5 Reasons Your CRM Is Failing (and What You Can Do About It)

purchasing a technology is enough, so they fail to do the preparation required to make that technology successful. Like every other business decision, the CRM solution you choose should be in service of specific goals that support your mission statement. An effective planning process involves setting short-, medium-, and long-term CRM goals as well as defining exactly when and how progress toward those goals will be measured. And, of course, those goals need to be communicated to everyone who will be involved with the CRM, which means everyone in the organization.

Selection of the wrong technology

One of the major consequences of a failure to plan is that when you go to select a technology solution, you pick the wrong one. Adopting CRM software that doesn't meet your organization's needs is almost worse than not having it at all, as it will only lead to frustration for everyone involved. Before purchasing a CRM software solution, determine your business needs and objectives, and then go through a comprehensive vendor selection process to ensure that the technology you purchase will allow you to meet them. One great way to start is by canvassing your employees.

Implementation of too many features at once

Everyone loves features, and the more the better. Right? Not always. CRM software comes with a wide variety of features, but attempting to use too many at once can be overwhelming. Especially if you are launching a CRM initiative for the first time, focus on the core functions, such as customer contact and data management, task and workflow automation, and data tracking and reporting. You will likely want to add more features as time goes on, but at the beginning, concentrate on making sure that all members of your organization are comfortable with the basics.

Lack of monitoring progress and adjusting goals

Successful CRM implementations need to be tailored to the needs of the business. They need clear goals, and everyone needs to understand those goals and how they will be measured. In addition, your company's needs will likely change as time progresses, so the goals should be monitored and adjusted regularly to ensure that they stay relevant. This isn't fundamentally any different from what you would do with any other new strategy or technology implementation, but for some reason, when it comes to CRM, many companies skip this step entirely. CRM software allows you to quickly measure a variety of metrics and generate reports, which makes monitoring your progress and adjusting your goals a breeze.

But it doesn't work on its own.

If your CRM solution is not performing the way you need it to, chances are you've run up against at least one of these five obstacles. Figure out which, then chart the course for your success.

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Sameer Bhatia is founder and CEO of ProProfs.com, a provider of online learning tools for building, testing, and applying knowledge. Through its knowledge base software, ProProfs empowers human resource reps, sales representatives, trainers, and top management to easily manage employee and organizational knowledge.

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