How to Pick a Customer Relationship Management Tool That Fits Your Business CRM tools are a great way to manage a growing client roster. Here's some expert advice on picking the one that's best for you.

It's fairly straightforward to determine if you need a customer relationship management solution such as Salesforce. Maria Thomas, director of product management at Insightly, a San Francisco-based CRM software provider, says that if you communicate daily with at least 10 to 20 customers, prospects or partners, your business could benefit from a proper CRM tool. We asked her to guide us through the selection process.

What's the first step?

Start by documenting your technical requirements -- what you need the tool to accomplish and the data you want it to track. If you don't, you'll likely overpay for a solution with unnecessary functionality or, worse, you might waste time and money on a CRM tool that can't support a crucial part of your business.