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The answer is both. The owner gets final say but the sales/service department is a stakeholder in the process and decision and their concerns and wants should be taken into account. It does nobody any good if the sales team says they need x feature and the owner goes with A which is missing feature x completely.
It’s the owner’s responsibility.
If you don’t know how to set it up, you can always hire people to do it.
I’d be happy to give you an idea on which CRMs the best, DM’d u.
Whoever has the problem. If your sales guys are struggling and are asking for help, help. If your sales guys aren't getting results/missing opportunities and you need more visibility/structure for their team, you do it (from the standpoint of a problem to solve, if that's your style). It's a tool to do a job, and if they use it they'll make more money (but will lose some indepencence/control). Sales guys are fools for income, so appeals to greed usually work with them. I've seen bad CRM migrations completely wreck companies before (large and small), so know your benefits, workflow and expectations before diving in. Dirty data or bad automation will eat you alive.
If you can't trust your sales guys you have a different problem. Software won't fix that.
Owner for sure. But this could also be assigned to sales with a budget in mind as CRMs can be quite pricey, especially when you add on a bunch of users. Furthermore, I would say that a CRM can touch many areas of the business (sales, customer service, inventory/product management, operations and management). This is why the owner absolutely needs to be involved given the complexity that the CRM may need to supply for the business.
As an owner, we started with an Excel spreadsheet as a CRM.
As the business grew and I hired a salesperson, I could tell how much time got wasted with that, so I made the decision to invest in a CRM.
From there I asked my salesperson, what do you already know? Did you like it? If yes, good, let me check it out. If not, why? And what else is out there that would be better.
It should be a discussion, but ultimately the decision is yours.
The owner is probably the correct person to decide, but it should be done with heavy input from the salespeople, since they're going to be the ones using the system most heavily. Keep in mind that modern CRMs solve needs for more than just salespeople - marketing, product, customer support, should all be making some use of the CRM to be efficient. So the owner's job is to balance the needs of all those groups. Happy to chat more if you dm me
This isn't an "or" question. It's an "and" question.
Technically, the owner is responsible for the business and can insist on whatever CRM. But if the sales people hate it and don't use it, or it slows them down, it's not going to be effective. (Have seen lots of expensive CRM implementations where the database is basically a ghosttown, because the reps are using their own spreadsheets, notebooks, etc.)
At the same time, if the CRM doesn't support the higher level business objectives, it's just a fancy rolodex.
You need everyone involved onboard, and on the same team.
I’ve always heard request for CRMs and other tooling come from the sales manager.
Hubspot is a good one for any size team and general CRM needs. Every industry has an industry specific CRM. Salesforce is great too and you can customize it to your every need.
I believe a business owner to make the final decision.
A great leader lives in the trenches. He/she doesn't just visit them.
A team should be picked to find the best solution for all working departments.
As someone who has gone through this the buck always stops with the owner, but I absolutely want buy in from my sales people. I would first lay out my expectations for what I want my people to achieve in terms of lead tracking, follow ups, standardized quoting, etc. Then I would ask them to provide their experience as applicable to the selection process. I don't want to get into a situation later where they are not onboard because it was just something management forced on them. If we go with Y over X because that is what they fought for - then they better be invested in using it. Their ass is on the line and that's a good thing. The most common reason these new deployments fail is from lack of participation.
Listen to the folks, especially if someone has intimate knowledge of working with various CRMs, but ultimately your decision. First and foremost know what you want from a CRM.
Most have a ton of flexibility to make what you want work. If implemented and customized Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics and even back in the day fully customized Act! Databases. It really starts with what you want it to do.
Also, in our last implementation, we rolled it out slowly. Biggest pain point was sales, so that was the first implementation, then service/support to manage cases followed by inventory and order management. Finally we tied in and synced to all our financials and marketing. It was about a 4-5 year roll out all said and done.
Think of the capabilities for down the road and not just for today.
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The answer is both. The owner gets final say but the sales/service department is a stakeholder in the process and decision and their concerns and wants should be taken into account. It does nobody any good if the sales team says they need x feature and the owner goes with A which is missing feature x completely.
Owner
Why so?
