In our recent SalesTech report, we asked 400 sales executives what technology tools are most important to improving the effectiveness of sales reps, and what the are barriers to deploying these tech tools.
While a CRM system was viewed as the most used and the most valuable tool, a relationship intelligence service like SugarCRM Hint (or a data enrichment service like D&B, Hoovers or Data.com) was the least utilized (only 27%) out of the 11 major categories of tools that appeared on the list.
We also asked which tools organizations don’t use, but you would like to use in the future? Here, relationship intelligence/data enrichment was actually the top choice – 28% of respondents are intrigued. That makes sense: the sales profession is moving to a place where reps must have software that helps them gather and analyze data, save time, and get their work done more efficiently.
So, if there is strong interest, why aren’t these types of tools more widely adopted? We asked. Here are the top barriers to deployment:
Cost – 38%
Complexity – 26%
No pressing need – 22%
Lack of awareness of benefits – 21%
Lack of senior-level buy in – 18%
The cost factor is understandable as all businesses operate within finite budgets. However, please note that Nucleus Research evaluated SugarCRM Hint to be saving sales reps “an average of 17 minutes per lead, delivering payback in less than a month based on just two calls.” Hint helps you spend less time on research and maintenance, so that you can focus more time on getting to know your customer and building that connection.
Barriers to Relationship Intelligence
As for the other barriers, such as “no pressing need” and “lack of awareness of benefits,” here’s what Hint helps you with today:
Build a Better Customer Experience – Eliminate awkward introductions and connect right from the first outreach. Engage more customers by providing actionable intelligence to all customer-facing employees.
Achieve Better Conversion Rates – Add intelligence to every stage of your sales, customer service and marketing workflows, and boost lead acquisition to opportunity close rates.
Enjoy Better Productivity – Eliminate time consuming web research and manual data entry, and get back more time to building your rapport with your customer, as well as providing excellent service customers.
Create Better CRM Adoption – Make your CRM the go-to customer data platform for your sales teams by providing reps a superior user experience with a tool they’ll actually want to use.
To learn more about SugarCRM Hint, or request a free evaluation, go here.