A CRM specifications is an essential decision-making tool when planning to equip yourself with CRM software.
Indeed, a CRM tool centralizes all data relating to marketing, sales and after-sales service, customer by customer.
And if he can facilitate the collaboration between teamsand improve thecustomer experiencethis requires having anticipated the needs of your business in order to choose the right tool and to configure it effectively for a better customer satisfaction and a better sales organization.
CRM specifications: what is it?
In general, we can define the “specifications” in project management as a document listing the objectives and achievement criteria of a project.
Both expensive and often essential for the management of commercial and after-sales processes, CRM software occupies a central place in the system of most companies. But with a plethora of offers, with varied functionalities, finding the right CRM solution is a challenge.
The realization of a CRM specifications will be particularly useful when you have to choose your CRM according to the needs of your company.
Define your company’s CRM needs
If you decide to manage the search for your next CRM solution internally, a CRM specifications gives you several advantages.
On the one hand, the creation of a CRM specification forces you to think about the whole of your CRM strategy, your functional needs and who will have to use the tool to do what.
On the other hand, the CRM specifications allow you to create an evaluation grid which you will then use to evaluate the various tools on the market. Thus, you will be able to note them, compare them and classify them on objective criteria, helping to make the optimal choice of best CRM software For Your Business.
Essential for tenders
If you decide to make a call for tenders, then the CRM specifications simply become essential.
Indeed, it is the CRM specifications who will guide the third-party service or the consultant responsible for finding you the solution tailored to your business. In the case of a call for tenders, a presentation of your structure must be included in the preamble of the document.
In form, a CRM specifications can for example mention:
- Your current quantity of contacts,
- The list of tools you already use (including those not directly related to CRM management, such as project management software).
- The communication channels that your structure uses
- Statistics on conversion, or on the resolution of after-sales incidents.
Implementation of a CRM specification in 3 key steps
If you find on the web models to download in PDF or Word formats, it is nevertheless useful to master the process of creating a CRM specifications. This allows better understand the usefulness of each piece of informationand if necessary adapt the model chosen to better adhere to the specificity of your company.
In the process of creating a CRM specification, we can distinguish three stages:
Categorize business needs for customer relationship management
If you are interested in CRM solutions, you surely know that the functions of CRM software can be sorted into three categories: Marketing, Sales and Service. Indeed, these three categories represent the three facets of the relationship of your customers with your company, sources of interactions between her and them. Moreover, each of these three aspects of CRM is, in principle, managed by a specialized team, which has its own needs (at least this is always the case in larger companies).
The first step in creating your CRM specifications is to determine if you need a complete CRM tool or not. For example, you could outsource your after-sales service, or be a sales agency. In these specific cases, you would only need a set of features, which only fit one or two of the categories discussed above.
Target the category of needs of your establishment guarantees to find a solution without overabundance of features, at the right price. This also allows you to rough out the work before entering the second stage of the process.
Translate business needs into functional criteria
Arrived at the second stage, we know the type of needs of your company. It is then necessary to specify these needs. For this, it is advisable to talk to the teams directly concerned. Often, digital transformation consultants organize workshops, during which they outline “business use cases”. The business use case is the process that comes up repeatedly in the organization of a companyand that the use of CRM software is supposed to facilitate.
To better understand the different use cases, we can trace the typical customer journey in its relationship with the company. We will note all the interactions between him and her then, for each interaction, we can, in the form of a role play, help the team concerned to express their needs.
Once done, it is necessary to identify the frustrations of each team or member of a team concerned. We can then translate this lack into a functional criterion for the choice of future software.
To make a CRM specifications useful, it is important to think about prioritizing needs. Indeed, the ideal CRM software does not exist, it is likely that certain criteria are not met. It is useful to arrange so that the latter are those representing the least gain in productivity.
Define the ideal system architecture
Finally, the third step must finish deciding between the best candidates for deployment in your organization.
This third step is to define the best system architecture for you. In other words, it will be choose between SaaS and local databaseand select the integrations with third-party applications to favor, if your CRM tool is not designed to tie in with all those you already use.
To carry out this step correctly, it is necessary to have a long-term vision for the development of your business. Tomorrow, you might need to install a new third-party app. Providing a possibility of integration into it will make your life easier in the future.
For the realization of our CRM specifications, this step is the most technical. To not miss it, do not hesitate to get advice from a specialist, or otherwise consult our other detailed articles on how CRM tools work.
The 5 golden rules of a CRM specification
We just saw the three key steps in creating a specification CRM. When drafting it, you must be careful not to lose sight of the main issue: finding the optimal CRM solution for your company, at the lowest possible cost. For this, 5 golden rules must frame the drafting of the CRM specifications.
1 – Include
By inclusion, we mean the idea of involving everyone interested in the new software deployment project in the drafting of the CRM specifications.
The teams that work every day with this type of tool are best able toidentify their own needs. Finding the best tool therefore means listening to them. You also have to make sure you don’t forget anyone. Knowing that the same tool can be used for marketing, after-sales serviceand commercial services, it will sometimes be necessary to make concessions, and to find the paradigm that is best for everyone.
2 – Measurability
A useful CRM specification is a specification that allows you to note and compare the different solutions available to you. It is only by prioritizing that we can arrive at the optimal choice. There evaluation grid, exhaustive and objectivemust therefore be at the heart of your CRM specifications.
3 – Foresight
As we mentioned above, the optimal CRM solution can only be chosen taking into account the long term. In addition to anticipating your future needs in terms of integration and projecting yourself into the CRM strategy you are going to want to carry out, the evaluation in your CRM specifications can take into account the scalability of the different candidates. The more a tool is scalable, the longer it can follow the development of the company.
In the future, this represents savings in time and money. Upgrading already installed software avoids having to sacrifice time looking for an alternative, and money in installation and training costs.
4 – Accuracy
One of the aims of the specification is to eliminate confusion. Expectations must be expressed in clear, precise, technical terms, and as concise as possible. The requirement for precision guarantees that the efforts made by everyone in the search for your new CRM solution converge towards the same goal.
5 – Neutrality
Finally, to make the optimal choice, it is crucial not to introduce bias from the start of your research period. This assumes that the contributors to the drafting of the CRM specifications, especially if they are third parties to your company, are not in a situation of conflict of interest.
FAQs
What are the different types of specifications?
In terms of IT specifications, we often distinguish two different types of specifications.
The technical specifications emphasize the constraints of a technical nature, but also of an economic, environmental, security and even ethical nature.
The functional specification, on the contrary, emphasizes the functions of a product that will meet previously specified needs.
Who should write the CRM specifications?
The search for a new CRM tool must be understood as a real project. Therefore, the one who writes the specifications is a project manager, the one who will guide the said research. This project manager can be yourself, if you are the director of a small business.
It can also be a technician chosen from the teams concerneds by using your next CRM. He can also be a consultant external to your company, specifically recruited to accomplish this mission.
When to write your CRM specifications?
The CRM specifications are a document that should guide the search for a new tool For Your Business. It must therefore be drafted in advance.
How can a CRM specification avoid scope creep?
We call scope creep the deviation from the objective or budget of a project, compared to what was originally planned. Can be consulted by the entire project team, at any time, the CRM specifications help to avoid this phenomenon. Indeed, the phenomenon of scope creep with its customers can only be partially perceptible. It can be a small customer request that shifts several steps.
However, it is obvious that customer requirements are essential in a commercial approach. In fact, it is important to define agreements upstream. In addition, communication is a major value to prevent abuses.