According to a recent study, the global CRM market size is predicated to reach a staggering $157.6 billion by 2030.
It makes sense: after all, 66% of customers today expect companies to understand their needs, and customer-centric companies are an impressive 60% more profitable than companies that aren’t.
With the market expanding so rapidly, the number of CRM consultancies out there competing for your business is continuing to grow.
But with so many out there, how can you make sure you hire CRM consultants that are right for you?
The benefits of hiring a CRM consultant
Thanks to all the CRM tools out there today, managing relationships with your customers is easier than ever before.
Not only can you communicate with them in their preferred way, but you can also collect data, predict their behaviour, and maintain strong customer relationships – all with just a few clicks of a button.
However, if you are going to get the most out of your CRM system, truly understand what your customers want and need, and deliver exceptional experiences and standout campaigns, one way to ensure success is by hiring a CRM consultant to help with strategy and execution.
If you’re searching for a CRM partner and are feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the choices out there, read on to discover six important things you need to know before you hire a CRM consultant…
6 important things to know before you hire CRM consultants
1. What are your needs and goals?
Most points we’ll cover on this list are questions you need to ask your potential CRM providers – however, to kick things off, it’s important to step back and think about what you want and need from a CRM consultant – and why.
Are you looking for a CRM partner to help you manage customer relationships? Do you want it focus on sales, or is marketing important too? Have you already invested in CRM software and need advice on how to get the most out of it, or are you searching for a software provider as well?
It’s vital to identify your goals from the beginning so you can refer back to them to check how well things are working in the coming months and years. By determining your key goals and outcomes and identifying what exactly you want in a CRM partner, you’ll be in a strong position to start your search!
2. Are they led by data?
Here at Edit, we’re all about data. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – and again, and again: your CRM strategy is only as good as your data. So, if you’re going to hire CRM consultants who can deliver, it’s essential that they put data at the centre of everything they do.
Whether you’re tracking customer conversion rates, are using data to decide which products and services to offer, or are analysing your data to understand which campaigns are hitting the mark, data forms an integral part of your CRM strategy.
Modern data strategies should bring together data science, data analytics, first-party data, and insights to map your customer journeys and paint a detailed picture of your existing and potential customers.
By using your data, you can access insights, unlock in-depth customer profiling, predict behaviour and identify the best ways to interact with your customers, so you can plan for the future and ultimately deliver exceptional experiences.
Basically, if you want to connect with your customers and predict what they want and when they want it, your data should be at the heart of everything you do. It’s imperative that you choose a CRM consultancy with the same data-centric values.
3. How can they address your challenges?
Once you’ve whittled down your list of CRM consultant contenders, it’s time to go back to the goals you identified earlier and see how your selected CRM agencies can help address your challenges.
It’s important to choose a CRM agency that will provide a consultative approach and help you to create CRM strategies from the ground up. It’s not just about pushing out campaigns that talk the talk – if you’re going to get the most out of your CRM, you need to find an agency that can walk the walk.
If you want to decrease churn – great! How are they going to help you? Or perhaps you’re keen to increase customer lifetime value – do they have a service or solution that can assist you?
At Edit, our team includes super strategists, clever customer journey planners, data wizards, and terrific campaign delivery teams – so whatever you want to get from your CRM, you can rest assured that our expert team have the skills you need to solve even your most complicated challenges.
4. How can they save you time and money?
Outsourcing to a CRM consultant might seem like an additional cost in an already expensive world – however, enlisting help can help you save money in the long run.
For starters, focused targeting can help you save a huge amount of time: instead of spending hours looking through all your customer data, your CRM should be able to sift through your contacts and identify profitable customers.
Once you’ve identified potential customers, your CRM consultant will help you uncover common trends and segment your audience, enabling you to figure out what they want next and helping you to target your marketing messages accordingly.
Finally, your chosen partner should constantly monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns, so you can find out what performed well and what didn’t hit the mark. With these benchmarks, you can recycle successful campaigns for future marketing endeavours, as well as avoid anything that didn’t resonate with your audience.
5. How many years have they been in the business?
There are now more CRM consultancies out there than you can shake a stick at, with many companies jumping on the bandwagon and claiming CRM expertise.
Of course, some of the new CRM specialists are incredible at what they do and bring some truly brilliant ideas to the table – but there’s something to be said for experience, too.
At Edit, we’ve got 25+ years of industry experience, which means there’s very little we don’t know about how to generate incredible ROI through the intelligent application of strategy, data, and marketing technology to deliver hyper-personalised customer journeys.
Over years, we’ve learnt that it’s people and processes that create long-term value, which is why our team of award-winning Editors will work together with you every step of the way to deliver truly bespoke solutions.
6. What’s their timeline for delivery?
Finally, you need to check whether your chosen consultancy’s timeline works with your needs.
Always work with an agency that treats you as a priority – don’t fall into the common trap of thinking that the bigger the agency, the better the service. In fact, it is often smaller, more specialised consultancies that take the time to really get to know your business and its needs.
When it comes to choosing your CRM consulting firm, pay attention to how they communicate with you, how fast they reply to your emails, and how high their level of engagement is during calls or meetings.
This can tell you all you need to know about if an agency is the right fit for you!
Looking for expert CRM consultants? The search is over!
We don’t mean to blow our own trumpet, but here at Edit, we are proud of our CRM expertise.
If you’re looking to hire CRM consultants, when you enlist the help of Edit, we will strip everything back and use data to drive our approach so that we can create powerful, bespoke, transformational CRM strategies that enable you to build stronger relationships with your customers.
Want to find out more how our team of Editors can help with your CRM strategy? Contact us today to learn more.
