Signs it’s time to change your CRM

A customer relationship management (CRM) tool in the wholesale distribution vertical is an integral part of the organization. Unfortunately, if a CRM is not performing the way the company expects, was implemented poorly, or cannot handle the needs of the company, the CRM can be seen as a waste of time and money.

If a CRM is not performing to it its full potential, it is not only a waste of time for the sales reps, but it is a loss of revenue, sales, and customer satisfaction.

While it is not ideal, changing the CRM is not an abnormal practice during the evolution of business. Companies grow, new processes are established, more employees are added, and even, the structure of the business shifts. We are seeing these changes now more than ever as many organizations are working remote with less face-to-face interactions with coworkers and customers. CRM’s that are not scalable and flexible will fall behind.

If your organization is struggling with finding value in your current system, then it might be time to change your solution. Here are some signs that it is time to begin evaluating new CRM solutions.

1. Your CRM is an outdated or a Homegrown CRM

The wholesale distribution industry falls victim to outdated CRM’s. A system might have been implemented decades ago and since it is “the way we have always done it” there is no motivation to change it. These outdated CRM’s are (usually) nothing more than a clunky data entry tool. A homegrown CRM is one that is custom built from the ground up by the organization. They are a great first CRM because there is no significant upfront investment or yearly fees for improvements and upkeep.

However, homegrown and outdated CRM’s usually cannot integrate to other business products, are unable to update and match your evolving business needs, are not accessible outside of the office on mobile, and are unable to provide vital business intelligence.

These CRM’s become stagnate over time, leaving your company with little to no true value

2. Your team is frustrated with the user experience

Your team invests time and energy in the CRM system, and if it is not intuitive or responsive to their needs, it can lead to frustration.  As more users become frustrated, the adoption rate drops resulting in low trust and use of the CRM. If your team is not using the CRM, where is the value?

An effective CRM should make the lives of a sales rep easier, not more complicated.

When it comes to CRM, more features are not always a good thing, and in fact, can cause more harm than good. Companies can overestimate their needs for various functions, and as a result, most of the functions are not used, not relevant, and further complicate the system. The features that are available should have a clear purpose for the team and provide a meaningful benefit.

CRM’s today are also cleaner and easier to use than outdated, clunky systems. Sales reps are in the system every day and want to use a tool that is clean, easy to understand, and has interactive features that make it interesting to use.

3. There is no integration to your other vital business solutions

A CRM with no integration to back office solutions is nothing more than an expensive data entry tool.

An effective CRM has seamless integrations to your important back-office solutions, eliminating the need for manual data entry, which also eliminates the number of data entry mistakes.

With a fully-integrated CRM solution, your sales reps can have a 360 degree view of their customers with information coming from the ERP, Outlook, e-commerce, BI tool, marketing automation tools, and more.

4. Your team juggles multiple sales tools

This one goes hand in hand with #4- there is no integration. Sales reps want to spend more time selling and less time in software solutions. They don’t want to have to look up customer information in a CRM, find past orders from the ERP, create a meeting in Outlook, and then navigate to the customer from Google Maps.

With CRM’s that are fully integrated, they can connect all these solutions to be accessed right from the CRM. Sales reps can find everything they need for a customer in one click, from anywhere.

5. Your CRM should be saving your team time and energy, not the opposite.

A CRM is supposed to make life easier for the sales reps, not complicate it with duplicate sales chores and manual data entry.  An effective CRM can save at least 1.3 hours per week, per sales rep, which for 50 sales rep team is about 3,300 hours in a year.

To save this much time, a CRM should have the capability to automate tasks through workflows. Workflows streamline the process by automating the creation of certain actions when specified criteria are triggered in the system. They are flexible for your business process and can save sales reps time and energy by automatically generating follow-up emails or tasks when a customer adds something to their cart or approves a quote.

6. Your CRM can’t keep up with you on the go

Sales teams and organizations are on the go now more than ever, so it is not practical to have a CRM that is tied to a desktop. Companies are moving beyond working from the same office – with employees working from home, traveling for conferences, working from the field, or getting work done while sitting at the airport.

Mobile capabilities are needed by the whole team and not just the outside sales reps. CRM’s should have mobile capabilities to access the most important features like account management, quoting, talk to text, and map integration.

7. You are missing out on amazing ROI

CRM at its core is reliable for account and contact management.  But CRM’s today are powerful tools that provide the insights that can take your organization to the next level.

If your CRM does not provide any customer intelligence that can be used to find areas of growth with new and existing business, then it is time to change CRM’s. If you’re not seeing a significant return, you need a more flexible solution that will meet your company’s specific needs.

WPCRM is the fully-integrated CRM solution that was built specifically for wholesale distribution organizations, and has been serving the wholesale distribution industry for over 12 years.

WPCRM is built with the end-user in mind, providing the sales reps with the tools they need to save time, discover new opportunities, and sell more, in an intuitive and user-friendly interface. With a full integration to your important business solutions like your ERP, e-commerce, Outlook, and marketing automation, WPCRM is the one-stop shop for the sales rep.