The series of articles about Problems with CRM, we discussed how any organisations should answer two questions in order to bring their CRM to the next stage:

• What is the expected outcome of the CRM?
• What is the sales process and what you require to know in order to close a deal?

Today we discuss common issues that organisations face on CRM implementation projects that prevent to get the best results.

When choosing a CRM: Considering it an undervalued Tool 

Do you perceive that your sales process doesn’t provide enough information and the conversion rate is lower than expected?

Let see what can be the reason:

There is a rule in business: Never spend too much. That’s probably one of the most common sense rules in managing a business, the first value comes from a proper spending capability:  buy at the best price gives companies the benefit to sell with a profit.

But there is also another gold rule: Never spend too little.

We could find a balance between the two rules and reasonably develop an improved common sense: Save too much money leads business into trouble as much as spending too much can do.

And the higher the risk, the more effort is required to achieve a better decision. How critical, strategical and valuable we feel the choice of a CRM? CRM is a system, generally a digital system, as much a calendar is digital: but before IT they both were on paper. CRM is a logic that enables marketing. Organisations that rely on sales can create invaluable processes management using a proper CRM strategy, hence to choose the digital system that enables the best sales management can be strategically important, more than just an operational decision.

But it is also hard to decide for the best solution when too many options are available. In this case the simpler decision strategy entrepreneurs often put in place is to lower the risk. Lowered the cost or do not spend at all. Several proposal “price zero” are available in the market, and we are tempted to grasp one and move on: “In the worst case we will change it…”. Sometime we can instead decide to take a payed solution but at very low cost: “In the worst case we risk only a small amount…”

What we miss in this decision process is the link between the importance of the system and the outcome for the business. 

First point to reflect is: If a solution, a system, is able to create value, why someone should give it away for free? Are you going to put in place your own business to provide your services/products free of charge to your clients?

If the second answer is yes, then also the first one can be yes, if not, then probably freeware solutions have just a hidden price, ask what that price would be is our duty and, particularly, when it comes to CRM.

Second thought is: with that tiny amount of resources, will we be able to reach the outcome we expect related to the business value? Is that small amount of money a proper compensation for the value this tool can create?

Also in this case, if the second answer is yes, then the first one will also be yes. We can expect low outcome or a little business value and, in both cases, it is right to choose a cheap solution: not every business can become Apple or Amazon. In this case the best solution has limited features, limited capabilities but at least company doesn’t need to allocate great resources in it.

But what if your business is not that small? Are your deals more valuable? Is it your sales team above “two pizzas”? Is your sales process more complex and your sales people deal with complex markets or each client is more crucial? Then cheap solutions would not empower your sales people as much as they deserve, and the whole processes management can be much less effective than it should be. The good news is that adopting a low cost solution in the very beginning doesn’t mean you have to live with it forever; it can be a bit tricky, but a migration is absolutely doable, and a new, better system can be created also using your own experience with the low performing solution.

When we acknowledge that we stuck into a cheap CRM we should start to plan a migration. A project to develop a properly designed solution, that doesn’t miss an up-to-date user interface, can rely on a proper logic that fits to the business model and it is flexible to create reports as you need, is something you can start to design possibly using the expertise of an external consultant, someone with experience in design CRM for different businesses.

Some symptoms of a low performing solution can be listed here:

• Sales people have a lot of tasks to accomplish manually
• Leads contact backlog is high
• Poor conversion rates
• Dispersion of information
• Slower sales process
• Lack of reporting, little or no information

If you acknowledge some of these problems, then it is time to review your CRM. The good news is that technology moved fast and today good solutions are less expensive than just few years ago. The suggestion is to start with the proper step by outsourcing your CRM support: talk to us and let discover if Pipedrive can be the solution that fits your business model.