eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
1Sales Teams Bemoan Limitations of CRM in Providing Accurate Forecasting
Despite the widespread deployment of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, relatively few sales professionals have a high degree of confidence in the data produced by these tools, according to a recent survey from CSO Insights. The resulting “2018 Sales Operations Optimization Study” conveys similarly discouraging sentiments about whether CRM actually improves the productivity of sales teams. What’s more, survey respondents said their current state of tech limits the accuracy of their sales forecasting, in addition to a lack of comparative, historic data. More than 300 global sales professionals and managers took part in the research. The following slide show presents highlights of the survey, with charts provided courtesy of CSO Insights.
2Data Dominates Sales Priorities
Nearly 60 percent of survey respondents cited the need to better deliver key, decision-making data to executives as a “high priority.” Two of four said the same about the need to continuously improve efficiencies via automation, and nearly 37 percent said this about the need to better connect tools and tech to the sales organization.
3CRM Strategies Firmly in Focus
4Tool Adoption on the Rise
5Systems Fail to Meet Expectations
6Customer Analysis Part of the Routine
7Forecasting Tops Analytics Duties
When asked to break down the kind of sales performance analysis they do, forecasting and pipeline management ranked No. 1 (with regular involvement on the part of about 80 percent of respondents). Seller performance metrics ranked second, cited as a regular duty by just over 76 percent of respondents.
8Organizations Push to Automate Marketing Functions
9Limited Tech Hurts Forecasting Efforts
When asked to name barriers to accurate sales forecasting, one-quarter cited the limitations in the technology they use to manage forecasts. Roughly the same proportion cited the lack of comparative, historical data.