“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?
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.