While the importance of customer relationship management in a business cannot be understated, implementing a CRM solution can be truly challenging at times. To some, it may seem like such a cumbersome task that they prefer inefficient customer management to implementing a CRM solution. As intimidating as it may be, a CRM solution does wonders for your business with minimal effort. This is especially true for cost-effective CRM solutions like SugarCRM. Implementation is a key ingredient of a standard package of SugarCRM development solutions. If a CRM is not implemented well, it falls apart.
To guide you through the process, we’ve listed 5 key CRM implementation challenges along with our recommendations on how you can overcome them to get optimal results from your CRM system.
Challenge 1: complicated process
Prima facie, implementing a CRM might seem to consume your sales reps’ work time. You might be under the impression that your employees have to keep jumping between apps to get and feed information or to keep track of your process. But in the real picture, a CRM is designed to integrate all the tools you already use, for example OneNote, Outlook, Word, Excel, etc. CRM allows your employees to work in Excel and CRM at the same time. By integrating your spreadsheets into CRM, your salespeople won’t need to go into each CRM record and update sheets.
Challenge 2: Too Few Users
Another challenge companies face is that not all of their interrelated businesses use CRM, so how can you benefit them if your sales people won’t get it when they need it most? That is not true. Today, all good CRMs are compatible with mobile devices, including tablets and mobile phones, making it possible for your reps to have virtual access from anywhere.
Challenge 3: No visible results
Many business owners worry that they have been using a CRM solution for a considerable time and still cannot see tangible results. Mainly, it is not a CRM problem. The lack of visible results may be a documentation issue. All kinds of business data and engagements are tracked through your CRM. When your executives look at the updated dashboard, they can see comprehensive snapshots of how their business processes, communications, and overall performance have improved.
Challenge 4: What to do with all the data?
Everyone knows that your CRM allows you to collect a large amount of data with ease. But the challenge arises with the usability of the data. Companies are often not well equipped with data analytics to draw our conclusions from the data. CRMs often have a built-in analytics solution that helps users gain real insights from CRM data. Furthermore, it helps companies make data-driven business decisions accurately and quickly.
Challenge 5: Sales staff under scrutiny
Sales reps think of CRM as a means for their executives to keep a closer eye on them. But that is not the goal of a CRM. A CRM solution takes care of managing customer information and making it available to all stakeholders through a simple interface for fast, data-driven decision making. Sales reps should also not misunderstand the real purpose of a CRM, nor should their managers misuse the CRM.
