Why do startups need CRM?

If you are an Entrepreneur who started his/her startup, you would know that running a startup is a relentless journey to achieve multiple small milestones which will build a solid foundation for the future of your startup.

In order to achieve this, you need to drive the team to stay as nimble and as agile as possible. For your startup to grow faster, you have to start adopting a lot of growth tools which help you speed up your processes. One of the important processes in a startup is its sales process. If you have not yet perfected and streamlined your sales process, it's better you figure it out before you figure out other operational aspects of your startup.

You have to find every possible way to free up yourself and your team to do productive tasks which can create a bigger impact, than to engage yourselves and your team in data entry tasks of your sales process.

How does a CRM benefit a Startup?

• CRM can help you store your client contacts, sales leads, deals, document and track clients interaction in the form of notes, emails, call logs, etc.


• A CRM with accurate data can give you a clear and transparent view of your deal pipeline and thus gives you an accurate representation of where your startup is heading towards.


• CRM with Reports and Analytics will free up a lot of your time which goes on preparing excel based sales reports and trying to deep dive to extract insights from the data to grow your startup.


• Modern startups usually solve challenges for a modern group of customers who are far advanced technologically. To successfully cater to their needs, you should start adopting modern sales tools as early as possible in order to stay ahead of your competitors. Modern CRM comes with Workflow automation that lets you offload a lot of manual sales processes to help you move faster.

How to choose the best CRM for your startup?

There is no one size which fits all. It is true for CRMs as well. Before you adopt a CRM for your startup, here are some of the important aspects to examine.

• Always take an upfront trial before you pay for it. It is important that you try out the software handson before making an instant purchase. Once you get handson over the software and feel that it can solve your sales challenges, then go for it.


• Select a CRM which has an easy learning curve so that you don't have to spend another month setting up the CRM and getting your team trained to use it. This will be the ultimate disaster because time is one of the precious assets of a startup. You should select a tool which lets you get started faster.


• Assess the pricing plan beforehand. The CRM should be pocket friendly and should have good ROI for the investment made. You can calculate the ROI by analyzing how much time your sales team will save using the CRM compared to the time they usually spend on manual work. This is Operational ROI.


• Apart from Operational ROI, think of CRM as a long term investment because overtime you will accumulate a lot of information in your CRM which will prove to be the biggest ROI on your investment. So choose a CRM which can help you with this mindset.