Is CRM Dead?

You know as much as I do that achieving quota is tough. Okay, it’s real tough and the numbers show it. According to Miller Heiman quota attainment is at an all time low at 53% in 2017. That’s down 10% from just five years ago. You and I both know there are a lot of reasons for this but one reason that we found of interest was time management. Sales reps are not spending their time selling, and they are spending even less time with their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. So, what's the deal-- is CRM dead?

Sales reps require many different skills to be successful, but the most basic and potentially the most important of them all is time management. InsideSales.com Labs recently completed a study with 721 salespeople to determine how reps divide their time between sales tasks and sales systems.

Sales Reps Time Spent Selling

The big finding coming out of the study was, to sell or not to sell? That may sound silly but seriously, are sales reps even spending time selling or they getting caught up in non-selling activities? According to the data, only 35.2% of sales reps time is spent selling while 64.8% of time is spent on non-selling activities.

Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger.

With that said, if you’re a sales manager, you know deep down inside in places places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. Sorry, a little reference to a Few Good Men. What I meant to say was you know deep down inside that these numbers are pretty accurate and if it doesn’t make you scared it should. [click to continue reading...]