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The Single Biggest Problem Facing EDOs and How CRM Solves It

Jordan Gilley

Feb 2 2023

3 min read

The single biggest problem facing Economic Development Organizations (EDOs) is the challenge of managing and organizing their interactions with businesses and other stakeholders. EDOs play a crucial role in supporting businesses and fostering economic growth in their communities, but with so many stakeholders to engage with, it can be difficult for EDOs to prioritize their efforts and to provide the appropriate level of support to each stakeholder.

One way to address this problem is with a customer relationship management (CRM) system. A CRM system can help EDOs to manage and organize their interactions with businesses and other stakeholders more effectively, by providing tools and capabilities for tracking and managing the various stages of outreach and engagement, as well as for tracking the support and services provided to businesses.

How CRM Helps EDOs

With a CRM system, EDOs can create tailored profiles for each stakeholder, which can include detailed information about the business, its needs, and its goals. This can help EDOs better understand the businesses they are working with and provide more targeted and effective support.

A CRM system can also help EDOs to track and manage the various stages of their outreach and engagement efforts with businesses. This can include tracking the initial contact with a business, as well as subsequent meetings and interactions through their Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) program. This can help EDOs to identify which businesses they are making the most progress with, and to prioritize their efforts accordingly.

Additionally, a CRM system can help EDOs to track and manage the various services and support they provide to businesses. This can include things like providing access to financing and incentives, offering business training and workshops, and connecting businesses with other organizations and resources. With a CRM system, EDOs can create detailed records of the support they provide to each business, which can help them to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts and to identify areas for improvement.

Overall, a CRM system can be a valuable tool for EDOs, helping them to manage and organize their interactions with businesses and other stakeholders more effectively, and to provide more targeted and effective support. By using a CRM system, EDOs can better support the businesses in their communities and foster economic growth in their region.

Sikich offers an EDO-ready software solution with robust CRM features to give EDOs the capabilities they need. We created our solution, Sikich Cloud Nine Economic Development^TM for Dynamics 365 CRM, by using the Microsoft Power Platform technology. See how it benefits your organization in this 5 minute demo video below:

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About the Author

Jordan Gilley

Jordan Gilley is an experienced Account Executive at Sikich and has spent her time working with various Economic Development professionals around the country. After getting her Bachelor’s of Arts in Theatre Arts and Acting at Columbus State University in 2017, she is very passionate about using her communication skills to maintain relationships with both new and existing clients. Aside for our tool built specifically for Economic Developers, Jordan also works across various other enterprise Microsoft tools including Dynamics 365 CRM and ERP applications.