A small business customer searching for CRM products will find a dizzying array of solutions in the market. Finding a cost-effective small business CRM product that truly serves the needs of growing business can be challenging. In order to identify and implement a CRM strategy successfully, a small business operator must keep an eye on three critical variables: Easy Customization, TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), and Flexibility.

A good small business CRM product needs to be easy to customize. It should offer easy, secure integration with existing company database, accounting systems, and other business systems and procedures in use.

Small businesses do not have the luxury of having a large staff of software developers or system administrators. CRM products for small businesses should be designed to remain easily adaptable to the particular business needs of the end-user.

Small businesses need a flexible CRM product. But what does flexible really mean? Flexibility speaks to the ability of the CRM product buyer to add features as and when necessary. Ideally, CRM products should have features that can be added quickly, and without unnecessary features. Also, an effective small business CRM product should be easily scalable to any number of users to accommodate the needs of growing businesses.

Small businesses are inherently cost-conscious, but need to be able to adapt quickly to changing opportunities. The best small business CRM products therefore help to keep the business TCO down. Hosted CRM solutions address TCO by freeing a small business from the IT responsibilities that come with some business solutions. As hosted CRM is delivered over the Internet and accessed via web browser, small businesses can implement CRM without buying into increased technology overhead.