News flash – CRMs are designed for managing customer data for sales people, they are not designed to manage member-centric organisations.
Yes, they both manage contact data, but a member on their journey within your organisations is far more complex than a sales lead. It’s like using a fork to eat soup or an electrician to fix your plumbing.
Far too often we see organisations go to a CRM system to form the basis of an enterprise membership solution. Many consultants that are to help a membership organisation find a suitable ‘contact management’ product often just look to SalesForce or Dynamics which have a great reputation as, exactly that, contact management and the sales cycle. Sadly it’s an all too familiar story that after a long and expensive effort, it’s then realised that a CRM is actually not the right product for a member-based organisation.
Trying to force a CRM to manage a membership organisation is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. You’ll maybe get it to fit one day (maybe – with enough workarounds) but it’s not fit for purpose.
Bond is not a CRM trying to work as a membership platform, and it’s certainly not just a membership system. It’s a hybrid platform that efficiently manages contacts and organisations at its core. We include all the beneficial features of CRM, but what a member-centric organisation truly needs is a more detailed perspective than just where a contact is in the sales cycle. An onboarded member is multifaceted, and far more intricate than a simple sales lead.
Throughout their journey, a member will engage with the organization at least 30 times. They’ll participate in discussion groups, forge connections, attend events, chart career paths, complete professional development, purchase products, and seek support. They are living, breathing part of the lifeblood of your organisation.
Bond and our MX ecosystem offer organisations our experience-led expertise in platforming to provide a superior (secure) single source of truth data management and a truly integrated platform. With in-house (and local) multi-disciplinary experts, we can single-handled support you through the entire digital transformation process.