CRM is a NIGHTMARE
CRM applications are supposed to be a blessing for companies and all the software users. We all assume that CRM is a major business facilitator and a great way to help a company develop, grow and get a great ROI ratio so how could CRM become a nightmare? In this article we shall discuss how CRM can be a nightmare and how it can be Eden. The following testimonies are from sales employees in major companies who have been using various CRM applications and have either suffered or enjoyed their experiences. Names of companies, employees and CRM providers would not be disclosed due to the noncommercial policy I am adopting in my blog.
First witness:
- Tell me about your experience with CRM and how do you think it affects your production?
- Production my ass man, this CRM legend is crap, I hate it, absolutely hate it, it is totally useless and worthless; a major waste of money and effort. I spend most of my time filling in information, names, accounts and qualifying leads while I should be on the phone closing deals and making money for the company and myself.
Second witness:
- Tell me about your experience with CRM and how do you think it affects your production?
- Well, honestly I am new to this so my experience is somehow limited. I started using the software few weeks ago I find it incredibly useful as a database but I don’t really get how it could help a sales personnel.
Third witness:
- Tell me about your experience with CRM and how do you think it affects your production?
- Let me tell you a very important fact before I go into details; I have been using CRM for over two years now and I managed to get richer and richer everyday through the amounts of commissions I have been getting out of using that magical sphere of CRM. It is very important to know how to properly use the software in hand as I always believed information is power and power leads to money and control. CRM has altered my life incredibly and for sure to the better.
You must excuse the language used but I could not remove those words because I had to present you the testimonies exactly as they were said to me. This small sample of testimonies is carefully chosen for its variety. We have both for and against opinions and we shall discuss the reasons behind both experiences then come up with a nice conclusion about whether CRM is a nightmare or the goose that lays golden eggs.
In the first two testimonies we see an aggressive way of looking at CRM; a clear signal to the waste of time and effort, only useful as a database and nothing more, so we can deduct that it gives less production than expected. In both testimonies there is rather an angry tone used against data entry or in other words information entry, so the question here should be, is CRM a database only and users on it should be concerned only with data entry or is it more than that?
Let me tell you the answer clear and easy, yes CRM contains a database of all the accounts, leads, contacts and many other branches such as reports, charts, etc… on the other hand, CRM is not limited to data entry, the right usage of the software and its applications enables a sales user for instance to create reports and statistics that proves to be very useful and handy to a sales personnel in many ways. One way is to use these reports to cut down the time on unqualified leads and small accounts that consume lots of effort and time and give back low ROI ratio. For example, one can create a report order for the leads that has small market capacity and use less time on them instead of dividing the sales department’s time equally on all leads coming in to the company. The thing with CRM is that it is really rich and needs effort to understand it and use it properly.
The third testimony shows great trust in the system and its applications. This trust comes from the right usage of every detail a personnel has entered into the system. CRM is a double edged blade for it could be very beneficial when you know ins and outs around the system and that’s exactly why I recommend all CRM users to insist on full training before independently using the system. No wonder your boss would hound you every time you miss a little information for your boss is well trained and knows exactly how useful this info might be in a report or a chart. In conclusion, the more info you put into the system, the easier you make it for the system to give you adequate reports and results. This saves you more time and effort which leads to greater productivity and more money.
Always remember: Information is Power.
