“The State of CRM”: CRM to grow beyond contact management
CRM Report
Go-To-Market Strategies has published “The State of CRM: Benchmarks and Product Guide (2008)“. The 19 page document can be downloaded here.
They have asked their subscribers:
-What CRM software they were using, what modules and how it works with other software.
- Inquired about user adoption, inter-departmental use, key benchmarks and best practices.
Although the title states “Product guide” only 2 products are mentioned in the report: SalesForce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which is a bit limited as there are many CRM’s available.
Main problems and issues:
- It is hard to get staff USE the CRM system
- Data accuracy is an issue … garbage in, garbage out
- Only a few of the inquired people are truly recognizing the value of CRM
Key findings:
- Most CRM systems are mainly used for Contact Management (The electronic Rolodex)
- Adoption of the CRM is still pitiful, given the investment.
At best 60% have almost everyone using the system for sales; 47% for marketing; and 40% for customer service.
- Less than 50% feel as though they were able to get real time information from their CRM.
- Only 30% are using their CRM for forecasting and only 60% are using it for pipeline management.
- There are so many choices of CRM now available that no one system truly dominates
Though salesforce.com does come out on top as 24% top choice.
- Only 52% follow CRM best practices
(data clean-up, disaster recovery, integration with sales model, and real-time metrics).
- Not one single CRM system dominates.
- 37% has only 1 to 5 users – 45% has 20 users or more – thus most systems are being used in small sales teams.
Conclusion:
CRM solutions:
- Have room for improvement
- Need to grow further than being contact management
- Should engage all of the employees in marketing and sales
- Need to adapt to the changing environment of marketing and sales: the Internet and new communication methods
Read: Why CRM fail?.
Do you use the CRM of your company? If not why?
Do you too just use the contact management? Why not more functions?
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Thanks. This is an excellent guide. I found it helpful, considering my company is in the midst of yet another CRM initiative. One item to note, although there are only two products included… there is a link to a much more comprehensive CRM product list. I believe they picked these two CRMs because they were the most commonly used amongst the survey participants. Thanks again.