Ten Questions to Evaluate a CRM System

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Not too long ago, you as financial advisor could squeak by with outdated Excel files tracking critical client interactions or somehow convince yourself that the Rolodex on your desk was good enough to track clients and prospects. Your business was doing fine and you wanted to run it your way.

That is understandable, even commendable.

What the pandemic has taught us, however, is that change is not only inevitable, but unexpected and highly disruptive. We’ve become accustomed to Zoom calls as the norm. Your digital environment can no longer be “good enough” – it must be rock solid. An advisor’s CRM software is no longer a nice-to-have piece of technology; it is the foundation for your entire digital ecosystem.

Many advisors are in limbo when it comes to making a choice or a change regarding the most important piece of technology they will purchase. Maybe it’s analysis paralysis, procrastination, or there’s disagreement among those charged with making the final decision. No matter which of those excuses most closely resembles yours, I am here to help.

Here are 10 questions to ask yourself as you assess the CRMs available in the Golden Age of FinTech (I’ve helped a bit with the answers too):

1. How much of my time is required to implement this enhancement or make a change?

The CRM you choose should specialize in working with advisors and should understand our profession. Checking those two very simple boxes means that you will save a vast amount of time as you get up and running. Advisors are a very distinctive set of professionals with an equally specific set of needs, like doctors or lawyers

2. Do I have to use the whole thing right out of the box?

Run from anyone who says “yes” to this! You want a flexible solution that both grows with you and that you can grow into. A CRM solution can seem overwhelming at first, and there’s absolutely no reason you can’t ramp up your usage over time as you familiarize yourself with everything a high-powered CRM makes possible. In fact, that’s what you should do. Start small and work with your provider’s customer service team to identify the most important features to deploy right away.