When CRM goes bad, watch out for zombies

Comment from Matt Skinner

A well implemented and managed CRM solution is one great way to help you achieve such an outcome.

At IRD we’ve spent the past 15 years working with a wide range of sales organisations and the topic of CRM is never far from the conversation. And these numbers explain why – in 2015, worldwide sales of CRM software exceeded US$23bn with companies such as Salesforce, Oracle, SAP and Microsoft accounting for over 40% of the global market. By 2017, Gartner predicts the market will have ballooned to US$36bn.

CRM is here to stay and as most sales leaders we speak to agree, it can have a massive impact on profitability, productivity and customer service. However, as we go about our business, we’re constantly amazed by the level of negativity and dissatisfaction we come across when discussions turn to CRM.

Anecdotally at least, it would seem that not much has changed since Gartner published its research at the start of the last decade that indicated 55% of all CRM projects fail to produce results. From what we hear, the business world is littered with zombie CRM systems – those that deliver limited value and in many of the worst cases turned formerly high-performing sales teams into the living dead.

Whilst much has been written about the benefits of CRM adoption and with IRD set to chime in on that debate with some exciting news on this topic soon (watch this space), less has been said about avoiding the pitfalls and the CRM zombie touch of death.

With that in mind, here’s five ruminations on why CRM goes bad.

1. Implementing CRM before creating a customer strategy

With such a wide variety of CRMs on the market, with more bells and whistles than you’ll probably ever use, it’s easy to lose site of the bigger picture. Be warned, often CRMs fail because the implementer allows software to dictate strategy. Failure to see your shiny new CRM as a means to an end rather than the end in itself can make salespeople mindless slaves to the machine, rather than effective servants of their customers. 
 

2. Cutting corners / buying on price

On the flip side, we’ve encountered many businesses that under-appreciate the importance of a technology platform that aligns strongly with their growth strategy. Many choose to deploy one of the well-known CRMs that compete aggressively on price. However, if the CRM platform is little more than an online Rolodex, that’s all it will ever be. Moreover, if the system isn’t highly intuitive and data entry and management proves a burden, data quality will decay and usage will be lacklustre. A big no-no when you consider the crucial role CRM can play as a business’ collective corporate memory – a memory that benefits everyone in an organisation and, for instance, can protect customer relationships in the inevitable situation when sales people move on to new gigs. 

3. Limited capacity to customise

Perhaps the biggest complaint we here about CRMs is the difficulty in aligning with a business’ systems and the unique nature of their selling process. No two businesses are alike, so an off-the-shelf number requiring extensive support and development to dovetail with established customer relationship practices is going to be a headache. If one or more of your accounting, traffic and billing or marketing automation solutions play central roles in your broader customer relationship program, it is essential they can be seamlessly integrated into your CRM or your sales force will soon disengage from the project. Some will lose the will to live as they repeatedly have to enter the same piece of data into multiple repositories. 
 

4. Lack of management buy-in and ownership

If you’re like me and encounter a new piece of supposedly life-enhancing software on an almost daily basis, the thought of another major systems change may well make you want to scream at the moon. Many of us take comfort from the familiar, and whilst we all probably know our current CRM, or perhaps spreadsheet or sticky note system isn’t exactly the best solution, a sense of dread fills us when we’re faced with the transition to a new CRM and all the learning and trial and error that entails. From our experience, the best way to ensure the successful deployment of a new CRM is for the project to be managed and actively supported from the top of an organisation. No amount of cajoling from the IT manager will replace the leadership of a CEO. Perhaps more important is the need for the CRM project to be owned by an individual to ensure the team uses the system effectively, ensures data is handled consistently and ensures the CRM aligns with business process. It has been said that CRM is adopted and not installed, and we agree that high-level executive buy-in and system ownership are two key ways of achieving this. 
 

5. Crap in, crap out!

The curse of the zombie CRM can often be traced back to statements such as “my CRM data is crap”. This sort of sentiment, which means the usage white flag has been raised, stems back to ineffectual executive buy-in and ownership. Without clearly setting the expectation that CRM maintenance and usage is a requirement of the sales person’s job, and without a project owner that keeps a close eye on data hygiene and procures third party prospecting data, the business leader can only have themselves to blame when their shiny new system rots before their eyes into an under-utilised data graveyard.  

So, are you on the brink of a CRM zombie apocalypse? It might be time to review your CRM, processes and strategy so you can live to sell another day!

About The Author

Matt Skinner

Matt Skinner CEO and Managing Director Information Resource Development (IRD)

Disclosure: radioinfo Managing Editor Peter Saxon is Chairman of IRD.

Tags: |