Cloud CRMs rarely include all of the necessary tools that a small business needs to drive sales and build stronger customer relationships. Even then, these tools were traditionally only available for large-scale organizations. The original costs of implementing a CRM were fairly expensive in the past, limiting its usage to a smaller number of businesses with higher budgets that could afford the luxury of managing customers at volume.
The founding roots of customer relationship management tools can be associated with high operational costs. Traditional CRMs would provide enterprise-focused services that include major costs to IT staff, server maintenance, and associated account managers. The high barrier to entry for small and medium-sized businesses made it nearly impossible to afford obtaining a CRM service. Especially when competing with large organizations that had a seemingly infinite budget.
Fortunately, the advancement of technology has helped bring CRM features to a more reasonable price range. Good timing too, as the demand for CRM has since multiplied. In Capterra’s CRM Software Buyer Trends for 2015, 65% of companies adopted a CRM within their first 5 years of business. The new shift also took the focus away from offering a watered-down version of enterprise CRM; these CRMs were built with small businesses in mind.
Cloud CRMs have made implementing a CRM solution cheaper, easier, and more customizable for everyday businesses. Many small businesses have benefited by being more competitive amongst their relative industries. Big server rooms, IT teams, and unnecessary administration fees are a thing of the past, and CRMs have evolved towards consolidation of data and unification of resources. App integrations have also allowed easy connectivity between existing platforms.
By applying sales-ready ideas from the traditional CRMs that drove immense business and built exceptional customer relationships, cloud CRMs have since opened the door to customer success for businesses of all sizes. From cutting-edge sales tools to advanced customer metrics, making CRM “small business friendly” has elevated nearly all industries and their customers alike.
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