Creating Clarity for Contact and Relationship Management A Case Study for CRM Software Selection

 The Challenge

As accounting firms focus on practice niches, they create campaigns that need to be pushed out to clients and prospects in a systematic and strategic way.  Whether they’re sending email newsletters or invitations to events, firms want to be able to reach the right audience and analyze the effectiveness of their campaigns.  With over 30 CRM software options targeted at accounting firms, many small to midsized firms are overwhelmed when searching for the right CRM.  We helped a 15-partner local accounting firm identify and assess a short list of CRM software options so that they could eventually select the right CRM for their firm.

The Solution 

In order to collect information about their current and future CRM needs, we began the process by surveying key stakeholders involved in marketing and growing the business. For this firm, the stakeholders included most partners, a few managers and the marketing director.

During our initial assessment, we asked about how they currently track and share contact and relationship data, the types of marketing campaigns they run, their process for developing and tracking new business and the business intelligence reporting currently in use and what they would like to have for their marketing and sales efforts.  We also asked about their ideal future state for contact and relationship management.

We included the IT director in this initial assessment to get more information about other software and technology factors that could impact a CRM software implementation.  This discussion also gave us information about other programs, such as practice management, email marketing and Outlook, that could potentially integrate with a new CRM system.

By collecting the information from the initial assessment, we were able to narrow down CRM choices from dozens to 4 systems.  We facilitated online demonstrations and Q&A sessions between the vendor and a small committee at the firm to give our client as much direct interaction with these potential systems as possible before making their final selection.

The Result

In the end, the firm selected the CRM system that aligned with their existing software and marketing processes and best fit their current and future needs.  By going through this CRM assessment and selection process, they not only felt confident with their software choice, they also laid the groundwork for a smoother CRM software implementation.

Disclosure: All case studies represent actual work Inovautus Consulting has performed with their clients. Names and company information is not included to protect our clients identities. Quantitative data is only shared if it does not reveal any confidential data.