{"id":290,"date":"2019-10-10T22:49:10","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T22:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/321-growth-academy-2023.local\/are-you-ready-for-a-crm\/"},"modified":"2023-11-02T21:12:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T21:12:06","slug":"are-you-ready-for-a-crm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/321growthacademy.com\/are-you-ready-for-a-crm\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you ready for a CRM?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/321growthacademy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screen-Shot-2019-12-20-at-3.46.29-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26608\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At 321, we often get asked \u201cwhich CRM should I use?\u201d And, like most great questions, there\u2019s no easy answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, in this post we\u2019ll share some of our lessons learned (often the hard way!) from our experience implementing a variety of CRM, marketing automation and sales pipeline management tools and tech stacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Timing is Everything<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Before you get to the question of \u201cwhich CRM\u201d, you should think about \u201cwhen\u201d. Timing matters. We see many companies either invest too early, or far too late \u2013 and both of those scenarios are problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are an early stage company, we are big fans of taking a lean approach to your growth stack, to avoid spending too much time and money \u2013 and to avoid getting it wrong, only to have to rebuild later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Specifically, you may be too early to get too far with your tools if:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>You haven\u2019t worked out the kinks in your business model<\/strong>,&nbsp;<em>or at least have a solid hypothesis you are working on (or towards). Before that, you\u2019ll want to spend the bulk of your time on developing and validating your business model.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>You don\u2019t yet have a clearly defined target market and Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>The reason is that the data you collect, and the way you\u2019ll sell and market, will change depending on the nature of your target market and customer. Thus, if you want to get it (mostly) right at the outset, you\u2019ll want a solid \u201cICP\u201d before going too far with your stack.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>You\u2019ve maybe done some experimenting with sales &amp; marketing, but it\u2019s too early to see initial results.<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>We recommend walking before running. You don\u2019t need full scale marketing automation to support test campaigns. You don\u2019t need a full pipeline management system to handle your first few deals. You\u2019ll want to have a sense of what is working, and what isn\u2019t before investing in building out your stack.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The time to start working on your CRM\/tech stack is when:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>You have a workable business model<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>You have a clearly defined target market and ideal customer profile (ICP)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>You have some early sales &amp; marketing results<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This is Part 1 in 321 Growth Academy\u2019s blog series of CRM lessons from the startup trenches.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/321growthacademy.com\/what-kind-of-crm-do-you-need-to-fuel-your-growth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Click here for Part 2<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/321growthacademy.com\/rev-up-revenue-with-crm-pro-tips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">here for Part 3<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At 321, we often get asked \u201cwhich CRM should I use?\u201d And, like most great questions, there\u2019s no easy answer. In this post we\u2019ll share some of our lessons learned (often the hard way!) from our experience implementing a variety of CRM, marketing automation and sales pipeline management tools and tech stacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","category-sales"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Your Small Business Ready for a CRM? - 321 Growth Academy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this three-part blog, the 321 Growth Academy team shares our top CRM Tips for Small Businesses to help rev up revenue.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/321growthacademy.com\/are-you-ready-for-a-crm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Your Small Business Ready for a CRM? 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