Our recent SalesTech survey found 70% of organizations currently use CRM – the most common tool improve the effectiveness of sales teams. That’s a a number we like seeing, but what about the other 30% that aren’t using CRM? We asked them what is keeping from deploying a CRM within their organization. Here are top five reasons that respondents listed:
| Cost | 42% |
| Organization resists change | 34% |
| Complexity | 32% |
| No pressing need | 29% |
| Lack of awareness of benefits | 29% |
All of these reasons are valid, and if you follow the CRM industry, you probably recognize them as familiar challenges to a successful CRM implementation. Leaving cost aside for a bit, let’s look at each reason in a little more detail:
Organization Resists Change: It’s normal that employees will have natural skepticism of a new process or tool that’s thrown on them. That’s one of the main reasons CRM adoption is a challenge. If management suddenly decides on a new CRM without taking employees’ input into consideration, there will be resistance. That’s why it is critical to involve the sales reps on the front lines and bring their input into the decision making process. It’s a must to show that a new, modern CRM system is a good thing that will make your employees’ better at their jobs and help them reach their goals easier to overcome this resistance.
Complexity: As a CRM industry, this one is our fault. For years, the businesses have told the CRM industry to make your products easier to use, and focus on the core CRM features we care about. Instead, the industry has been working hard to convince CRM customers that they need more, and that they should pay for it. This bloatware concept makes CRM overly costly and leads to frustrated users. Instead of bloatware, modern CRM must be about helping customers and employees create meaningful and valuable relationships built around topics that matter to everybody involved. Less is actually more.
No pressing need/ lack of awareness of benefits: There are countless articles, from the basic to the more nuanced, about why your need a CRM. Here’s my take: simply flipping the switch and turning on a CRM won’t give you all the benefits you are looking for. Rather, you need a comprehensive strategy for your CRM system complete with project owners, budgets, goals and timelines. With that in place, a new CRM can revolutionize your business, cut costs, increase revenue and rekindle your customers’ love for your business.
Cost: Last but not least, the price of CRM will always be rated as the highest deterrent in studies like this. The executives who participated in this survey all must operate under fixed budgets and make their resources go as far as possible. Having said that, how can you not do everything you can to offer your customers the best experience possible? With a few exceptions, different companies in the same industry usually offer just a variation of the same services or products. And every one of those competitors are just a simple Google search away from each other. How you win customers is now based on how you treat customers as much, or more than, as what you sell. That means the need for an exceptional, and unique, customer experience is more critical than ever before. The companies that win in this era of empowered and intelligent customers win because they create better relationships with their customers.
If it’s true that you have to spend money to make money, CRM should be a strong consideration for your business. For more details, please visit SugarCRM’s 2017 SalesTech survey report.
-Andrew