It's Manufacturing Month! What better time than now to ask the hard questions about your CRM system?
I've sat in 'those' meetings. In fact, I've sat in them for the better part of the last 20 years.
I'm sure you have too. The ones where everyone feels good about the most recent trade show. Or sales event. Or marketing campaign. But no one can understand why the leads aren't reflecting it. And when the leads do get into the CRM, well, it doesn't help answer those questions.
Despite better platforms, tools and training resources, the challenges have largely stayed the same. There are reasons for that, and I've narrowed them down to five. It's also October, which is when budgets get set and plans for next year take shape. That makes it the right time to look at what's working and what isn't.
But before we get to the five, we have to acknowledge that a lot of the time, it's a lack of accountability:
This is a top-down problem, and it affects a lot more than a CRM. We won't solve it in a blog, because if that's the culture, that's the culture. Your problems will likely linger regardless of what I share next.
But if you do have a culture of accountability, one with clear expectations, training and best practices, and you're still experiencing these challenges, that's normal.
We're human. We're distracted. We're stressed. We're not great at time management. And we make mistakes.
Here are five that turn even the most sophisticated CRM from customer relationship management into can't remember much.
Mistake 1: Keep customer information in people's heads.
Your best salesperson knows everything about the account: the buyer's preferences, the history behind the pricing, who really signs off. Then they retire or leave, and all of it walks out the door with them. A CRM is where relationships live beyond the relationship.
Mistake 2: Track quotes in email, Teams or Slack threads.
Nobody knows which quotes are open, which are pending and which have gone cold. Who replied all? Which version is current? And that one salesperson with initiative just sent a quote, not the quote. A pipeline view answers all of that in seconds.
Mistake 3: Buy the CRM and never set the team up to use it.
This is the most common failure we see. Your onboarding team loves it, though. Turning the system on is the first step, not the last. Invest the time, budget and leadership attention to make sure people understand exactly what's expected of them.
Mistake 4: Make data entry as painful as possible.
Too many required fields, clunky setup, no mobile access. And we wonder why people tune out and keep their notes on a business card or in an email folder.
Mistake 5: Never connect marketing and sales.
Marketing thinks the trade show was a hit. Sales feels these are the best leads they’ve seen since Glengary Glenn Ross. Neither can prove it. A shared system closes that gap, drives collaboration, and shows you which efforts produce traction and, better yet, revenue.
You may read these and think, "Phew, thank goodness we don't have these issues."
Congratulations! I think? Well, I have to ask...how do you know? When was the last time you audited your tool?
You and your team work too hard to get leads, nurture relationships and close sales to let those relationships go unrecorded. Now is the time to reset expectations and capture the value you were promised when you first bought into this tool.
If you'd like a simple, candid look at the system you have, could have or want to have, we're here to help you start that conversation. Email me, and I'll show you how we use our CRM system.