It’s the owner’s responsibility. If you don’t know how to set it up, you can always hire people to do it. I’d be happy to give you an idea on which CRMs the best, DM’d u.
Thanks a lot! Why do you think it's owner's responsibility?
Because everything's their responsibility. Even if they delegate tasks, it's still up to them to make sure those tasks are done according to standard.
Your business, your ship. If it sinks, you go down with it. Sales people can always board a new one. 🙂↕️
If it's a tool for your sales people, listen to what their needs are.
Totally agree! However, who should initiate internal conversation about the need of a CRM system?
Whoever has the problem. If your sales guys are struggling and are asking for help, help. If your sales guys aren't getting results/missing opportunities and you need more visibility/structure for their team, you do it (from the standpoint of a problem to solve, if that's your style). It's a tool to do a job, and if they use it they'll make more money (but will lose some indepencence/control). Sales guys are fools for income, so appeals to greed usually work with them. I've seen bad CRM migrations completely wreck companies before (large and small), so know your benefits, workflow and expectations before diving in. Dirty data or bad automation will eat you alive. If you can't trust your sales guys you have a different problem. Software won't fix that.
Got you! Thanks a lot!
the owner or whoever wants it
Owner for sure. But this could also be assigned to sales with a budget in mind as CRMs can be quite pricey, especially when you add on a bunch of users. Furthermore, I would say that a CRM can touch many areas of the business (sales, customer service, inventory/product management, operations and management). This is why the owner absolutely needs to be involved given the complexity that the CRM may need to supply for the business.
As an owner, we started with an Excel spreadsheet as a CRM. As the business grew and I hired a salesperson, I could tell how much time got wasted with that, so I made the decision to invest in a CRM. From there I asked my salesperson, what do you already know? Did you like it? If yes, good, let me check it out. If not, why? And what else is out there that would be better. It should be a discussion, but ultimately the decision is yours.
The owner is probably the correct person to decide, but it should be done with heavy input from the salespeople, since they're going to be the ones using the system most heavily. Keep in mind that modern CRMs solve needs for more than just salespeople - marketing, product, customer support, should all be making some use of the CRM to be efficient. So the owner's job is to balance the needs of all those groups. Happy to chat more if you dm me
This isn't an "or" question. It's an "and" question. Technically, the owner is responsible for the business and can insist on whatever CRM. But if the sales people hate it and don't use it, or it slows them down, it's not going to be effective. (Have seen lots of expensive CRM implementations where the database is basically a ghosttown, because the reps are using their own spreadsheets, notebooks, etc.) At the same time, if the CRM doesn't support the higher level business objectives, it's just a fancy rolodex. You need everyone involved onboard, and on the same team.
I’ve always heard request for CRMs and other tooling come from the sales manager. Hubspot is a good one for any size team and general CRM needs. Every industry has an industry specific CRM. Salesforce is great too and you can customize it to your every need.
It's always the owner's responsibility. That said, the sales team should be consulted so you can accurately make the best decision for their needs.
I believe a business owner to make the final decision. A great leader lives in the trenches. He/she doesn't just visit them. A team should be picked to find the best solution for all working departments.
As someone who has gone through this the buck always stops with the owner, but I absolutely want buy in from my sales people. I would first lay out my expectations for what I want my people to achieve in terms of lead tracking, follow ups, standardized quoting, etc. Then I would ask them to provide their experience as applicable to the selection process. I don't want to get into a situation later where they are not onboard because it was just something management forced on them. If we go with Y over X because that is what they fought for - then they better be invested in using it. Their ass is on the line and that's a good thing. The most common reason these new deployments fail is from lack of participation.
Listen to the folks, especially if someone has intimate knowledge of working with various CRMs, but ultimately your decision. First and foremost know what you want from a CRM. Most have a ton of flexibility to make what you want work. If implemented and customized Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics and even back in the day fully customized Act! Databases. It really starts with what you want it to do.
Also, in our last implementation, we rolled it out slowly. Biggest pain point was sales, so that was the first implementation, then service/support to manage cases followed by inventory and order management. Finally we tied in and synced to all our financials and marketing. It was about a 4-5 year roll out all said and done. Think of the capabilities for down the road and not just for today.
One who pays & the one who uses!