In this article, you'll find a summary of a comprehensive survey covering how CRM tools are implemented, how they're used, the obstacles identified, the benefits experienced and our recommendations for reconciling sales reps with the tools delivered to them.
Sales functions often suffer from the CRM tools available to them, even though their purpose is to help them improve their sales performance. sales performance. Indeed, while a large majority of the companies interviewed (80%) recognize that CRM tools enable better customer knowledge, nearly 75% of them observe resistance to their use for reasons independent of the tool implemented (ergonomics, availability of information, etc.).
In many CRM projects, difficulties in deploying the solution to end-users are compounded by problems of solution design and configuration(over 73% of companies interviewed acknowledged that the CRM tool in place in their company was not sufficiently mastered by users and adopted by managers). As a result, users are refusing to use the tool, or are only partially familiar with it, while sales managers continue to use their old systems to manage their business.
In this case, the entire sustainability of the project is called into question, due to the lack of operational results. And yet, we all know that the tool is not an end in itself, and cannot overcome the obstacles and reluctance of users; rather, the solution often lies in the managerial approach.
This study shows us two major trends:
1. The collective interest of CRM tools, i.e. that of the company, is not called into question by users and their managers: virtually everyone recognizes that the tool enables advances in customer knowledge and information sharing. However, these contributions remain fundamental to all CRM tools (including free solutions!).
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2. However, when it comes to personal involvement in the implementation and use of a CRM tool, a great deal of resistance emerges, making it difficult - if not impossible - to roll out to operational staff. The tool becomes misinformed, criticized, not used, etc.
In conclusion, the collective stakes of this type of project are usually shared, but conflict with the individual interests of the targeted users, the sales people.
Our vision: it must be recognized that CRM tools are not essential to individual sales performance: many salespeople continue to perform well without using a global CRM solution. However, the growth of sales and marketing organizations and the pressure of competition are forcing customer relations managers to refine their knowledge of their targets, and thus the sharing of information.
In short, the question to ask is: How can we combine the individual interests and benefits of sales reps with the company's global and collective challenges?
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