Is Your CRM the “System of Record” or “Source of Truth?”
Almost all businesses processes require a ‘system of record’ to operate- a single datastore that any stakeholder can reference when asking a process related question. These questions can vary in granularity, ranging from ‘how many emails did we send to new prospects this week?’ to ‘why does Sally get 3x the number of responses on his cold calls as John?’
Within the sales function, CRM plays this role, sitting at the center of all pipeline management, reporting and forecasting efforts for management. Hence the popular phrase: ‘if it’s not in Salesforce, it doesn’t exist’.
However, for all the processes, automation and discipline that goes into funneling data into the CRM, almost no sales manager can pass the following test:
“Can you guide your reps to the right next step on their deals just by looking at your CRM?”
This is because of two key drivers. First, sales reps can misread key pieces of information in a deal. For example, if a prospect insists that there is ‘no budget’, they may not be able to read what that actually means. It’s the sales manager’s job to review the information in the CRM in context and ensure it’s accurate. Second, deals are often driven by dozens of factors that are impossible to capture comprehensively in the CRM. Data points like buyer trust, intelligence, etc can’t always be broken down into a handful of picklist values, especially as they are constantly changing.
These factors illustrate the ‘achilles heel’ of CRM: that customer relationships — especially in solutions driven sales — can’t be summarized in a series of rows and columns. Rather, the CRM can only provide directional guidance to uncover issues, rather than actually be used to solve them. To extend our analysis further, we can conclude that CRM fails the test of being an organization’s source of truth, and that this remains.
At Truly, we’re helping some of the world’s leading enterprise organizations better capture and make sense of the data that’s generated in the process of speaking with their customers. If you’re interested in seeing how you can move your CRM one step closer to being a ‘source of truth’, please drop us a line!
