My job title: I do not think it means what I think it means

August 26, 2015 7:01 PM

My job title at my company is CRM Administrator. I am trying to find out what comparable positions to mine are making salary-wise, but when I search using the job title CRM Administrator I am mostly coming up with job descriptions that are not very similar to mine at all. How do I figure out what I need to search on to find positions comparable to mine, and find the accepted salary range for my position? Bonus question included.

Searching on CRM Administrator brings up a large number of job descriptions that are either IT related (development, deployment, integration, implementation consultant) or some sort of analyst (business, data, systems, etc.) I am none of these things.

What I actually do is administrate the day-to-day functioning of the CRM. Activating and deactivating users; user training and support; ensuring data integrity; building custom reports; working with department heads to integrate their processes into the CRM; importing and exporting records; writing user guides, tutorials and process documentation. I'm sure there are things I'm leaving out, but that is the basic gist of it. I work under the marketing department but also work closely with our sales team.

I would like to find out what the normal pay range is for a position like mine, or a similar position.

Bonus question: I would also like to know what sort of positions I should be looking into if I decide to start looking for another job. My goal is to achieve a significant salary increase, by one means or another. I prefer to stay in my current job but I need to start making a case for a decent raise.

I am in the suburbs of a large midwestern city. I have decent computer skills and office skills (so perhaps I should be looking into sales admin positions as well as CRM admin?) I have an associate degree in an unrelated field and 4 years of experience with CRMs (CRM On Demand (Oracle), Goldmine, and Salesforce.)

Any suggestions or guidance would be appreciated.

posted by sock puppy to Work & Money (8 answers total)

Best answer: You say you're not an "Analyst", but you sound like one to me:

Business Systems Analyst
Business Analyst
System Analyst
posted by LoveHam at 7:10 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In my experience, the parts of your role fall in line with these types of job titles:

* Activating and deactivating users; user training and support; ensuring data integrity = IT Help Desk, CMS Administrator
* Ensuring data integrity; building custom reports = Data Specialist, Sales Campaign Specialist, Sales and Marketing Coordinator
* Building custom reports; working with department heads to integrate their processes into the CRM = Business Analyst, Systems Analyst
* Writing user guides, tutorials and process documentation = Technical Writer, Internal Communications Writer

I know a person whose job sounds similar to yours (sans the training and documentation parts), and his title is Data and Campaign Specialist.
posted by neushoorn at 12:42 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: For what it's worth, our CRM Administrator did what you do, though the full title was "Systems Administrator - CRM". But that sort of systems administrator doesn't do what a lot of people with the title "Systems Administrator" will do and I think that is because some places like to pay less for a job that should really be titled "Business Analyst". But where I work, roles like yours are all titled "Systems Administrator" followed by the actual system that the admin is for. Administrators for general data quality also have similar roles. Our Business Analyst roles are entirely more demanding and higher level and are used more for implementation. I think you're on the right track and maybe searching for systems administrator posts would help but you may have to just wade through loads of jobs to make sure you don't miss anything.
posted by Polychrome at 5:01 AM on August 27, 2015

Best answer: This sounds like some form of Sales Operations to me.
posted by tybstar at 6:45 AM on August 27, 2015

Best answer: I came in to say Business Analyst also. This often overlaps with the duties of a System Analyst but I think the SA is expected to be more technical knowledgable about the system. And if I'm not mistaken a System Administrator is even more on the technical side.
posted by eatcake at 6:47 AM on August 27, 2015

Best answer: I work for one of the application vendors that you mentioned. My role is very much behind-the-scenes technical, but it's common for my colleagues on the application implementation side to have a background like yours, as an end-user of the products that they're implementing.

So you already mentioned CRM implementation consultant, but maybe you don't need to rule that one out. Could involve analysing customer requirements, mapping existing business processes onto product capabilities, conducting acceptance tests, training new users, etc - all of which sounds like a reasonable match to what you already do. Difference would be that you'd be doing it for a bunch of different customers over a period of time - and passing on the benefit of your experience to people in those organisations who do the equivalent of your current role.

Many IT services organisations will need people with those skills. As will the application vendors themselves, in their own consulting divisions. I don't know what you earn now or what the market is like in your part of the world, but this line of work has consistently put food on my table for a few years now.
posted by rd45 at 9:09 AM on August 27, 2015

Response by poster: Well this has been very interesting, to say the least. I now have several different ideas as far as figuring out what I do now and where it might take me in the future. Thank you everyone!
posted by sock puppy at 4:06 PM on August 27, 2015

Sorry I'm a little late to the party: I have a job similar to how you describe yours, down to the working for both Sales and Marketing, and my external title is Corporate Knowledge Manager, while my payroll title is Senior Sales Support. I have an MS in Library Science.
posted by clone boulevard at 8:19 PM on August 28, 2015