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CRM implementation in a crisis: help business or a dead issue?

April 2020 brought a crisis to small and medium-sized businesses, comparable to 2008, and for the services sector even worse. Everyone was hurt: those who sold, produced, developed, ordered and delivered - because there are no isolated units in the commercial sphere, everyone here is “chained together” and damage to one link harms almost everyone. Everyone has their own survival strategy: someone strictly follows the call from the TV, someone cuts staff, someone drives employees, and someone digs the earth with his nose and remembers that the frog that folded its legs drowned. And, what is most surprising, some of the companies do not just work, but invest in development based on the considerations of "pumping up internal muscles while there is time." And there the thriller ends. We decided to support these guys.   


When we wrote on our Yandex.Zen channel a tiny note about CRM implementation against the backdrop of this fucking pandemic, we received unexpectedly pleasant confirmation of our points: 


Indeed, CRM is now more important for companies than ever - especially when we granted our existing customers free TRM licenses for remote access. Business is now actively working in offices and from home, not only for survival, but also seeks to taxi for profitability, because there is no other way in the light of the current situation. 

A crisis is a time that changes everything. The global crisis (like the one associated with COVID-19) is also a situation where we cannot steer as we need, little depends on us. Everything is falling apart before our eyes: company paradigms, ways of working, value of office life, vacation schedule. Small and medium-sized businesses twist marketing and development / production to the full in order to adapt to new conditions. And they’re doing it right — do you remember the basic rule for skid control? Do not brake. 

Well, international studies confirm the conclusions: according to the PwC report, 42% of companies that have overcome some kind of crisis, global or local, were in a better position after the crisis. 

So why now you should consider implementing CRM?


Employees can leave


Teams are changing. Even if you do everything to save staff, you may lose it. Now the situation on the labor market is very controversial: in some sectors there is an excess of free personnel and no jobs (due to termination of the company or job cuts), in dozens of new vacancies are opening up, some companies are still calm, but active recruitment is possible in the short term . Individual employees can simply choose another team with more interesting tasks and a promising salary.

And you will need to look for, hire and adapt new employees in order to effectively survive now and start working shockly immediately after quarantine. But this is not so simple: online interviews may not bring the desired result, and training a beginner outside the office may not be fruitful. 

This is one of the rare cases when we can argue that automation in the form of CRM + part of the old team will be more effective than hiring new staff in return to decide to leave. The CRM system will provide effective tools for remote work on current business processes: preparation of primary documentation, billing, analytical reports, business process chains, KPI calculation, etc. The team will have the opportunity to continue effective activity in remote mode, observing all the requirements for self-isolation.

Deployment will reduce panic


Even if you pay your employees wages, and they sit in their summer cottages and work hard, there is panic inside them. Dozens of thoughts swarm in my head: “what if another month?”, “And then what?”, “What if they throw us out one day?”, “How stable is the organization?”, “What will happen to the Motherland and to us” ... And there is no mistrust or uncertainty about the strengths and capabilities of the company. The generations of our workers did not have such unusual situations: pi ** people were either predictable, understandable, or with light at the end of the tunnel. And here is a real black box: where it came from, why such a stir, what about people, when it all ends, etc. Against the background of such stress, it is simply impossible to think that a corporate ship will go around all the reefs, because they scream from each iron that the small business has died, it’s the turn of the middle one. Scary, damn it! 

The implementation of CRM, at least for a part of the company, will give employees confidence in the future ( from the word “day”, not “bottom” - damn it, did you ever think that you would have to write such an explanation! ). After all, if a company has decided to automate, it is stable and is going to live on, work, defeat competitors. So, you can exhale and continue to work calmly and confidently.   

Implementation will take people and you will save time from the future


Even if you continue to work remotely, the amount of tasks and time spent by employees has been reduced. In addition, the managerial part of the staff has become purely organizational freer by saving time at meetings. So, you can do the implementation in all its aspects:

  • collect requirements from all employees and departments;
  • organize a working group to select CRM and communicate with the vendor;
  • get training, understand the interface and documentation;
  • populate the new CRM system with data;
  • Design and automate business processes, etc.

The main thing is that all these tasks will not be held in emergency mode, as it happens during implementation, but at the pace that is most comfortable for each employee. Moreover, it has been noticed that while employees perceive work from home as pleasant intra-corporate communication, the teams as a whole are more inspired - partly due to the situation, partly due to cohesion before the common risks.

The main benefit is that you will return to the office and into a new life with good automation and a new level, which means that you can immediately start working more intensively without digging through papers and Excel files.

Implementation is now cost effective


Vendors, cloud and desktop, offer favorable conditions for the purchase and rental of a CRM system, a bunch of bonuses related to training, implementation, etc. But after the removal of the self-isolation regime, tariffs can increase, because companies will seek to compensate for the costs incurred. Now is a very good time to get the most from CRM developers for a minimum :-)

The only thing is that you should not keep 100% free offers. As you remember, free cheese happens only in a mousetrap and with great probability you will get used to the decision, and you will be transferred to a very paid tariff plan with monthly payments. 

In addition, each developer now has a little more time for each implementation, and he will devote it to you. By the way, do not be afraid of the remote implementation of the CRM system: firstly, almost all top developers have extensive experience in remote implementation projects, and secondly, buy from companies that do not send handsome guys in ties and jackets with presentations in three languages ​​to you , more profitable - their costs are lower and are not included in the cost of software. 

You will win first


During the beginning of the deep structural crisis of 2007-2008. studies conducted by AMI Partners showed that companies with CRM systems generated income that was more than 260% higher, and per employee more than 140% than those that did not. We remember this time: the figures are similar to the truth even for Russian reality.

When it's over, you will quarantine armed with an excellent tool for operational work and you will be able to work with clients, taking into account the sales funnel, generating documents with one click, controlling the sales history and quality, accruing KPI in the CRM system. While competitors will come to their senses and enter the rhythm, you will work on the basis of information, with full automation. And it will work with what: after a period of calm, people tend to buy, live, develop. And the situation in B2B may turn out to be the same as in B2C, because your client companies are also led by people.

During the crisis, for each company there are three pillars: a reliable team, and the correct, relevant data. These factors, unlike everything else, you can control. So, you need to bet on them. You decide whether to focus only on survival or trying to make a profit. We know one thing: this whole situation will end, a significant part of the companies will return to the offices and get even more customers. The winner is the one who, during a forced downtime, will be able to organize his staff and ensure the continuation of the activity as efficient as possible, will not lose his customers and will catch the clients of competitors who will lay down their hands and will humbly wait for their fate. This can be achieved only by implementing highly effective technical means of automating remote work, for example, RegionSoft CRM.

PS: soon we will release several articles about the remote implementation of CRM, do not miss it - they will be really useful.

The RegionSoft Developer Studio team is ready to support you with all your experience (which is 19 years on the market, over 6,000 implementations, 90% of which are remote throughout Russia and the CIS).

As part of the action , which will be valid from April 7 to April 30, 2020, we offer an unprecedented 20% discount on the purchase of any RegionSoft production solutions , and also when purchasing local CRM licenses, we will additionally provide a remote work support (TRM) license for the entire term of the self-isolation regime approved by the government + 1 month so that all our customers can work remotely.  

  • 20% discount on the purchase of any RegionSoft production licenses.
  • 30% 3 . 
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