CRM: 20 Years Later—Still Hated

Posted by Brad Childress on May 6, 2014 8:30:00 AM

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CRM_250The main reason that the results from CRM initiatives are suboptimal in most organizations with a field sales force is that the main stakeholder, the sales rep, doesn’t get the “WIIFM” (“What’s in it for me?”). CRM may have been well intentioned—meant to centralize information—but it wasn’t designed specifically for sales.

This is definitely going to date me, but in the late 70’s I met a local software entrepreneur, Richard Brock (www.linkedin.com/pub/richard-brock/0/84/30a). At the time he was running an accounting software company, MCS that he sold in the early 80’s. In the mid-80’s Richard invited me to his office to look at his latest venture. He didn’t have a name for it yet, but he sat down at a terminal (a green screen 3270) and showed me a system he was building to help sales people. It was basically an automated Rolodex (for those of you that don’t know what that is, check Wikipedia). The system would help a sales rep look up his customer contact information, take notes about calls/interactions, etc., all to replace the file folders where we kept our customer information.

He was proud of his new system and he asked me what I thought. I said, “Richard, this looks really cool, but I don’t have a computer terminal (we did not have laptop computers back then). I don’t even sit at a desk. I spend 3-5 days on the road calling on customers in their office.”

His reply was, "This system isn’t designed for your type of sales (big software systems) Brad; it is for call centers and sales people that sit at a desk and make 100-150 calls per day."

These days, the primary reason that companies buy a CRM is to manage the pipeline and generate an accurate forecast, but they still fall short and here’s why:

  • CRM’s core functionality relies on forms—sales people hate forms so the information isn’t always entered in a timely fashion.
  • CRM fields are selected based on a rep’s confidence level—not the customers.
  • Even the best governed CRM systems tend to have too much information that is irrelevant to sales.

In reality, CRM hasn’t changed much in 20 years. What has changed is the number of third party vendors that have built APIs to deliver valuable functionality embedded inside the CRM. There are a number of solution providers on the market, but they vary wildly as well. If you do choose to look at an embedded solution to truly help your sales team, here are a few key things to consider:

  • Will the tool be easy to access and mobile—because today’s sales team is mobile.
  • Does the application offer bi-directional data flow and can your organization support such a model? If it requires duplicate entry—run.
  • Will it make life easier for your rep? Most reps agree that 75% of their time is spent doing things OTHER than selling. Make sure the application helps them sell and isn’t just a more cleverly disguised set of forms.

Brad_Childress_180This blog was written by Brad Childress. Brad is responsible for the success of Revegy’s global sales efforts. He brings nearly 30 years of sales experience with companies such as TechCXO, an executive professional services firm, where he helped technology companies accelerate their sales efforts through sales process design, territory, account and opportunity planning and high-impact go-to-market strategies. Prior to TechCXO, Brad was EVP of Sales and Marketing for nuBridges, where under his leadership the company met all sales goals for the various lines of business in 2010, and was able to complete a strategic sale to Liaison Technologies in 2011. Before that, Brad was the President and COO of The Complex Sale and was responsible for the company’s global operations. Brad is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a B.S. In Industrial Management. 


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Topics: Sales Process, B2B Sales


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