CRM for Sales is a dead-on-arrival product.

About 70% of CRM implementations fail right at the initial phases. Even those that do get implemented are often plagued with data errors and process gaps, rendering the output irrelevant. In addition, for the sales team that is expected to capture most of the first-party data, the tool provides no help.

Why is the current CRM not useful for Sales teams?

Firstly, it has been designed based on the one-dimensional data flow of previous times, rendering it outdated and not relevant to the modern sales process. Additionally, the data structure is fixed, making it difficult to adapt to changing needs without extensive customization. The sales stage definition is also rigid, particularly in the lead-to-opportunity conversion phase, where maximum support is required. Furthermore, there is a lack of context-sensitive information from other public sources such as news, company publications, and blogs that could assist the sales team in their progress. (Chat GPT is a better tool here). Finally, on the technical front, all CRMs require complex integration with backend enterprise apps, reducing the return on investment (ROI).

What can fill the gap?

An offering is needed to help the sales team improve productivity and help meet their quota, track progress, capture interactions, and in general create internal visibility of the revenue pipeline. The current offerings don't work. There are discrete systems that enable each area but most come out as half steps for a long March rather than an integrated enabler.

Below are some suggested capabilities for such a tool, categorized based on the source of information.

Based on information available within an Org:

1. What could be the next best possible step that can help progress the current deal? What is missing in the current plan? What is done well?
2. Which other opportunity in the past looks like the one currently worked on? How did that customer proposal look? What are the salient aspects of those deals? Is there a better commercial for a similar deal in the past? Which team helped with that opportunity?
3. What are the open tasks? A task list that is updated based on the email interactions or notes that the sales team creates.
4. What are the new areas that other colleagues are working on?
5. What product mix or value props are trending with customers?
6. Which marketing effort is working well?
7. Any relevant internal publications/articles to keep the ABM effort on?

Based on information available in the public domain.

1. Is there a piece of relevant news about that customer that can lead to the next opportunity?
2. What is the social media chatter about the company, industry, vertical, etc.?
3. Who is that leader in the account who is generally hyperactive on social media? What do his messages point to?
4. What are the employees in the account discussing?
5. Are there any analyst reports that are out there that have come up with something good? (Analyst report is another area that needs disruption.)
6. Based on the public domain information who are the highly probable active vendors there?
7. Who has joined the company recently and how are they connected to the network?
8. Any insights from the annual report? If it is privately held is there any new investment activity?
9. Which opportunities are active in similar accounts in the same vertical? Like are they all chucking their CRM product away for a CDP?

Most of this is currently missing in a CRM offering for Sales. So there is a need to create a “sales pipeline management tool”.

A sales pipeline management tool is urgently needed to improve the sales process, user experience, and decision-making for the sales teams and leaders. The tool should prioritize being user-friendly while ensuring data accuracy and completeness. "Easy on the users, hard on the data" should be the guiding principle for its development.

Vivek Khare Bharath Patil Sandeep Mohankumar Krishna Gopal