Three or four years ago SMBs were apprehensive with CRM,
said Brent Leary, co-founder and partner of CRM
Essentials.
CRM was comprehensive and complex and it required someone
who could manage servers and software upgrades. SMBs rarely could afford a
dedicated IT expert to install and manage these services. Today it’s far more
accessible and affordable, said Leary.
In addition, traditional CRM was originally seen as needed
for operational reasons, not necessarily to get new customers, Leary mentioned.
With the introduction of social CRM, SMBs are becoming far more interested.
SMBs still are in their infancy in contact and opportunity management. Compared to big business, they are highly mobile and need data anytime and anywhere. They also need to enter data where they find it which is in the car, on the phone or perhaps on site. Their lack of infrastructure has driven SMBs to cloud based solutions and multi-point access.