Benefits of CRM Technology
The benefits of CRM technology stem from increased revenue and decreased costs. Increased revenue primarily comes from more satisfied customers, the ability to upsell and cross-sell, and higher acceptance rates on marketing campaigns. Reduced costs are attained through a reduction in administrative time used to track down information, improved reporting, and quicker issue resolution.

	Pain Point	Functionality
1.	Leads are not lost or are not followed up on by sales	Lead manaagment with follow-up workflow
2.	Marketers do not know what products and services to sell to prospects	Campaign management
3.	Salespeople and sales managers do not know the status or next steps required for an opportunity or case	Oppoptunity mnanagement, workflow and case management
4.	Customer information is not available in one centralized place	Case management and contact management
5.	Employees do not know what products or services customers have purchased	Account management
6.	Employees do not know who to contact when a customer issue arises	Contact Management
7.	Customer issues are not resolved in a timely manner	Case management with follow-up workflow
8.	Reports are not available that tell employees how the business is performing	Analytics and forecasting
9.	Orders are often taken on paper or by fax	Order management
10.	Customer service agents repeartedly re-create the same resolution to a problem	Customer knowledge base

Small businesses should consider three key decision-making factors when embarking upon a CRM project: business process change, timeline, and cost.

Business process change: The goal is to introduce common processes, not to fundamentally change the way the company does business. Small businesses should choose ease of use over complex functionality that requires major business process adaptation.
Timeline: Implementation timeline varies from two weeks to two months with an average of thirty days.
Cost: The cost is typically $500–750 US per user per year. Maintenance and support typically represent 20–24 percent of the implementation cost (17 percent of software, plus support personnel) for licensed applications.

The right CRM technology investments help small businesses to sell more to existing customers, acquire new customers faster, and better manage the business. CRM solutions pay for themselves by capturing the business that would have otherwise been lost.