Raising Giants #001:
Reading time, 2 minutes
Are you working so fast that you’ll look back with regret?
We all know speed is crucial when you’re running an early stage business.
And it’s usually better to just get stuff done immediately, instead of planning for potential futures that might never exist.
But sometimes it pays to take a short pause today, to make sure you aren’t creating problems for yourself tomorrow.
We spoke to Dr Thomas Ramsøy, CEO and Founder of Neurons, (€6m raised last summer) about where to make sure you aren’t racing ahead too fast.
He told us that one key piece of the puzzle to get right early, is your CRM.
“Remember, you want to grow your business exponentially.
So you need to track your customer all the way through the process. From their first touch with your company in the marketing funnel; the length of and steps in the sales funnel; the work needed in customer success; churn rates and all of the finances involved.
This early data is going to become mission critical as you track your team’s performance and predict your future sales – especially as you scale to hundreds or thousands of customers.
That means having a foundation with good tracking is extremely important for future success. You need to gather as much data as you can, as early as possible.”
Actions you can take to make your CRM powerful from day one:
- Be clear that your CRM isn’t just where you keep your client’s details – it’s a key place to store vital future information.
- Map your key customer journey milestones from their perspective as well as yours (yes, your customer journey will change but start with what you know).
- Track everything you think might be important in the future. You can always simplify as you go.
- If you don’t already have a CRM, get off those spreadsheets and start free or low-cost with something like Hubspot or Pipedrive.