLinc

Difficult economic times can hit salesfolk hard.  As their pipeline shrinks, so can the morale of sales reps.  What can companies do to keep pipelines full and salespersons enthusiastic in tough times like these?   Author, sales consultant, speaker, and CEO of Sales Architects, Lee Salz, offers some words of wisdom for businesses and the salespeople who keep them strong.  

B-S: When the pipeline’s flow turns into more of a trickle, what’s the best advice you can give for incenting customers and capturing new leads?
LS: When the economy tightens, it is critical that companies have a very specific process for their sales organization to follow. When things are grand, process is forgotten as revenue just comes in the door. However, now it is time to go back to basics. Review your profile of your ideal client. Has it changed? Ensure the sales organization understands the profile. Put in place behavioral metrics to ensure that the team has the right activity level to build out the pipeline. Don’t buy into the economy as an excuse for buyers not buying. Read more »