Should I hire an in-house CRM Administrator?

Most businesses today understand they need a CRM — but far fewer understand how to use one to its full potential. For many teams, it starts as a simple place to store customer information. But very quickly, the CRM becomes the nerve center for everything from lead tracking and sales forecasting to post-sale support.

That’s where things can get complicated. Without someone actively managing your CRM, data becomes unreliable, processes fall apart, and the whole system can begin to work against you.

So what does it actually take to keep a CRM healthy and high-performing — and who should be responsible for it? Let’s take a look.

What is a CRM, and why does it need an administrator?

Let's start with the basics. A CRM, or Customer Relationship Management system, is truly the backbone of your customer data. It's the central hub where your sales, marketing, and service teams can come together to track interactions, nurture leads, and ultimately drive business growth.

But here's the crucial part: a CRM is not just a static database; it's a living, breathing ecosystem. New data is constantly flowing in, and that's precisely why you need someone dedicated to administering it. Without a dedicated admin, your CRM can quickly become messy, leading to missed opportunities, inefficient processes, and potentially costly mistakes.

Beyond just preventing issues, a good CRM administrator, in my experience, is also able to spot opportunities. While keeping the data clean and workflows running, we can identify things like a handful of contacts showing strong intent, or those "low-hanging fruit" that sales teams can act on directly within the CRM to meet or exceed quotas.

Your CRM is for everyone, not just sales!

A common misconception is that CRMs are only for sales teams. But I firmly believe that if you're a business that communicates with people for any purpose, you should have a CRM. For example, we have multiple nonprofit clients who use their CRMs to manage donors and scholarship recipients.

What's really important is the expectation of a certain level of relationship once someone becomes a customer. They expect you to understand past conversations and what's already been discussed. Many companies use their CRM effectively during the sales process, but then the engagement drops off once a lead converts into a customer. This is a huge missed opportunity! You should bring that robust CRM usage over to the customer side by documenting interactions, feedback, and notes about projects. This allows any team member to pull up an account and have all the necessary context immediately, helping you provide a truly magical and personal customer service experience.

How to administer your CRM: In-House, Outsourced, or Hybrid?

When it comes to managing your CRM, you essentially have three main options:

1. In-House CRM Administrators: You can have one or more people on your own team dedicated to this role.

• Pros:
  • They will have a deep understanding of your data inside and out, including your business context, team quirks, and unique goals.
  • They are immediately available to act when something needs to be done.

• Cons:
  • In-house admins can become "siloed," potentially missing out on the latest best practices or trends from outside your specific business
  • Relying on a single person creates a risk of bottlenecks or failures if they leave or take leave.
  • They bear the onus of keeping up with all advancements in the CRM technology, which is a job in itself.
  • It can be risky to assign CRM implementation to someone who isn't a full-time expert, as they might not know key best practices (like using dropdowns over text fields for data cleanliness).

2. Outsourced CRM Administration: Partnering with an agency (like Trekk!) to manage your CRM.

• Pros:
  • Outsiders bring a valuable outside perspective and have seen what works across many different industries. This allows them to spot inefficiencies and opportunities that an insider might miss, and often faster.
  • You gain access to a broader skill set.
  • Outsourcing can often be a lower cost than hiring a full-time person.
  • Agencies offer flexibility to scale up or down as your needs change through a contractual relationship.

• Cons: 
  • An outside admin doesn't work directly for you, so there can be an initial learning curve for them to fully understand your day-to-day business context, team structure, goals, and culture. (Though, with long-term relationships, this becomes less of an issue, as we often develop a deep understanding of our clients).

3. Hybrid Solution: This combines internal support with outside expertise.

• Pros:
  • This is truly the best of both worlds.
  • You get the agility of internal support for daily needs.
  • You can leverage outside expertise for bigger projects or more strategic initiatives.
  • It allows for collaborative strategizing, combining your deep business knowledge with our CRM expertise.

How do you decide what's right for you?

Choosing the right administration model depends on your unique business. Here are some key questions to ask yourself:

• Complexity & Time Commitment: How complex is your data, and how much time will it realistically take to administrate your CRM? Do you genuinely need someone 40 hours a week, or multiple people, in-house?
• Flexibility & Expertise Access: Do you need flexibility, or want access to more diverse expertise than you currently have in-house?
• Cost: Are you looking to save on overhead costs?
• Tech Stack Complexity: How many other systems will your CRM be integrated with (e.g., ERP, fulfillment systems)? More integrations generally mean more complexity.
• Mission-Criticality: When something needs to be fixed or changed in the CRM, how quickly does it need to happen? Is it a "right now" emergency, or can it wait 24 hours? If it's affecting major things like fulfillment, you might need immediate in-house skills.
• Sales Team & Commissions: Do you have a large sales team with complex commission calculations that rely on CRM data being immediately available for payouts? This might necessitate an in-house presence.

Ongoing Training & Support: How much time and budget can you dedicate to ensuring your in-house team receives ongoing training and support to stay on top of new CRM capabilities and maximize ROI?

A real-world example: transforming a disorganized CRM

We recently worked with a client whose CRM had become disorganized and unreliable. They had tried to manage it internally, but the data was fragmented, siloed, and inconsistent. Our approach involved:

1. Comprehensive Audit: We identified issues like record management problems and inconsistencies in data entry.
2. Rebuilding: We rebuilt their data structure and automated workflows for lead nurturing, assignments, and follow-ups to ensure nothing was missed.
3. Training: We provided training on basic system usage and best practices for data maintenance.

The results were transformative: Their CRM became a single source of truth for the entire organization, bringing marketing, sales, and service together. They saw increases in leads, conversion rates, and faster sales cycles. This allowed their marketing department to demonstrate ROI and justify their budget, and leadership gained more confidence in their data, empowering everyone to focus on driving revenue.

This client's situation evolved into a hybrid model. While they had an internal marketing leader (a strong internal champion), they relied on us for the ongoing administration to ensure things remained clean and functional.

Ultimately, ensuring your CRM is well-administered is critical for business growth and efficiency. Whether you choose an in-house, outsourced, or hybrid approach, having that dedicated expertise is non-negotiable for long-term success.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this provided some valuable insights! If you have any questions about CRM management, especially HubSpot, feel free to reach out to Trekk — we’ve been HubSpot Solutions Partners since 2015.