A CRM, although a vital piece of software that every forward-thinking sales team must now possess, can come with its challenges.

It can be a costly investment for start-ups or small enterprises. There can be issues with integrations, and at times there can be a steep learning curve for sales reps who have never used one before.

With that being said, the first step to overcoming these CRM challenges is to understand them.

Here, we’re going to explore some of the most common CRM challenges that your sales team may face and offer feasible solutions that will set a solid foundation to smooth your decision-making process. 

Let’s check them out!

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is an indispensable piece of software for sales teams. 

Why? 

Because it plays a massive role in how successful you are at managing, nurturing, and developing all of your customer relationships.

Let’s look at some of the top benefits of a CRM and how they can help your business grow.

Your sales team won’t have to handle manual and tedious tasks such as data entry and lead scoring if you adopt a CRM to your operation. 

With these tasks taken care of, reps will have more time and energy for sophisticated tasks like strategy development which will lead to better workflows, improved customer communication, and inevitably, more sales! 

Statistics show that by adopting a CRM software, you can increase your sales by a whopping 29%!

Also, a CRM can automatically track the real-time status of your sales funnel in every step of awareness, interaction, and deal closing. Customer communication history is stored in the system, which supports sales reps to manage the database and nurture leads more effectively. 

Check out this Outside Sales Talk podcast episode with Curaytor co-founder Chris Smith where he shares tips on capturing leads and closing more sales!

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CRM software can generate detailed reports on sales, marketing campaigns, and engagement performance of customers. So with the software doing the hard work for you, measuring how effective your campaigns are becomes much easier. 

With the hard data at hand, you can develop actionable sales strategies through customer data analysis to forecast trends, identify customer preferences, and plan ahead for potential roadblocks.  Such data-driven sales insights will go a long way in helping you build better strategies and increase your ROI.

Check out this detailed guide that offers 6 proven data-driven strategies to help you level-up your sales game!

Many CRM features can speed up the process of sales and customer service, which will help you create a positive brand image and impress your customers with your high levels of efficiency.

Moreover, it can personalize your targeted marketing and sales campaigns based on your customer preferences and needs according to the information stored on its database. Remember, 71% of customers expect salespeople to deliver personalized messaging. 

With the high-levels of personalization that a CRM is capable of achieving, a robust CRM will assist you as you look to foster loyalty and strengthen relationships with your customers. 

Listen to this Outside Sales Talk podcast episode award-winning sales speaker John Chapin where he shares his secrets to building relationships in sales!

A CRM can connect every department of your business and can do wonders for marketing and sales alignment. The synced data and integration of CRM with other systems allows your sales team to work with all-in-one software, which enhances the management’s productivity and transparency through real-time updates and sales performance metrics. 

Looking to invest in a CRM software for your sales team? Check out this in-depth breakdown of the top 10 sales CRM software options available to you today!

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Issues

17% of people surveyed said that one of the biggest CRM challenges is the difficulties of CRM integration with other systems such as POS, ERP, and extensions. 

Different systems often use incompatible formats and languages, further hindering seamless communication and data flow. Besides, mistakes during integration can lead to data inconsistencies, errors, and even system outages, disrupting operations and causing costly delays.

Solutions

You should consider CRMs whose features can simplify integration with open APIs and built-in integration capabilities. You can also add the supporting system of CRM integration such as specialized CRM connectors to ease the integration process. Along these ways, you should also partner with experienced IT professionals or consultants to ensure secure and effective CRM implementation and maintenance. 

Integrations with other systems can however run smoothly.

One sales tool that integrates well with the top CRM software is Badger Maps. 

Badger Maps is a route optimization tool that helps salespeople spend less time driving and more time doing what actually matters - selling! 

Salespeople have direct access to their CRM data in the field through Badger Maps’ bi-directional integration. Customer records and interactions that are created and updated in Badger Maps will be pushed to your CRM and vice-versa, keeping all of your important customer information up to date as you work in the field.

Integrating Badger Maps with your existing CRM can allow you to visualize all of your data on an engaging and interactive map. Sales reps can see exactly where their customers are and how best to prioritize them, all from a mobile device. 

Badger Maps integrates with leading CRMs such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Microsoft Dynamics, Insightly, NetSuite, and many more.

Badger Maps also offers other important sales features such as lead generation on-the-go, customer data visualization, and check-ins. These capabilities help save field salespeople time on their daily planning, unearth exciting new leads, maintain healthy customer relationships, and close more deals.

Badger Maps can streamline your entire sales process and on average, sales teams who use Badger Maps sell 22% more and drive 20% less.

The best part? Badger Maps pays for itself with gas savings!

Sign up for a free trial today or schedule a demo to learn all about how you can integrate one of the leading sales tools with our team today!

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Issues

Maintaining data quality is among the toughest challenges of CRM. 94% of companies don’t believe in the accuracy of their customer and prospect data, according to a study by Experia. Also, the expected impact of poor data is the loss of an average of $15 million per year for certain organizations.

• Duplicated database

Manual sales reports or lack of integrated systems from different sources might be the main reason. For example, outside sales reps might input the information of customers which might already be on record. This duplicated data can cause problems for getting thorough and concrete analytics.

• Incompleted database

Your CRM staff, field sales representatives, or those in charge of inputting data might skip some information fields. This issue will prevent you from optimizing your whole customer database to enhance the performance of sales and marketing activities. 

• Outdated database 

When your system is full of wrong and outdated information, you won’t be able to use it to optimize your processes. This leads to wasted time and resources for both management and reps.

