According to a recent survey carried out by salesforce.com, “73% of CRM users do not use 50% of the functionality available to them in their CRM systems.”
I think it can be true that often businesses buy an off-the-shelf CRM solution almost as a panic buy because they feel they either; need a way to manage their data, (be it customers or prospects, or both) or that they “need a CRM system!”. If a majority of businesses are not using a large amount of functionality to them there could be all sorts of reasons. I’ve encountered a lack of knowledge, a general disregard for a new way of working and even businesses that were sold a toolkit that didn’t meet their specific requirements at the time.
I believe that in the minds eye of any business in question, a “Data Warehouse”, is envisioned as having one of two capabilities;
- a Lead Management Portal designed for a salesforce
- a Customer Relationship Management tool for Marketing and Analysis
and what you often find is that the term “CRM” is used interchangeably for either tool. Far-sighted project managers would plan on having both systems interacting – we shall come onto that in a moment.
I'd argue that in terms of implementation of infrastructure, there needs to be a distinct difference between a Lead Management portal and a CRM system.
The portal should work in two ways - assisting the Sales function in storing researched or bought information for cold leads, and as a storage system for existing customers that have been segmented / selected for targeting for a given piece of activity, to be carried out by the sales team.
The CRM should be a data warehouse of existing customer behaviour that (in a perfect world) allows for two-way interaction of data; the customer can see what they’ve bought and when, and the business can see both individual and overall customer behaviour.
If a business chooses to bring both those functions together, to classify them as either a CRM OR a Portal ultimately leaves one aspect of a business poorly served. Both systems should interact and learn from each other, and seen as an overall Enterprise (for want of a better word) solution that both benefits a business in the short term and allows for scalability over time.
That said, as a statistic “73% of CRM users do not use 50% of the functionality available to them in their CRM systems”, it would be interesting to see, over time, if the second percentage begins to fall as confidence and understanding grows within the business.
The main problem when buying an off-the-shelf CRM is that assumptions are made on behalf of the reseller and the purchaser. The best, and in my opinion, only way to set up a CRM system within a business is to have any external consultants / service providers working almost as a member of staff, rather than a sales person set to “fire-and-forget”. That way, the consultant will share the investment into the system, investment that should pay back in the short an long term. This personal investment should ensure that the second percentage drops in a very short space of time.
