When crm Frustration Bites

I shared a buffet snack with three people at a business function recently held by an alma mater.  The conversation landed upon what we each did for a living.  Although I’d neither met nor heard of my co-diners before, we did of course share an undercurrent of history.  This made me feel confident to provide a specific answer in the context of the event, and tried to tempt with one of my strands; “talk-driven sales success and anti-crm sales reporting“.

I was delighted that this struck a chord with everyone.

One immediately started saying “none of my reps” fill-in what they should.  They used to have ‘Act!’, then upgraded to Goldmine, only to ask “why bother?”  Heads nodded in agreement.

Another lamented the purchase of Salesforce (“the demo looks bloody brilliant”!).

And the third, overseeing exports at a £100m turnover food and spices manufacturer, wondered why it was always the top performers that were the most lax when it came to documenting things in this way.

I posed the question of what they were doing about this unwanted situation.  Each were clearly resigned to living with it, having kicked the issue into the long-grass and concentrate instead on other things.

What does it say about the relevance of crm if you can run a fast-growing £100m sales organisation without the effective use of such system?

I’m a fan of what crm purports to deliver, yet even I am forced to ponder if paying for it is indeed a vital investment spend, or rather an utter waste of money? Over to you, crm vendors….