Solutions

• Use a CRM With Superior Features 

Customizable and automatic CRM systems can automate filtering out duplicate data, notify the incomplete data inputs, and streamline the data integration of different sources. The synced data capabilities can reduce the duplicates due to different sales sources. 

• Set Up Rules for Data Entries 

It’s imperative that you set up your rules and standards for all of your CRM data. Everything from a customer's name, phone number, gender, and purchase history, needs to be entered correctly, otherwise the quality of your data will suffer. Thankfully, a lot of these processes can now be automated.

Sales reps should be trained to follow the strict data-entry rules. 

• Regular Database Review 

A CRM with data lifecycle management can archive and delete outdated or inaccurate data, thus supporting your data checking. Yet, the best way is to double-check the information correctly when inputting data and have your staff regularly review the database.

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Issues

One of the biggest CRM problems is switching from an existing software your employees have been familiar with into a new CRM. CRM software can be challenging as different software have different interfaces and features. During the initial transition period, they might make a lot of mistakes profoundly impacting your data quality.

Solutions

Provide informative training sessions that guide sales reps to use their CRM correctly. One of the tips for easing the learning curve is to highlight how CRM can enhance their sales productivity. If your sales reps can visualize the benefits they can get from using a CRM, they will come to the training with eagerness to learn the usage of this useful tool.  

Building a comprehensive knowledge base, FAQs, and tutorial videos can facilitate them in the learning and application process. Such an information hub can empower your team to grow and sharpen their skills independently.  However, the solution that can top it off is to choose a CRM with a user-friendly interface. Besides, an easy-to-use CRM can alleviate the preparation of training sessions, and motivate your employees to apply the system to their daily work as soon as possible.

Check out this Outside Sales Talk podcast episode with HubSpot’s Senior Inbound Sales Professor Kyle Jepson to learn how to build your sales with the right CRM and sales tech! 

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Issues

Leaking customer information will definitely ruin your relationships with customers and your brand reputation in general. Potential leads might not find your company professional and secure enough for them to share their private information, such as names, addresses, and payment accounts.

Amidst the digital era where hacking can happen every time, you should consider every possible solution to overcome this risk of CRM.

Solutions

• Secure Your Servers

You can use the prestigious cloud-based storage offered by the CRM system provider. Firstly, you should make sure to set a strong password for CRM log-in. Further steps enhancing your server security are to restrict remote access, reducing the possibility of hackers accessing the server remotely. 

• Manage CRM Access 

A CRM system enables you to limit admin and download access for specific individuals. In other words, not every user has the same authority over the database. This can help keep important and confidential data for only trusted users.

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Issues

A CRM will obviously generate many benefits for your business, yet it does not come at zero cost. A basic CRM package might cost you from $10 to $20 per user per month. Meanwhile, an enterprise CRM can even go up to $300/user/month. 

The figure will be higher if we mention the salary of related employees to manage and operate the CRM system.

However, with 18% of sales reps' time being spent using their CRM, the outlay is surely worth it.

Solutions

Regarding this CRM challenge, you should only start with the functions of CRM your business needs. If the present scale only asks for basic features to store, sort, and manage customer information, you should opt for the primary CRM plan. 

When your business starts to grow, it might be time to upgrade to an enterprise plan with extensive features of automation, integration, and bulk actions. 

Issues 

Before doing anything, you need to lay out your goals, what you should do to achieve them, and the flexible adjustments that you will inevitably need to make along the way. 

A common issue is that a company invests in a CRM and jumps right into its usage without having a proper strategy. A lack of a systematic and strategic workflow can be the number one reason for the CRM failure.  

Solutions

Everything now should come into the hands of strategic minds who can plan out why, what, and how salespeople can better manage customer data in the CRM system. A strategic plan can help you navigate the whole team to input and harness qualified customer databases to bring profits.

And it’s not too challenging to design and implement a CRM strategy. Let’s check out some recommended steps below to help guide you. 

• Determine your goals: Whether your business wants to increase NPS (Net Promoter Score), smooth the sales process, or simply systematically manage customer data, you will need to lay out some goals to help you achieve your targets. The more complex your goals are, the more detailed your CRM strategy should become. 

• Define your target audience: A profitable business knows its customers, so you should really understand your target audience. Therefore, it is critical to have a clear vision of a buyer persona, including age, team size, income, budget, pain points, etc. 

• Understand your customer journey: Knowing your customer profiles sets a solid foundation for the next crucial step - exploring the journey a potential lead makes towards your brand. Being aware of the touchpoints between your brand and your leads can open up the tactics to attract their attention, nurture their needs, convert them into sales, maintain relationships through after-sales support, etc.

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Want to know more about CRM's? Check out this complete guide that will provide you with a deep understanding of a B2B CRM!

Issues

Although CRMs are not new in the business field, companies still need expert guides on how to implement a CRM system, fix problems, and avoid possible CRM issues. 

Some CRM failures happen due to the lack of CRM vendor’s technical support. It might be the issues with CRM integration, report/data exports, and lagging automatic features

Solutions

You had better do thorough research about the CRM supplier’s customer service, not only before but also after the purchase. Reading online reviews, asking your circle of business networks who have used the software, and directly engaging with CRM vendors will help you gain valuable insights.

Before signing up for a CRM plan, it is crucial to have prerequisites of both CRM challenges and benefits. Understanding the software features and possible risks equips you with effective solutions to get the best out of the investment in CRM. 

Hopefully this guide will help you overcome your own CRM challenges and provide the springboard you need to implement strategies to overcome them!

Author Bio: Katie Nguyen is a dedicated retail expert at magestore.com - No.1 POS solution for Magento merchants. She provides readers with useful information about integration between business software and best practices to improve business processes.