Is Your CRM Failing You?

We often hear business owners bemoaning their CRM performance – “Our prospect data is woefully out of date;” “I can’t get everyone on the team to use our CRM;” “The reports coming out of our CRM make no sense when compared to our actual sales numbers and financials;” “IT expenses are killing us – and we’re seeing no return on continuous investment.”

Do any of those complaints sound familiar? We hate to tell you this, but usually, your CRM is not failing you – you are failing your CRM. Below are some of the problems we’ve been able to tackle with our clients.

Common Problems with CRM Systems:

• Multiple platforms with disparate data. A lack of integration between systems is one of the most common issues companies face with their CRM. Getting all systems to work together seamlessly takes time, money and effort. Often the best solution is to find a single CRM that can meet all your needs. If that isn’t an option, finding a CRM that makes integration easier is a solid option.
• The system you needed yesterday is not the system you need tomorrow. It is a challenge to predict the future when selecting a CRM. Often what you knew when you made that decision changes dramatically – both with your business needs and CRM capabilities. It’s important to keep your long-range corporate goals in mind when choosing and implementing a CRM.
• Executives and employees are not “on board” with the CRM. Everyone in your company will be affected by your CRM – everyone. The single most important part of choosing a CRM is including everyone in that decision in some way, beginning with understanding each employee’s process from their perspective.
• GIGO. Garbage in, garbage out. Your CRM only knows what you tell it. If you feed it bad information, bad information is what you are going to get back. A CRM is not a magic pill that cures diseased data.
• Ineffective processes and systems. Implementing a CRM to help you get a handle on the way your organization handles data will not work. It’s important to make sure your systems around the data that will be going into and out of your CRM are sound before implementing your CRM.
• Poorly trained – or untrained – CRM users. This is a major factor in GIGO noted above. When your executives and employees don’t understand how the CRM works and their role in feeding in and extracting information, you are sure to encounter many needless headaches. Keep in mind, that CRM training should be an ongoing process – for both new and existing team members.
• Unnecessary data quarantines. Make sure your employees and executives have access to ALL the data they need to do their jobs. Usually this is done with the good intention of not overwhelming people with a firehose of data, but the more information people have, the better equipped they will be.
• Cost creep. This most often occurs when you sign on to a CRM without understanding the TCO – total cost of ownership. A CRM is an important investment, and investing too little is a common cause of problems. Be sure you understand the costs of integrations, training and special system features.

If any of these are issues your company is facing, give us a call (866) 880-4228 or click here. AspenTech CRM will work with you and your team to create the CRM system you need for success today and into the future.

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