Customer Relationship Management concept on blue background with world map

3 Reasons People Don’t Leverage CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

– always assuming they have one in the first place!
It’s fascinating listening to some reasons that people don’t use CRM, despite the overwhelming evidence that companies committing to it can sell on average 29% more.  As a salesperson (by profession) and a business owner, I have differing views regarding the issues that impede CRM adoption.  A couple of them are covered excellently on a YouTube clip I watched earlier this week.  It’s available to watch by clicking the link here.  
I have to say, I sometimes found it hard to maintain the discipline needed to record conversations immediately after they have taken place, but time and again, when I look back I find not only did I not record the details there and then – I didn’t record them later either!  As time goes by, the backlog of conversations to record becomes too much of an effort to work through. I suspect this is a common issue for many users.  But it’s not an excuse.  A few years back, I didn’t win a piece of business I think I would have won had I remembered to record a comment a prospect made about an issue they had during a call. Subsequently, I failed to follow up on it with an action I could easily have done.  Net result was that I became aware of the value of not leaving important details to my memory and became a disciple of CRM tools to give me a helping nudge.  Not that that’s the only value.
According to research by IDC, only 38% of SMEs are benefiting from the use of CRM so there is still a long way to go. The reasons why adopting CRM makew absolute sense for your business are covered in a good article published in Forbes, which I recommend you read if you haven’t yet taken the plunge – it’s not as daunting or disruptive as you may think.  Click here to read the article.
Once you have determined how CRM should fit into your business (and not the other way round!!), it is best to get started straightaway.  The longer it is left, the most cumbersome it will become.
If you want any unbiased advice or assistance on the merits of CRM, which of the many free or low cost options is best for you, or help to implement it to ensure you start benefiting from it’s power, feel free to contact me on 01664 840763, 07712 305111 or email me at phil.partington@psalesp.com.
All the best.
 
Phil