A Guide to Getting the Most Out of Your CRM

Your CRM should do more than store contacts — it should drive strategy. A fully optimized CRM helps leaders streamline operations, improve forecasting, and strengthen customer relationships. Yet many organizations underuse their systems or struggle with outdated processes that block visibility and growth.

To get the most from your CRM, you need the right technology, embedded processes, and a plan for continual improvement.

Assessing Your Current State

Looking at your daily operations can reveal opportunities to improve cross-functional visibility, data quality, and scalability.

Ask yourself questions such as: How are you operating? Where can you make improvements? Would implementing a better business system or process help enable those improvements?

Consider beginning an optimization initiative if:

• Manual processes dominate workflows, leaving little time for employees to do more meaningful, value-added work.
• Critical data is scattered across multiple systems, resulting in delayed, inaccurate, and unreliable information that hinders decision-making.
• You rely on physical storage instead of utilizing a collaborative cloud-based model. This not only poses a significant security risk but also causes internal inefficiencies.
• Your teams can’t access essential data remotely or securely share information.
• Client interactions are hard to track, preventing you from making data-driven decisions to enhance the customer experience.

Optimizing Your Existing CRM

Before you consider new investments, explore ways to maximize the ROI of your current systems.

Here are strategies to optimize your current technology setup:

Conduct a Technology Audit

Inventory your existing platforms and assess what's working — and what's not. For example, you may find you're paying for multiple platforms that serve the same purpose, such as two email automation tools or overlapping customer support systems. Identifying redundancies like these can help cut costs and reduce complexity. Identify any redundancies, underutilized tools, or systems that no longer meet your needs.

Streamline Processes

Uncover unused or underutilized features that can improve workflows.

Improve Integration

Assess how well your current systems communicate with each other. Lack of integration can lead to inefficiencies and data silos, while improving integration can enhance data flow and accessibility.

Upgrade Existing Solutions

Rather than purchasing new solutions, you may be able to extend your existing functionality with upgrades or add-ons.

Implement Automation

Identify repetitive, manual tasks that could be automated to increase efficiency and free up employees to focus on more strategic tasks. Common starting points include automating lead follow-up emails, syncing contact records between systems, or setting up alerts for high-value client activity. Even small automations can significantly reduce administrative load.

Reconfigure and Develop

As your organization changes, so should your systems. The technology you have in place may be capable, but it just needs to be retooled and optimized to better align to your current processes and organizational direction.

Encourage User Feedback

Gather feedback from your technology's users to gain insights into challenges they face, features they wish existed, or functionalities they find redundant.

Prioritize Training and Support

Even the best tools can become underutilized if users don't know how to leverage them fully. Consider holding ongoing training sessions, creating internal resources, or even having a dedicated support person or team.

Monitor and Adjust

Continuously monitor the performance and usage of your technology and be ready to adjust as needed. This proactive approach ensures that your technology remains aligned with your business goals and operational needs.

By optimizing your current technology, you can enhance efficiency, improve employee and customer satisfaction, and ensure your organization is well-positioned for future growth. This strategy also allows for a more informed decision-making process when the time comes to consider new technology investments.

Investing in New Technology

When it’s time to upgrade, selecting the right CRM is critical to future-proofing your organization.

Look for a platform that is:

• Cloud-Based: Enables real-time collaboration and access without needing to purchase, store, and maintain any physical hardware.
• Scalable: Grows as your team or customer base expands.
• User-Friendly: Minimizes training time and increases adoption.
• Regularly Updated: New features and improvements keep you ahead of changing market demands.
• Integrative: Can seamlessly connect to your marketing, finance, and ops tools.

Preparing for Implementation and Optimization

If you’re ready to make the switch to a new CRM or optimize your current solution to empower future growth, it’s important to plan ahead. Following the right steps prior to undertaking a technology initiative will help the transition go as smoothly as possible.

Set measurable goals.

Do you want to increase sales by a certain percentage? Are you hoping for a measurable improvement in your customer support results? This will help guide the scope and ensure the implementation addresses your critical areas.

Don’t replicate old workflows.

Don’t purchase a new CRM license just to copy your current process flow in the new system. Communicate the way you do business so your implementation partner can translate that effectively to the new technology.

Engage your sales, marketing, and customer support staff.

Changes to your CRM will likely mean significant changes in the way they do their jobs. It’s important to keep them involved in the entire process so nothing is overlooked and adoption remains high.

Invest in training.

Prepare for the impending learning curve as you switch over from your previous business processes and systems. End-user training will cut down the time it takes for your team to ramp up the new tool and process.

Take time for your data.

Organize and create back-ups. And if possible, clean your data before the transition. This includes removing duplicate contact records, correcting formatting inconsistencies (like date or phone number fields), and flagging obsolete entries, such as past clients with no activity in 3+ years.

Move your data slowly.

Rather than transferring everything at once, create a small test batch to import first — such as a few hundred client entries or a single business unit’s records. Use this batch to verify formatting, field mappings, and permission settings. Once validated, proceed with the full migration in phases.

Monitor the transition closely.

Talk to your employees and customers to figure out where configurations need to be modified and if any additional training is needed.

Drive Long-Term Success with Optimized CRM Solutions

The right CRM technology can improve efficiency, visibility, and decision-making across your organization. Whether you’re optimizing your current system or moving to a new platform, Eide Bailly can help you navigate the process and tailor a solution to your unique needs.

Ready to take your CRM to the next level? Our team is here to guide you every step of the way and ensure you get the most out of your technology investment.