Nowadays, almost every business has caught onto the fact that CRM Software is a must. It doesn't matter if you're big or small, your salespeople need to keep track of leads and you need reporting that will give you answers to questions that drive your sales. But with so many options available, which features should you look for to really fit with your business' goals.

The first important thing is to answer whether or not you need a hosted solution. In the days of virtual employees, hosted solutions are sometimes the best way to go. The other benefit is that you don't need to fuss with installing the software on your own server and managing all the updates. With hosted solutions, its plug and play for the most part. However, there are some legitimate reasons to have software on your own server. In case you pick an open source solution and want to have your programmers make the program 'sing' and do what you need it to do. That is usually not possible with a hosted solution.

Another important consideration is deciding what type of CRM Tool you want. There are some that are more geared towards lead prospect management and there are others that are more of customer relationship. Lead management software programs are excellent for making sure that your salespeople are following sequential steps that management has laid out. Customer relationship management software typically keeps track of the contacts with a given customer and has more reporting features that might be helpful to management.

Whatever way you choose, you want to make sure that you have researched all the options. With CRM Software being such a hot thing in the business community, there are a lot more smaller players that are doing some intersting things. Be sure to check out all your options.