Companies that adopt a closed-loop process connecting marketing and sales report a higher return on marketing investment (RMOI) than those that don’t.
But RMOI just isn’t going to happen if your closed loop is a black hole. And that’s certainly the case at too many organizations judging from the feedback I received at my presentation this week at MarketingSherpa’s B2B Marketing Summit. (If you want more details, Andrew Spoeth with Marketo wrote a good summary of what I had to say over Modern B2B Marketing blog.)
When I asked my audience, all of them marketers, “How many of you have a problem with sales not updating your CRM?” Nearly everyone raised their hands and laughter erupted.
Which perfectly proves my point: depending on a software to close the loop is like a football team depending using infrequent text messages to communicate plays. You’re not going to communicate quickly enough what you really need to know to get to where you want to go.
That’s why I’m a huge proponent of huddling: face-to-face or voice-to-voice meetings where the marketing and sales teams gather to gauge progress, deal with challenges and opportunities, and celebrate successes.
With effective communication, huddling and CRM tools, the loop will close, you’ll optimize your sales funnel and achieve sales and marketing’s highest objective: increased revenue performance.
Without it, you’re going to be running in circles.
CRM is essential for growing businesses, but there are a number of pitfalls that can prevent successful adoption. This blog article “CRM — An Industry In Distress” discusses some of these adoption issues and suggests ways they can be managed. » Commence CRM Blog
http://www.commence.com/blog/index.php/2010/06/25/crm-an-industry-in-distress-3/
An interesting article as is the attached link. As a Senior Sales Manager involved on the receiving end of two CRM system launches the most obvious reason the Sales Force don’t complete the data collection effectively is that the businesses don’t look at CRM and sell the benefit’s to the sales teams at launch i.e. effective data collection results in effective opportunity spotting and lead generation making it easier to write your target. If you make a very explicit link between the collection of data and the ease of writing new business target then the uptake will be greater.