CRM Software Adoption: Time Management

The digital world is vast and growing at an exponential rate, with the amount of data exchanged doubling every year (Sources: IDC). Every day, businesses try to analyze and use this phenomenal amount of data to offer new solutions better adapted to the needs of customers and prospects. This data can also be used to better predict future sales or optimize companies’ portfolios.

CRM Software: a Useful but Cumbersome Tool

It’s clear that this multitude of data can be a source of growth and profit. Nearly 91% of companies with more than 11 employees use CRM software to store it (Source: The State of B2B Lead Generation). It allows companies to manage their customer/professional relationships as well as all their data and information. It is possible to store contacts, account information, leads, or sales opportunities (Source: Salesforce Blog).

However, the core technology behind these systems has not evolved significantly for years. Users still have to manually enter a lot of data into CRM software, thus constituting the main challenge of use for 17% of people surveyed by HubSpot in 2016. Many employees therefore spend a considerable amount of time manually entering this data, in addition to searching for customer information or trying to understand how the system works to extract real added value from it. This time spent on a CRM reduces the time salespeople spend selling, which represents only 35.2% of their professional time (Sources: Forbes).

Consequently, this may explain why many companies and salespeople do not prioritize investing in CRM software. For 70% of companies surveyed by HubSpot in 2016, signing new contracts was the main priority for 2017, whereas for only 13%, investing in CRM software was a priority.

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AI: the Solution for Better CRM Software Adoption and Improved Sales Performance?

Admittedly, salespeople spend a lot of time entering and sifting through data in CRM software, but this tool has proven, in many cases, that it can be a source of sales performance. However, if artificial intelligence is integrated with all CRM tools, they could be more powerful, less arduous, and generate time savings for all their users.

Artificial intelligence could, for example, automatically enter data in record time, advise salespeople on different strategies by intelligently analyzing collected data, and thus make their lives easier. Freed from these administrative tasks, salespeople will have a very different time management approach and will be able to dedicate themselves to more important and decisive activities such as in-person customer relations, signing new contracts, and improving their performance. According to Accenture in 2016, the adoption of artificial intelligence within operational processes could increase business productivity by up to 40%, thanks to a better distribution of work time.

Conclusion

The adoption of artificial intelligence within CRM software could revolutionize the sales function and be synonymous with improved performance and productivity within a company. These proactive innovations are not yet fully established in the market but could make CRM software ultra-innovative tools and better accepted by more companies in the future. The “Big 5” CRM companies (Salesforce, Oracle, SAP, Adobe Systems, and Microsoft) are investing massively in artificial intelligence to improve their software.

According to a study conducted in 2017 by IDC and sponsored by Salesforce, its use within CRM software could increase global business revenues by nearly $1.1 trillion and create some 800,000 new jobs, just for the period 2017-2021 (Source: IDC, Salesforce). No sector will be spared, and every company must pay particular attention to the upcoming evolutions of CRM software and artificial intelligence.

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