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’s 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: buying at the best price gives companies the benefit of selling 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: Saving too much money leads businesses into trouble as much as spending too much can do.
The higher the risk, the more effort is required to achieve a better decision. How critical, strategic and valuable do 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 choosing 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 on 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 proposals “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…”. Sometimes we can instead decide to take a paid solution but at a 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.
The first point to reflect on 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 the first one can be yes, if not, then probably freeware solutions have just a hidden price, knowing what that price would be is our duty, particularly, when it comes to CRM.
My 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 outcomes or 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 and limited capabilities, but at least the company doesn’t need to allocate great resources to 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 processing more complex and your salespeople deal with complex markets, or each client is more crucial? Then cheap solutions would not empower your salespeople as much as they deserve, and the whole process 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 migration is absolutely doable, and a new, better system can be created using your own experience with the low performing solution.
When we acknowledge that we are stuck in 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 the business model and 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:
- Salespeople have a lot of tasks to accomplish manually
- Leads contract 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 a few years ago. The suggestion is to start with the proper step by outsourcing your CRM support: talk to us and discover if Pipedrive can be the solution that fits your business model.