Why your CRM implementation failed, and you end up using Excel

Surely you have heard that if you have sales or lead retention problems, it is because you lack a good tool to manage your prospects and customers. A CRM tool, which often ends up being Excel. We have all been in that situation.

This statement is not without reason, but the fact that there is an intrinsic problem with all customer management software is often overlooked, and in this article I'll tell you what it is.

The short answer is: complexity. Here's why your CRM implementation failed and why you end up using Excel.

What is a CRM?

If you've come to this article, and you've never heard of a CRM, I'll give you a brief summary. A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a platform for managing and analyzing interactions with current and potential customers. It centralizes all information related to sales, marketing, customer service and support in a single system.

It is used to improve operational efficiency, optimize customer communication, increase customer loyalty and facilitate data-driven decision-making. A CRM helps companies better understand customer behaviour and improve relationship management.

It sounds spectacular and seems to be the ultimate tool for organizing your business sales. In fact, it is a powerful and very useful tool to optimize the management of potential customers and sales. This article is not an apology against the use of CRMs, on the contrary.

Most well-known CRM in the market

The elephant in the room. Why your CRM implementation failed?

The ‘elephant in the room’, which is often not realized until you start using a CRM, is the complexity involved and how difficult it can be to organize a CRM to get the most out of it.

This ‘elephant’ manifests itself mainly in the sheer amount of functionality these systems have. They are designed for sales, operations, marketing and other departments to work together within the same platform. However, when CRM starts to be misused, two common scenarios are common:

1. Incorrect use and maintenance of bad habits: The company starts using CRM in the wrong way and perpetuates these bad habits. The result is that the service is maintained because it is a ‘nice to have’ product, but it is not used to its full advantage.

2. Early termination of service: In this case, the company repeatedly switches CRMs, thinking that the problem is with the software rather than the way they use it. This is what I call ‘CRM roulette’.

In both cases, complexity is the real problem. Over time, you accumulate unstructured data that is not useful, even if you have a long history.

The biggest problem is the lack of in-depth customer knowledge, which results in a low rate of closing sales.

The biggest problem is the complexity involved when organizing a CRM to get the most out of it.

Solutions?

At this point, it can be difficult to know what to do. Many consider as a solution the implementation of additional tools within CRM, sold as ‘magic solutions’ to improve your sales, such as lead scoring.

Lead scoring (article on lead scoring) is one of these magic solutions, as it directly impacts lead management (link to article on 7 best practices in lead scoring). However, the native solutions within CRMs of this technology usually meet the following criteria:

• They are simple, based on basic ‘yes’ or ‘no’ rules that assign scores to prospects based on predetermined criteria.

• They use global models that do not consider your company-specific data.

• They fail to make the most of your data and interaction history.

These simple solutions can lead to even more complexity. If you'll pardon the analogy, it's like trying to put out a forest fire with a glass of water.

Lead scoring is an excellent tool if implemented correctly. For it to work well, it is essential to have good quality data, i.e. data that accurately represents what you want to optimize.

The true solution

At the end of the day, the best solution is a good integration from the start or a timely change in data management, to have a structured and coherent handling of the information stored in your CRM.

CRMs can be the cornerstone of your business and therefore the basis of your entire sales strategy. For that reason, it is important to get advice from the beginning if you have no experience in implementing a CRM.

Tools like lead scoring work and can make the difference between good lead management and great lead management. But first, you need to make sure your CRM implementation is correct in order to take advantage of technologies like lead scoring.

In short, it's crucial to understand the process your leads follow in your sales funnel: how they enter, what patterns they follow, and the steps that are managed until the sale is closed.

A good data pipeline must reinforce these rules to ensure the good quality of its data.

Conclusions

This article is not intended to discourage the use of CRMs or tools such as lead scoring. On the contrary, these solutions have the potential to transform your sales and boost your business.

Take these key takeaways from the article:

1. Knowledge about speed: Take your time when integrating a CRM into your company. Consult with professionals, and use the resources and materials offered by the CRM provider.

2. Step by step: Don't try to solve the data problem with tools that use the same data. Lead scoring is not a salvation in itself, but a tool that can boost your results once the data is already well organized.

3. Think ahead: From the first moment you decide to implement a CRM, be clear about what your sales funnel looks like. Don't try to improvise as you go along. A solid strategy from the beginning will facilitate the incorporation of strategic tools such as lead scoring to multiply your closing rates.

If you got this far, and you already have a good CRM implementation, and you are interested in trying predictive lead scoring based on your own data, I invite you to take a free demo of our services.