CRM Pricing: Why Retainers SEEM SENSIBLEPosted by Dolan Hoover on April 25th, 2021 After CRM Software Cost decides to implement a CRM solution, such as GoldMine sales software, the next step will be selecting a consultant. Your payment arrangement with the consultant, in lots of ways, will impact both the pricing of the entire project, and oftentimes, your relationship with the consultant. Most consultants work for their clients on either an hourly or retainer basis. Hourly consultants will charge a specific hourly amount because of their time spent consulting, training or implementing your program. Hourly rates may even be different based on the nature of the service (i.e. Consulting 5/hr vs. Training 5/hr vs. Programming 0/hr). In a retainer arrangement, an arranged fee is charged every month, or each quarter, regardless of the specific service or time allocated to the project. When considering CRM pricing, with products such as GoldMine sales software, establishing a retainer arrangement with your consultant can be most beneficial for several reasons: 1) Retainers Usually Cover Everything. Many times CRM consulting firms offer hourly charges for servicing the technical aspects of the project, while other services such as reconfiguration, reporting and training are handled on an additional project basis. Retainer fees are usually all inclusive, with the expectation that the retainer fee will connect with every area of the CRM project implementation, from consulting, through rollout, and reconfigurations and training. This enables the client to have all their needs met minus the constant decision making of whether to spend more hourly dollars on other aspects, such as training, that are often skipped, but are critically important to the entire success of the project. 2) Retainers Make Budgeting Easier. There are no billing surprises for your client in a retainer relationship. The charge from the CRM firm may be the same from every month, or annually, making it easy to forecast and budget for the future. 3) Retainer clients have a tendency to get high priority. By initiating a retainer relationship, your client has demonstrated its faith and commitment to the project and CRM consultant in an extended term relationship. In turn, the CRM consultant will be motivated to do everything essential to preserve the relationship. This means a heightened level of customer service for the client and your client usually has greater success in the rollout and adoption of the CRM solution across their company.Like it? Share it! |