Photo credit: Sally Pitman
If your search of the CRM software market has so far failed to identify a product that exactly meets your needs, then a bespoke CRM solution might be just the ticket. How do you ensure that bespoke doesn’t automatically mean expensive? The key is to identify how bespoke CRM beats Customisable Off The Shelf (COTS) CRM in addressing your needs. In my experience, this normally involves one or more of the following:
- Doing something differently
- Doing something better
- Becoming a part of your value proposition
- Becoming a business asset
These broad topics cover most of the reasons you would invest in a bespoke CRM system and ignore all the existing CRM tools. Notice that none of these reasons relate to cost savings. Indeed, it is our experience that bespoke CRM solutions cost more in the medium to long term, than COTS CRM. This is because you will have to bear the complete cost of software maintenance and development yourself.
Being different
If your business is an innovator, a disruptor, a maverick – then bespoke CRM may be needed to ensure that your new approach to selling or marketing your product is not compromised by your CRM tool. A word of caution – your product or service may be radically different to what the market expects, but is the way you sell it so different to what others are doing?
In many industries, there are laws to ensure that how you sell and market yourself is strictly controlled. If you are in a highly regulated industry it may be worth reconsidering packaged CRM tools, as they will already have a lot of the compliance functionality built-in them.
Being better
Just being better than all the rest is a competitive advantage. By understanding your customer’s buying processes better, you can improve your close ratios. A bespoke CRM tool that exactly maps to a highly differentiated sales process could be a smart investment. Unfortunately, your unique and better way of selling has a relatively short shelf life.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so if your results are getting notices, don’t be surprised if your competitors start copying your secret sauce. It is precisely because sales processes have to evolve so quickly that modern CRM packages have such flexibility. You may even find that someone beat you to it and there is a sales process that’s right for you, hidden in a piece of packaged CRM software.
Becoming part of your value proposition
What about that – a CRM system that is part of what your customer values and buys from you. Think it’s a bit far-fetched? Then you haven’t seen just how far customer portals have come in recent years. Ever since Amazon told us that “people who bought X also bought Y”, we have all come to accept that we trade our information for improved services or lower prices. If you are building a business that trades information for an advantage, then a bespoke CRM system may be the route forward, especially if you are also looking at making data a company asset. Highly bespoke CRM systems that are configured to optimise the collection and exchange of data can significantly differentiate your offer.
Becoming a business asset
The logical extension of any CRM system that can collect and use customer data to improve customer relationships and loyalty, is to make it a key business asset. This is where bespoke CRM systems really make their payback. Sure, there are probably marginal gains to be had from investing in a bespoke CRM system, but the big returns come when you own the CRM system that your business is built on. Because it is built to your specification and you own the code, then you can stop competitors copying your USP’s. Moreover, when you come to sell your business, then the development costs are an asset which will further increase the value of your business.
So there you have it. Bespoke CRM systems are not for the faint-hearted or those who don’t have deep pockets. Before you decide to commission the development of a bespoke system, give proper consideration into customisable, off-the-shelf software and the services of a specialist CRM development team. But if you think that you can design a CRM system that will help you to crush the competition and add value to your business – then I say “go for it!”
And if you need some help, feel free to contact us to request our case study on how we helped a global hospitality brand get the very best from their Chinese development partner.
