SMBs and CRM: A Complicated Relationship

Today, many CRM innovations are implemented but sometimes such ‘innovations’, if not put to proper use, can complicate the process of converting leads into actual sales customers. Small businesses that have less than 500 employees can make 99.7% of business in the U.S.

But of those small business enterprises, about 50% fail in the first few years with their owners facing a lot of challenges to maintain operations. One of the major difficulties is insufficient cash flow.

Then, these SMBs may turn to customer relationship management software to make and sustain a higher ROI (Return on Investment). But CRM, being a complex software, may not always be of great help to the SMBs.

Here, we present three reasons why small businesses all over the nation cannot always achieve financial growth, despite using a CRM software.

Old and New Features Can Make the Sales Process Complex
A CRM system’s main purpose is to assist salespeople with managing numerous relationships and with constructing an information database for potential leads. Various companies claim that they are using the latest CRM software in the market, but still, this has not improved the sales process or minimized the stress level of people using it.

Many new features have been included in the software, yet the average conversion rate on B2B and B2C industries is very less. Then why is the conversion rate so less even with all the innovations happening around CRM?

The reason is that even with new features built into latest platforms, they still contain the existing features using old, slow performing, text-based content and complex tools, making the software overloaded with unnecessary information and confusing. The new complex tools added may be useful for some managers but not necessarily be simple and easy enough for the salespeople to use.

CRM, Not Always the Best Tool to Build Customer Relationship
A CRM tool enables its users to manage multiple customer relationships through software but this is not always the best way to build an important relationship. Some prospective customers may be still old fashioned and prefer the traditional face to face interaction over online chats using software.

So SMBs should occasionally focus on their conversion management to carry out transactions “offline” with such potential leads, instead of solely focusing all of their time and resources on a CRM.

Congested Databases
Along with using a complicated feature in CRM software, salespeople also have to deal with congested databases. Small businesses may struggle to drive sales and they hire people like sales development representatives to ensure that the information about the potential leads is stored properly in the database. Moreover, salespeople are continuously adding new lead details to CRM databases.

An enormous database from outside may look more charged and productive for marketers to generate more leads but in case of SMBs, the lack of proper training on the part of salespeople to utilize the huge amount data properly may be the cause of the tool failing to serve its purpose.

The Bottom Line

CRM is designed with the sole purpose to make the sales process easy and profitable but it does come with some technical complexities that are not always comprehended and utilized properly by SMBs. Businesses should thoroughly analyze and identify the approach to increase sales and if the job can be done better without the assistance of CRM, then they should go for the non-CRM solution.