See how long a CRM takes to pay back its one-off costs from the admin and follow-up time it saves your team, after the subscription is paid.
Enter what the CRM costs you once, then the net yearly benefit: the dollar value of the time your team stops spending on admin, re-keying and chasing, minus the yearly subscription. The tool subtracts any credit from the one-off cost, grows the benefit each year by the rate you enter, and counts how long the cumulative benefit takes to cover the net cost. Net gain = total benefit over the period − net one-off cost.
Worked example (illustrative): 6 salespeople each save 1.5 hours a week over 46 working weeks, valued at $55 an hour including on-costs: 6 × 1.5 × 46 × $55 = $22,770. The subscription is 6 seats × $70 × 12 = $5,040, so the net benefit is $17,730 a year. One-off costs are $15,000. With 3% growth, payback is about 0.85 years and the net gain over three years is about $39,800 ($54,802 of benefit less $15,000).
Be honest about the inputs. Time saved only counts if it is used for selling or service, and it is easy to overestimate. Start with a conservative figure, measured during a trial if you can. If you expect extra revenue (for example from fewer forgotten follow-ups), include only the gross margin on it, not the sales value. The payback worked example shows how to estimate time saved.
Worked Costings and Selection Checklists
How to estimate the sales and admin time a CRM saves, value it honestly, subtract the subscription and calculate payback, with conservative and expected scenarios.
