Buy something that does what you need, and not everything else! Too often family businesses invest in sales force automation and buy a tool that does everything but bring in the sale.
Buy just what will be used by the sales team daily
Buy technology that provides “functions” that will enable you to better manage your sales and business development strategies. Security - If each sales person maintains their sales and business contacts in their personal database - when they leave their database goes too.
Make sure you have the sales people try each one first. According to Aberdeen, 70% of sales force automation implementations tend to fail mainly from user adoption (or lack thereof).
Decide what you are trying to accomplish, and then decide what functionality you need. Then look at the prices. With today’s new (and easy to use) sales automation technology, a family business owner does not need to spend a lot of money to get what works!
