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What you can expect from this best practice:

• Understand how your CRM can become the engine of your practice

• Fully integrate your CRM so you consistently deliver an exceptional client experience

• Manage all tasks on your CRM so nothing falls through the cracks

• Develop workflows for core operations to make implementation easy

• Capture key client information about Family, Occupation, Recreation and Wealth Engagement

• Use your CRM as a centralized system to view all things in the past, present, and future as it relates to the complete client relationship

To get an overview of the types of information your CRM should be consolidating, review Full CRM Integration.

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Choosing Your CRM

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1. Make a detailed list of all the features and abilities you want in your CRM.

   • Refer to Choosing Your CRM as a place to get started.

2. Carefully consider what options are available for your firm – there are several high calibre solutions to choose from.

   • Some firms only allow use of a CRM which is either proprietary or contracted through a specific third-party CRM provider. In this case, you may not have a choice other than learning all you can about the available CRM and integrating it to the best of your ability.

3. Narrow your choice to two or three of what you consider the best CRM solutions for your circumstances.

4. Do a comparative analysis amongst the front-runners you’ve chose considering:

   • Features & Capabilities

   • Training & Support

   • Ability to Customize

   • Ongoing Support

   • Cost

   • Data Conversion Services, Support & Cost (if needed)

5. Use the CRM Assessment Tool to help you organize your comparatives.

6. Do a Trial Run of one or more to make the best decision possible.

   • Many CRMs offer a 30-day free trial offer, which affords someone on your team the opportunity to ‘try’ them before committing.

7. Make the decision and enter in the service agreement.

8. Activate your subscription and sign up all the users on your team.

9. Delegate CRM Management to someone on the team and allow them “Administrator” status. That allows them to customize fields, create workflows/action plans, etc. for the entire team globally.

10. The CRM Manager will also lead the team through training and orientation. This, can often be provided from the CRM provider in a virtual group setting, as well as, online tutorials.

Fully Integrating Your CRM

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1. Review Navigating a CRM Transition to get you started with the planning aspects of what is required for adoption of a new CRM.

2. Have your CRM Manager coordinate all aspects of the CRM Transition.

3. The CRM Manager will add the CRM Transition to your Weekly Team Meeting Agenda, so it is a high priority item for the next 90 to 180 days (or as long as it takes to get everyone up and running).

4. The CRM Manager can use How to Fully Integrate Your CRM to get your team started with a number of specific items you will want to implement incrementally, beginning with the basic, and then moving up to more intermediate and advanced options.

   • Refer to CRM View Set Ups for samples of how this may be done.

   • Refer to Adding Action Plans and Workflows to see the high level of automation that can be integrated into your advisory practice.

5. The CRM Manager will organize Team Training Sessions.

6. The CRM Manager will ensure everyone is set up properly and understands the fundamentals.

7. If you’ve chosen a CRM solution which provides data conversion AND you have data to transfer, you need a plan to move forward with the transition.

   • Coordinate the conversion date and allow for flexibility, as this doesn’t always go as planned.

   • The CRM Manager will need to set aside a significant amount of time to review, consolidate and clean up the data. They may be able to enlist the help of others on the team to complete this as efficiently as possible.

   • Determine how long you will keep the former CRM as a back-up support and communicate this to everyone on the team.

   • Have a defined timeline for full use of the new CRM.

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