Questions to Ask When Buying a CRM

20+ years…that’s over 175,200 hours, which translates into 8,000 days…this is the investment Sales-Link has personally made in developing its Pharma Business Development Information System (Pharma BDI). -That equals over ten million minutes of work.

The next time you and your team consider purchasing a system to assist in sales, these are the questions you should ask:

How did you build your system?

The importance of this question can not be underestimated. Most people don’t realize what goes into building a system and how many resources it takes to “maintain the beast”. Sales-Link’s Pharma BDI system has over 500,000 verified contacts and 40,000 verified companies in its database, so it’s no wonder that it has taken over two decades and $3M to ensure this system will give users an effortless sales experience.

What experience led to the creation of your system?

Susan Walsh, founder, and CEO of Sales-Link Inc. and the brains behind Pharma BDI has 20+ years of sales experience in the Pharmaceutical, Biotech and Diagnostic Industry.

Mark Banioff founder and CEO of Salesforce had 13+ years of experience in programming.

Zig Ziglar had 20+ years of experience selling and motivational speaking.

Adding the rich resources of years of experience to back a system, such as Pharma BDI, adds an unparalleled level of expertise. Built by salespeople for salespeople, Pharma BDI is an intuitive system that gives you the metrics and customizability you have been asking for for years.

What drives the data in your system?

We don’t like to call Pharma BDI a CRM, (Customer Relationship Management) System, because what we have is contact data that has been verified for our users. It’s not just a system to track and annotate your leads and sales, Pharma BDI has all the leads and their verified contact information primed and waiting for you.

It’s important to know what drives the data in a system because systems that are news-driven vs data-driven differ in the quality of contacts the system offers. Lots of systems provide opportunities for sales associates to harvest leads from recent pharma news, but data-driven Pharma BDI offers up quality, pre-verified leads, in addition to the news information.

Finding out the answers to these questions before you make your purchase, can shine a spotlight on what makes the CRM of your choice run? Knowing how it was built, and what motivates the people behind the curtain who are running the show, can give you a better picture of the system you are thinking of using.

You know our story, now. We have chosen to invest over ten million minutes to create this product to make life better for people just like you.

Who is overseeing the curating of the data?

People who have been in sales positions and have had to fight the good fight know best the kind of rounded crew of titles needed to keep you, the user happy.

Hunters are naturally pursuing whatever the unit needs to survive. So don’t think it only matters out in the field, it also matters in the back office of the system that keeps your sales growing. Persistence is a great trait of the hunter and that will keep the database growing, the system improving, and the features expanding.

So when you select your CRM, don’t let it dictate to you; you can demand what you want. Systems of the past have dictated what you would get and how you would use it. Today, it’s different with many more choices available. You really can find the system of your choice.

Whatever you decide, use our checklist above and select what you need with some knowledge of the group behind the curtain. Be sure they are awake, have an understanding of the industry, and show signs of keeping inline with where the future sales requirements are going.