There are a lot of articles on the internet offering strategies to help increase low CRM adoption rates. Here’s an example. A Google search on CRM adoption shows that this is not an uncommon challenge.

Low CRM adoption rates result from the fact that there is a disconnect between the promise of all that CRM can do, and the way it works in the real world. This disconnect manifests in low adoption rates. These low adoption rates are a common enough problem that they attract the commentary of pundits who come with suggestions about how to increase user adoption of CRM.

But trying to adopt these strategies to increase CRM adoption this is just throwing good money after bad. If the adoption rate is low, the solution may not be a fit. You can strategize all day about how to hammer in a nail with a screwdriver, but at the end of the day, you’ll be a whole lot better off if you pick up a hammer.

Customer Relationship Management is often sold to organizations without enough emphasis on what is meant by the ‘relationship’ part. The plain fact is that CRM is not designed to establish new relationships with new customers. CRM is a tool that is does very well what it was designed to do, i.e., manage customer relationships. But establishing relationships with new customers is best done using a lead management system. Among other things, lead management software is designed to help salespeople quickly establish contact with prospects and follow up until they close. In other words, until they change from prospects into customers. When leads become customers, the ‘customer relationship’ begins, and CRM becomes truly effective.

Are you trying to get a CRM to do an LMS’s job?

Here’s an experiment you may be able to do to see if you’re trying to make a CRM do the job an LMS.

It’s easy to see if your agents are using the right tool for the job if your sales team is divided into two types of roles.

New Account Sales

Those who are focused on generating new sales, such as:

• Account Executive
• Field Sales Rep
• Business Development Rep/Mgr

Existing Account Sales

And those who manage existing clients, fulfilling orders, etc…

• Account Manager/Rep
• Customer Service Rep
• Inside Sales Rep

The Experiment: Compare CRM adoption rates between these two distinct types of sales agents. All other things being equal, the salespeople in the second category, Existing Account Sales, have higher CRM adoption rates. For these salespeople, the customer relationship is already established, and the CRM software equips them expertly manage it.

When the salespeople in the first category, New Account Sales, are stalling in their adoption of your CRM solution it is because they are being asked to establish customer relationships with a customer relationship management tool. They are being asked to drive nails with a screwdriver. Salespeople in these types of roles need a lead management solution.

And here’s the good news. It’s not necessary to choose between LMS and CRM.

When you want these two types of salespeople to perform at their peak potential, use both LMS and CRM. In fact, you can use the industry leading Lead Management and CRM tools together. Leads360 and Salesforce.com are fully integrated. This integration enables your New Account Sales team to work leads in Leads360 until they convert. When they convert from prospect into customer they can be exported to Salesforce.com with a single click where the Existing Account Sales team takes over.

Give all of you salespeople the tools they need to do their specific job and see improvement in close rates and retention rates.

Tags: Lead Management