Like it happens with many other IT projects, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Force Automation (SFA) do fail, the laudable and strategic intentions notwithstanding. At Autusbridge, our rich and deep experience of implementing such projects in the past couple of years has helped us to identify some reasons why these undesirable outcomes happen with these projects.
It is great to note that the increasing affordability of capable mobile devices and the deepening availability of internet connectivity across many geographies have continued to promote the use of CRM/SFA solutions in driving productivity in selling organizations. It has helped in generating real-time data that are especially useful in strategic planning and execution.
Let us look at some of the reasons.
- Lack of Strong Commitment from The Management – Oftentimes, the executive management is clearly aware of the problems that need to be solved but not so convinced of the ability of this technological intervention to solve them. Many of the business managers superintending did not use such tools while they were foot soldiers, so they do not have the first-hand experience of applying technology to drive daily tasks on the field at such levels. CRM/SFA have been most successful in organizations where the Senior Management has demonstrated and communicated that the use of the technology is the way to go for the business. Adequate funding for the project is one clear way of showing commitment. Setting up strong timelines for implementation and holding people accountable for the progress is essential. There should be punishments and rewards to drive compliance. The employees soon get the message, and they shape in. The Executive/Senior Management must first be sold that technology has the capability to drive performance, otherwise the investment could be a waste.
- Poor Management Structure – This solution may further expose the weak management structure of organizations. The primary purpose of having a management structure is to drive accountability. When a set of managers believe that it is the responsibility of other persons and not theirs, to administer certain initiatives in the organization, project failures will always lurk around. Smart organizations quickly redesign their JDs to include the administration of the solution at all levels of work. It will be easy to identify who has dropped the ball when things go wrong. This struggle for control or bulk-passing could amplify the perceived tussles between the Sales and Marketing functions, in answering the question of who is responsible for certain deliverables. Sometimes the tussle is between the IT and the Sales function as to who really owns the solution. This can be managed to avoid undesirable endings.
- Ineffective Application – Other times, the application is performing poorly. This could be the problem of design resulting in multiple bugs that create errors, compromising the credibility of the data being generated by the solution. This causes numerous downtimes resulting in the field users opting to escape back to the old ways of doing things. Solutions lose credibility and adoption if they churn out wrong data. Autusbridge has excelled in developing and deploying effective applications to its numerous clients across Africa.
- Deliberate Sabotage – A few times, some employees are personally benefitting from situations that have become problems to the organization or the management. Such problems could be the motivation for the management in adopting the technology. The saboteurs will begin to work against the success of the implementation. They amplify and exaggerate simple issues that could easily be resolved, tagging them as insurmountable obstacles in implementation. The agenda of such people is to continue to profit from the inefficiency, either by way of hiding their lack of productivity or through outright abuse of resources, including cash.
- Non-Compatibility with Sales Process – Most of the applications available in the CRM and SFA space are on-the-shelf solutions. They are presented as ready-made solutions to be used by different types of selling organizations. It is important to state that, no matter how similar the sales process of two or more organizations may appear to be, there are still significant differences between their operating procedures that could make the solutions, not 100% fit to the sales process. The availability of functions that are never going to be used on the system is turn-offs. The absence of certain critical features creates duplication of tasks and eventually, frustrations. Adopting bespoke solutions, such as we develop at Autusbridge has been found to address the critical problem.
- Tech Laggard in Sales Team – No matter how ubiquitous or deep the penetration of mobile technology is, there are still people finding it difficult to get a hang of smart devices. Such people are everywhere. They use only the basic functions of the devices. Using a mobile app for business becomes a huge challenge that sometimes appears as an existential threat to them on their job. Such people put up raw resistance in a bid to shield their ignorance or to be kindly said their simplicity! There are tactical methods of managing these types of team members to successful onboarding.
- Hardware Problems – Many organizations decide that users install such applications on their personal devices to save cost. Many of the devices being used by such Reps could be running on outdated OS, have poor/low RAM and ROM space, or have certain defects that will not allow the applications to function optimally. In most cases, the punchbag is usually the application when things are not working. Some of the users assume that since they could use the likes of Whatsapp and Twitter on the devices, it should be sufficient for the application. Business Applications especially salesforce automation tools, perform a lot more than social media apps that are basically streaming feeds. The apps are connecting with the databases to receive and send information in real-time. Some perform certain calculations and estimations on the go as part of their functionalities. Businesses would get better results from their CRM/SFA interventions if they provide quality devices/terminals to the field users.
- Internet Issues – Internet services in several places are still suboptimal, especially off the major cities. Although the applications are designed to function offline, however internet connectivity is required for data exchange with the server. Service interruption can lead to truncation of certain launched tasks and this could result in malfunctioning or even cases of the apps crashing. Internet disruptions or inadequacies make the users become frustrated as they may still have to use some other alternative and old methods to get things done. A proper understanding of the service reach of providers can help in choosing the best networks for us.
- Inadequate Users Training and Support – No matter how excited the users are about the first training some slack should be expected in the coming days and weeks. When the Reps begin to realize how close the Management has suddenly become to them while on the field, they could get uncomfortable and lose interest. The loss of interest will begin to make them forget some functionalities they have been trained on. The project plan must include a comprehensive training plan of training, retraining, and users’ reviews. Face-to-face training would be the most efficient if it can be pulled through. Follow-up training can be done virtually as much as needed to boost the team’s confidence in using the application. The availability of prompt user supports in resolving issues is extremely critical in driving usage compliance.
- Sales Reps benefits – No doubt, the Management has a lot to benefit from the implementation of the CRM/SFA agenda. It is also expedient to have features that will clearly benefit the field users. Salespeople will be more committed to an application that will make life easier for them. Features like instant access to customers’ transaction history, activities record, performance reports, availability of other business information, selling tips/training, sales guide, etc. will make them embrace the application as a success partner rather than a monitoring tool.
There are a few other reasons but the above are the ones we have found to be most common. A proper project implementation approach can help to mitigate these challenges. Please call +234-8063712614 if you will like us to help in implementing an efficient and effective CRM/SFA solution for your company.
