CRM is a foundational front-office technology. Enterprises originally used CRM to provide operational efficiencies for sales, marketing, and customer service organizations. Today, CRM is undergoing a second wave of adoption, where it’s used more broadly to support customers through their end-to-end journeys.

The city of Los Angeles used CRM to get emergency aid — $36 million — within weeks to the people who were the hardest hit by the pandemic. CRM allows Dayton Children’s Hospital to achieve national rankings for best US hospitals. And, it lets the American Red Cross mobilize teams to provide emergency relief after a catastrophe.

Here are the three things you should know about CRM:

  1. CRM is one of the largest expenses for enterprises. CRM is a significant $500,000 to $5 million a year for most companies.
  2. Enterprises buy CRM to enable them to be future fit. CRM is now a broad company initiative, not a departmental initiative. Executive management sponsors CRM projects and reports progress to Wall Street. In addition, CRM metrics move away from productivity and efficiency measures to ones that gauge the quality and strength of customer relationships — and their impact to top-line revenue.
  3. Despite the power of CRM, tech executives struggle to get the most value out of it. Top challenges include empowering the front office with a customer 360, CRM adoption, and governance. Challenges also include aligning CRM vendors and partners to work together to deliver ongoing value.

Read our executive guide on CRM to understand the top conversations tech executives have about this technology. Reach out to me to continue the conversation.