.
Rich's Own Annotated Guide to CRM Solutions!
First, I have to share one of my pet peeves with every single CRM
developer. Before they try to understand anything about your company and
your unique CRM requirements, you will be asked to tell how many "seats" you
will require. This is NOT customer centric selling! This is a self-centered
attempt to decide (first thing!) if your "deal" is big enough to merit their
attention!
I long ago lost track of just how many pretty boys in suits glibly told me
that it takes them just as much effort to sell a 50 seat deal as it did a
500 seat deal. Though I never believed that, I would always tell them that
that was there problem. Or, their opportunity! Remember, these were the same
folks pushing their high-priced CRM software at you by telling you just how
much they could shrink your sales cycles and improve your sales
efficiencies! Which brings me to one of the dirty little secrets of this CRM
business - few, if any, of the CRM developers effectively use there own
products! But, that's a story for another day!
So, it is a reality that one of the ways all CRM developers target customers
is by the size of your company. Refer to the table below and you will see
how I break things down further.
Elsewhere on this site, I have tried to slice & dice solutions by
platform,
vertical market and country. This page
will try to guide you to CRM solutions appropriate for various size
corporations.
|
Segment
|
Metric
|
Business
Count
|
|
Employees
|
Revenue
|
|
Solopreneur
|
1 – 10
|
< $1M
|
9.0M
|
|
Small Business
|
11 - 50
|
$1M – $5M
|
3.0M
|
|
Mid Market
|
51 – 250
|
$5M - $50 M
|
400K
|
|
Small Enterprise
|
250 - 500
|
$50M - $100M
|
35K
|
|
Medium Enterprise
|
500 – 5,000
|
$100M - $1B
|
25K
|
|
FORTUNE 1000
|
5,000 – 10,000
|
> $1B
|
1000
|
|
Global 500
|
> 10,000
|
> $10B
|
500
|
The absolute counts in the table above are
not critical (I got the counts one day on the
infoUSA site.) The key thing to note
is the relative size of each market segment.
One more thing, when you scan a list like
this, don't let your left brain get the better of you! These are my judgment
calls. Of course, it is possible for a solution to slide from one category
to another!
Note: This is another page that I update almost continuously as I go through my
process of updating the various In-Depth Reviews!
SOHO
Small Business
Microsoft Small Business +
Microsoft Small Business + is a free, personalized online
resource to help small businesses get more out of their Microsoft software
investment.
www.microsoft.com/sbplusf
Mid Market
Small Enterprise
Medium Enterprise
FORTUNE 1000
Global 500
Have a question about this topic?
Then please just email me your question! If the answer is short
& sweet, I will pop you back an answer. If the question requires further
research, I will look into it and post the reply on my blog,
AskRichBohn.com, to share with
others. As always, you can email me at
rich@sellmorenow.com !
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