Originally small-to-medium sized businesses believed that they couldn’t afford to operate like the big boys who were running highly sophisticated customer relationship management (CRM) software. This is partially due to the fact that CRM software used to mean huge changes in your information technology system. However, nowadays there are simple solutions at affordable prices.

In the early nineties when the term “CRM” was coined, it was basically only something really used by huge IT companies. These companies had large, expensive, clunky databases that were filled with gobs and gobs of customer data. The databases had to be managed by large teams and you had to be a tech genius in order to extract and manipulate data.

Fast forward 15 years and now most of the CRM software for small business could be run by someone in high school. Yes there are still databases and you still have to extract data from the database, but nowadays there are companies that will manage your database for you. Because these companies manage multiple databases they can do it an extremely affordable price. In addition interacting with the database is akin to checking your email.

Because of these drastic changes, smaller companies are now able to afford powerful CRM software. SalesForce, one of the most popular packages out there, has a solution for small businesses that starts at $5 per month per user. If your small company isn’t willing to spend $5 per month to better understand and handle your customers, then it better have a pretty good reason for not doing so.

Some of the common features that come with small business CRM software include contact management, account management, lead handling, and issue tracking. The contact management is a nifty tool that allows your sales team to rank and schedule out their work for the day. The lead management tool allows you to categorize a lead as hot, cool, or warm. In addition you can program into the software how leads should be handled at different stages. We all know it is hard to close a sale if a salesperson is too aggressive or not aggressive enough. In addition your salespeople can input personal information about their leads that will enable them to provide better information and be more personable.

These tools can be extremely valuable for your customer service department. All too often smaller businesses try to cut costs in customer service. This leaves your customer service people and your customers unhappy. There is nothing more annoying for a customer then calling in for assistance only to be given to someone who lacks knowledge and power to do anything about the problem. With a CRM account manager your service team can see past problems and discussions with the customer. This will allow them to better know how to handle angry customers.

The days of huge database teams and incomprehensible CRM software are behind us. Nowadays small businesses can pick up some of the best customer management packages for as little as five dollars a month. This is definitely one tool that any small company shouldn’t be without. Find out more at the CRM Consulting Guide.

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