If you want your business to expand it is absolutely essential that you have a CRM that will grow with you. The CRM helps to move your business forward, so it can’t generate complications and slow you down. If your CRM is not performing well, it's time for a change.

CRM can boost your sales significantly, but you have to choose the right “buddy” for your business needs. If you don't feel that CRM is your business's best friend and the whole team is complaining, there may be something wrong.

CRM troubles and how to overcome them 

Firstly, let's talk about CRM issues in general. Around 48% of sales leaders reported that their CRM doesn’t meet their needs. The problem is, that many companies use CRM only as a sales tool for managing pipelines and storing information. But CRM's power goes beyond that. If you want to take your CRM to the next level, there is especially one thing needed – time. If your CRM doesn't become the center of your business, it will never bring you all the benefits. 

So what are the common troubles businesses face using a CRM? If we go from the beginning, well done, you took the first step and purchased a CRM. But now the real fun, where many companies fail, starts. We are talking about the CRM data migration and especially its last phase – team onboarding. Your whole team should go through proper onboarding so that everyone learns and synchronizes with the CRM. It costs extra money, and you may not want to pour them into CRM utilization from the beginning, but trust us, it'll be worth it. 

Then as we move to the day to day use of a CRM, it is important that you customize CRM to your business needs. You must adopt CRM as your main collaborative platform (so everyone in your company uses it) which costs a lot of time that most companies are not willing to spend. If you go through proper onboarding and customize your CRM, your employees will sync with the system and you won't face chaos and problems like under-utilisation. 

The crucial part of a CRM is finances. Basically, if your CRM is too expensive, there are two ways to think about it. Is the CRM worth the price and we just don't know how to use its functions and features and we need help from our CRM vendor? Or, we don't need these complicated features and we are overpaying. You just need to know what your company needs – reporting, advanced reporting, a place for storing information, or lead forecasting? Businesses are different and so are their needs.

Now we know the basic CRM troubles and how to overcome them. Get our CRM Migration Checklist for free and be sure to stay on the right track.

Now, let's dive a bit deeper and have a look at a few indicators that it’s the right time to switch your CRM.

1. You’ve grown, but your CRM hasn’t

First things first, CRM should grow with your business. It is crucial that CRM complements your business, not slows it down. So if you feel that CRM is making your business more difficult, there's probably something wrong.

You may have started using your current CRM when you started your business – but now your business is bigger and you can’t go without advanced features. You may be missing some of these:

• Reporting and analytics
  Maybe your CRM offers reporting and analytics but are they sufficient? Not all CRMs provide the same level of insights or custom reporting.

• Live chat and chatbots
  Give your customers all information they need via One-to-One live chats while they browse your site. Turn them into qualified leads and level up your customer service by making providing 24/7 support via chatbots.

• Integrations with apps
  Thanks to integrations, you can connect your CRM with other applications and software that help your CRM with adaptation to your needs.

💭 Are you wondering what integrations is HubSpot offering? Just look at HubSpot App Marketplace where you can find more than 1000 apps and integrations. 

• A/B testing 

A/B tests allow you to decide which landing pages, formats, emails, etc. are performing the best so you don't waste your time or money.

A/B testing, Source: HubSpot

• ABM tools 

Using account-based marketing tools that combine marketing and sales you'll be able to create personalized and advanced buying experiences.

2. You don't have a clear sales improvement

One of the reasons why companies use CRM is that it significantly increases their sales and improves overall sales processes – using a CRM companies can increase sales by 29 % and sales team productivity by 34 %. 

With CRMs sales features and its power of not only storing but also working with your business data, you can better manage business relationships or find and transform business opportunities. So if you see little or no improvement in your sales, there is definitely something wrong with your CRM.

What features can you be missing if your sales are not improving?:

• Forecasting
  Sales forecasting helps sales teams tune in their selling strategy, accurately predict future sales growth and take better business actions. CRM can improve the accuracy of sales forecasting by 32 %.

• Lead management
  Lead management helps sales teams know whether a lead or prospect is on a path to closing. With tracking leads, visible communication history, segmented lists, and more you'll be able to catch all leads.

• Lead scoring
  Figuring out which leads are worth it can be pretty difficult and time-consuming. With predictive lead scoring your CRM will identify your best leads, so you don't have to.

3. Your CRM provides a bad user experience (UX) 

One of the most important factors when choosing a CRM is how it makes you feel and what you experience while using it – basically how user-friendly it is. Up to 86% of prospects mark user-friendliness as their most important factor in choosing a new CRM system. 

A good UX starts with a design – that doesn't mean your CRM needs to have all the right fields or features, it also means it is easy to learn and use. If your employees don't like your CRM and its use is more of a burden than a benefit then something is simply wrong. Just keep in mind that CRM is supposed to move your business forward, not pull it down.

💡 Since 72% of CRM users prefer the ease of use over functionality, you should probably have a talk with your employees and find out what their user experience is.

4. Your CRM is not mobile-friendly

The world is fast and we are constantly on the move. Thus, it is crucial to have a CRM on hand at all times. If your employees are traveling somewhere, for example for a business meeting, and they need to take a look or record some data quickly, they need to have access to the CRM via mobile. 

HubSpot CRM App,  Source: HubSpot

Mobile CRM provides real-time access to important business data from anywhere in the world. With mobile CRM your employees can:

• Access your customer contact records at all times
• Create tasks, reminders, and update customer details quickly from anywhere
• View the most important tasks and plan everything before opening up a computer
• Speed up and improve customer service
• Open and share files in few clicks

Source: SuperOffice

5.  You receive little or no support from your CRM provider

You need help from your CRM provider from the very beginning. It all starts with a proper onboarding process that is absolutely essential if you want to make the most out of your CRM. 

As we move into the day-to-day use of CRM, ongoing support from your provider is also very important. If you have any problem with your CRM, you need to solve it quickly – after all, CRM is a sales-generating part of your business. Your provider should offer email support, phone support, chatbots, blogs, e-books, guides, or courses.

Also as your business grows you will probably need upgrades or integrations so it's great to have the assurance that you have a consultant whenever you need it. So if you're not satisfied with your provider's customer service, the CRM switch may be needed. 

In a nutshell

If you don't gain benefits from your CRM, something is just not right.

There are all sorts of reasons why you aren't in tune with your CRM. Firstly, you may have outgrown your CRM and now you need more advanced features. Secondly, your CRM provider doesn't offer mobile CRM. Next, your sales are not improving and you don't see a smooth sales generation funnel. Further, your CRM is not user-friendly and your employees are struggling with its use. Lastly, you don't have enough support from your provider. 

If you found yourself in some of these points, the CRM switch may be needed, so let's have a talk!👇

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Sources: HubSpot