We are repeatedly asked: what is the best B2B CRM system? There are now over 600 CRM systems on the market, which doesn't make the choice any easier. We spent over 40 hours taking a closer look at 50 CRM and marketing-automation systems. There is no single best CRM — it always depends on the requirements. The following remarks aim to shed more light on a murky subject.
As a first step, you need to examine the basic requirements a company has for a B2B CRM system. That sounds logical at first. With over 95% of companies, we find that before selecting a CRM system there is still no precise business case for how a B2B CRM system is supposed to increase profit and/or growth. The notion stubbornly persists that a CRM system increases customer loyalty and that profit then rises almost automatically. Yet the great strength of customer-relationship management lies in cross-selling. This, however, places enormous demands on the strategic level, on data acquisition, and on implementation by the sales team and at the different touchpoints. For our assessment of the best CRM system, cross-selling is the focus.
In addition, it needs to be clarified whether a company needs a classic CRM system and/or marketing automation. A CRM system is primarily intended as a controlling instrument for salespeople. 'Deals' are created and reviewed to see how they develop over time. Monitoring sales activities is also possible with such a system. For management, the system primarily serves to provide a current overview of the order situation and the pipeline, as well as the sales department's activities. In addition, some systems support territory allocation and route planning. At the individual level, all emails and calls with customers are synchronised or recorded as far as possible. Employees can enter tasks and notes in the CRM system. As a result, a CRM system is fundamentally a database with strong controlling and reporting functions.
Marketing-automation systems put the customer at the centre. Communication with customers takes place via emails, SMS, chatbots and other digital channels. The focus here is not on the employees, but on the customers and their reactions to the various activities. Many marketing-automation systems now have basic CRM functions integrated. So deals can also be created, emails synchronised, and notes and tasks created for the contact. However, specific B2B sales-support functions, such as route planning, territory planning, automatic call logging, or comprehensive reporting on sales activities, are not possible.
In addition to system selection, there is another point to consider. Existing systems are hardly able to convert customer data into valuable customer insights. That is why a middleware often has to be established between the CRM and ERP systems to further process the available data. A customer scoring or a more complex customer-value calculation is not supported by the systems. Customers are usually managed via a points system in the individual systems. But with the 5 points usually available, the points quickly run out. This classification is also very unspecific and, with a larger customer base, hardly relevant for steering. Thus the data intelligence of most systems is modest and offers only limited added value for individualised customer engagement. Before purchasing a CRM system, the data structure and, above all, a concept for obtaining customer insights for differentiating customer-relationship management should be developed before any software is acquired. This applies especially to cross-selling. It requires customer insights to uncover cross-selling potential and use it for sales/marketing. The larger providers tout AI functions. In our tests, the artificial currently still outweighs the intelligence.
It is therefore up to a company to decide which goals are to be achieved. As described, most companies lack a clear strategy for customer-relationship management with a target system, and a concept for how valuable customer insights can be obtained and used. Nevertheless, decisions about the best system are made 'wildly' on the basis of pseudo-criteria.
We divide the selection of the best B2B CRM system into two categories: extensive competencies and resources, and limited competencies and resources. For us, it is not company size/industry that is decisive, but the number of employees and their competencies that can be deployed for CRM.
Information management
Transformation
Sales strategy
Sales management
A brief introduction to the dimensions and success factors of our Sales Excellence Model.
In the sales literature, there are three different models for the Sales Excellence approach — by Belz et al., Homburg et al. and Pufahl. Belz et al. identify ten levers for improvement. Pufahl and Homburg et al. each assume four different dimensions. Pufahl names strategy, organisation, controlling and personnel. Homburg et al. list sales strategy, sales management, information management and customer-relationship management as dimensions of Sales Excellence. The model by Belz et al. is difficult to relate to other models because of its lack of a fundamental systematics. The general statements on sales management in the model by Pufahl et al. support a specific improvement of Sales Excellence in an organisation only to a limited extent. The model by Homburg et al. is distinguished by a structure and several specific recommendations for improving Sales Excellence. What all three models have in common is that digitalisation — whether in the form of digitalisation, personal selling or e-commerce — is not mentioned, or only in passing.
Only in the model by Homburg et al. is information management established as an important dimension of Sales Excellence. Their study results, however, lead them to conclude that improving information management in sales generates an optimal return on investment only up to a certain point. This statement may seem coherent at first glance, since only few companies possess comprehensive competencies in information management. Yet our studies were able to demonstrate that it is precisely information management that holds the greatest potential for companies, especially in sales. In the following, the individual dimensions of our approach are presented in more detail.
Here, the quality of the customer-value model is the most important success factor. Companies are required to improve their revenue- and contribution-margin-based customer-value models — or their non-existent customer-value models — towards a customer scoring or customer engagement value. Only an understanding of the value contribution for the customer and for the company allows optimal decisions, for example regarding field-sales management or discount management in e-commerce.
Here, the annual writing-down of the sales strategy is the most important success factor. Only when the sales strategy is formulated and written down is it understandable for all employees in sales, so that they can align their actions with it.
This level has the continuous review and adjustment of sales processes as its most important success factor. It is surprising that existing Sales Excellence models address the structure of the sales system comprehensively, but process design is still hardly considered. In process optimisation, it is especially important to proceed not from the organisation but from the customer. The focus should not be on the sales funnel, but on the individual customer journeys.
Here, following Homburg et al., interface management can be identified as the most important success factor. This comprises four dimensions:
stronger involvement of sales in offering development
improving cross-selling
merging marketing and sales into holistic customer-relationship management
the decentralised configuration of Sales Excellence
Successful sales systems strive for stronger involvement of customers in offering development. The keyword co-creation sales illustrates the increasing integration of the customer into offering development via a company's salespeople. Cross-selling is another important success factor in sales. Sales must be enabled to represent the company's entire service portfolio to customers as far as possible. Due to the increasing size and complexity of the service portfolio, this requires digital support for the individual salesperson. This makes clear how important it is to take digitalisation into account more strongly in Sales Excellence models.
In addition, digitalisation in many companies will lead to an organisational separation of marketing and sales increasingly dissolving. When the customer uses the different touchpoints ever more individually, and the purchase decision — whether B2B or B2C — has already been made to an average of 65% before the customer meets the point of sale or the salesperson, it becomes important to take a more integrative perspective on marketing and sales. The rising importance of e-commerce will also support this development. Finally, it should be noted that companies are building central Sales Excellence units with the aim of analysing and transforming the sales system. Here, Belz et al. point comprehensively to the problem of a stand-alone Sales Excellence unit at headquarters. Sales Excellence should therefore be understood as a decentralised task and anchored in the sales system as far as possible. We review the success factors of Sales Excellence in our annual Sales Excellence Study.
As an independent CRM consultancy, we support you in developing the optimal CRM strategy. We take a close look at your processes of customer data acquisition and use as well as your marketing, sales and service activities. It is important to increase your efficiency in customer relationship management. This is supported by the use of as many automations as possible. In addition, we will work with you to optimize your growth strategy. This is done against the backdrop of improving customer acquisition and customer retention, so that not only the efficiency but also the effectiveness of your activities is improved.
