CRM setup mistakes that cost thousands in wasted spend

CRM software often sounds amazing, like a salvation for businesses to manage their leads, customers, emails and workflows. But sometimes months after the installation, sales is still working from Excel spreadsheets, marketing reports are in Word docs, and the reporting data never seems to show the full picture. I’ve even seen CRMs operating at half-capacity years after the set up.

The problem is not the software, it’s the implementation in the business, which needs to extend beyond a 1-day workshop. It must include all stakeholders – leadership, marketing, sales, product, support, IT, and can take months for everyone to come up to speed.

CRMs are expensive, and even more costly when used inefficiently. This is why I map out how the organisation will use the CRM before I even open the software. This internal manual exists to avoid the five mistakes I often see that can bleed the budget:

1. Lack of Data Field Clarity

A new software is exciting. Everyone is optimistic. I often see teams importing every possible field from the website or legacy system without defining why each field is needed. This can create clutter and confusion.

When leads start coming in, but are not tagged correctly in terms of source, campaign or behaviour, this will flow directly to reporting. You will likely find data inconsistencies that could make your reports wildly inaccurate.

When customer data is imported, and the data points are not reviewed, this can badly impact segmentation and customer communications.

Solution:

• Audit and map your data fields – Always bring data that you will use. If a field doesn’t trigger a workflow, segment a list, or report on revenue, consider deleting it
• Review your CX workflow – Mapping your buyer and customer journey will ensure you are capturing the right data fields at the right time
• Create standard naming conventions – It will make marketing reporting 100% easier if you have clarity around field and property names before launching campaigns or workflows. Resist the temptation to go with the default platform conventions, as they may not be suitable for your business.

2. Badly Timed Workflow Triggers

Workflows can be a timesaving, productivity boost. However, if they are set up incorrectly, you run the risk of undoing all the time and money spent acquiring a lead.

For example, a lead could sign up to your newsletter or attend a webinar. This does not mean they should automatically receive sales offers or emails assuming they are ready for the next stage in their journey. If they “unsubscribe” all your hard work could suddenly be undone.

Solution:

• Prioritise behaviour-based triggers – Have your workflow set up to be triggered by the activity of your lead, such as page visits, email clicks, and content downloads
• Utilise Lead Scoring and Grading – This is sometimes a premium CRM subscription feature but can be enormously beneficial for displaying buying signals. The leads are scored on their desirable attributes, as well as the digital actions they take.

3. Not Properly Using Personalisation and Segmentation

Segmentation is the modern marketer’s best friend. Being responsible for “one-to-many” communications, especially for nurturing and bottom of funnel conversion messaging, can be tricky.

Even though you are sending messaging to many people at once, you want them to feel like the messaging is just for them. And segmentation can do this.

Solution:

• Define segmentation data – There can sometimes be endless options when it comes to segmenting your lead and customer data. Your sales and marketing team need to agree which data segmentation fields are most relevant, so that you stay focussed.
• Build niche lists – By creating lists that segment your audience by industry, geographical region, company size, buying stage, or engagement level, you can test and see which segmentation for personalised messaging is most effective.

4. Dirty Reporting and Dashboards

One of the best features in the modern CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, etc…) is the reporting functionality. To make data-based marketing and leadership decisions, having up-to-date and clear reporting is vital.

Unfortunately, without being planned correctly, your business can end up with a mishmash of reports and dashboards, that can actually make tracking results harder.

Solution:

• Define your top objectives – What does leadership need to know, what does sales need to know, and what does marketing need to know? Less is more. When choosing objectives, understand how you will use each one. Metrics for metrics sake can be unhelpful and overwhelming.
• Clarify vanity/operational vs revenue metrics – Both these metrics type will inform different decisions and both are important. However, you need to separate vanity metrics like open rates, click rates, and follower counts, with revenue metrics plike cost per lead, pipeline influenced, and conversion source.

5. Poor Tech Stack Planning

Your CRM is usually just one tool in your sales, marketing and data stack. It is vital to consider what other platforms need to be connected to send data in, and which ones need to send data out.

If key data is not coming into the CRM, the flow on effects can be expensive and painful. There could be inaccurate workflows and reporting that could hinder leadership decision making.

Solution:

• Review your customer journey – Have a detailed map of your buyer’s journey and what data points from which other softwares should feed into your CRM.
• Connect key platforms – Ensure software like Google Analytics, Meta, LinkedIn, and your email provider are flowing into your CRM to keep all your data in one place.

CRMs can be powerful, and incredible business assets, but only if set up and maintained correctly. Fix the foundation before you scale the campaigns or workflows to keep your leads and customers happy, and revenue going up.