Comments on: Why are there so many CRM failures?

By: Gregory Yankelovich

Gregory Yankelovich — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:18:28 +0000

Excellent observation Marc, I’ve had similar experiences.

By: Marc Mangus

Marc Mangus — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:07:05 +0000

I have been involved in 3 large CRM deployments in my career and invariably the largest hurdle is adoption, but even this is only a sympton. The real underlying problem is that the companies lacked discipline around the sales process. We all know how hard it is to automate a broken process. They seem to forget that a CRM system is just an automation tool for an existing process. They seemed to think that since sales is based on human intraction it was ok to leave it softly defined and devoid of accountability. The success came when, seperate from the CRM project, the sales process was defined and the sales force was held accountable to following it.

By: Gregory Yankelovich

Gregory Yankelovich — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:46:56 +0000

Chris,

IMO CRM entities are not as process oriented and detailed as other business units, and as such they don’t set up goals as specific as needed. Customer Support pillar of CRM usually fairs much better then Sales and Marketing because they focus on SLA, workflows, and other specifics, where the Sales and Marketing are too conceptual and don’t often articulate their needs in terms which can drive accountability. They surely do not like to tie more sales commitments to CRM investment, even though it can work if applied organically.

By: Chris Bucholtz

Chris Bucholtz — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:35:00 +0000

Greg–

Do you think this is the same dynamic as in the software world, where sales sets crazy expectations that developers can’t meet? Or is CRM a little deeper than that, where sales AND other entities in the equation (marketing, consultants, the CRM media, etc.) are unwittingly setting the bar too high?