The Domino Effect: How a Dodgy CRM Creates Cross-Department Conflict

CRM is one of the most invaluable pieces of software in the modern organization’s toolkit. Few platforms are such a focal point for so many different departments, both internal and customer-facing.

So it’s no surprise that this software doesn’t come cheap. But did you know that an underperforming CRM can drive those costs even higher, eat into your revenue, and stop you from seeing any return on investment?

What’s more, the failings of poor CRM software can spark cross-departmental conflict, with far-reaching consequences for the organization.

If any of the scenarios and perspectives outlined below sound familiar, it might be time to ask yourself if your CRM is to blame…

1. The CEO: “Why can’t I get a straight answer?”

One of Emma’s responsibilities as CEO is keeping investors up to date with performance. As the single source of truth, the firm’s CRM should provide this information. Yet the reports she’s generating are contradictory at best, and totally inaccurate at worst.

To provide accurate forecasts for investors, the CEO needs figures on:

• Financial performance
• Budgets
• Customer retention
• Sales trends

However, outdated software, clunky user interfaces and complex tools with capped functionality make these essential tasks far harder than they need to be.

Reaching out directly to the rest of the board for forecasts might be a workaround, but it often creates more questions than answers. Each team, with their own fragmented data, gives Emma a different story.

Without a reliable dataset to base her judgement on, strategy becomes guesswork.

In her mind, the finance team should be the source of clarity, but what she doesn’t realize is that James, the company’s CFO, is having the same frustrations.

2. The CFO: “These forecasts are a joke.”

As a vital tool for financial planning, the CRM should support James in delivering accurate projections. As CFO, he understands how important clean, consistent data is.

But what keeps CRM data clean and reliable? People using the tool correctly, uploading accurate information, and working towards shared goals across the organization.

Without an accurate input of data, the finance department can’t make forecasts the CEO can trust. And when the CRM makes entering this data unnecessarily difficult, the result is incomplete records and costly mistakes.

Worse still, a CRM that can’t provide unified metrics often pushes departments to work against each other.

To James, the problem lies with sales and their lack of engagement with the tool.

3. The Sales Director: “I can’t trust my own data.”

Alicia, the Sales Director, recognizes that her team barely uses the CRM. What’s more, she understands why.

A CRM should help sales do what they do best: sell. But a clunky, complex tool designed without the user experience in mind becomes a barrier to revenue.

After all, wouldn’t their time be better spent securing deals?

So while Alicia shares the CFO’s frustration, she doesn’t believe her team should be forced to use a tool that slows them down.

An outdated CRM that can’t handle large volumes of data is essentially useless to sales. It offers no guarantee of lead quality and no reliable insight into which deals are worth pursuing.

To her, the issue isn’t the CRM – it’s the marketing team and their failure to deliver quality prospects.

4. The Marketing Director: “Why are we always the scapegoat?”

Chris, the Marketing Director, is tired of having to defend his department.

This isn’t the first time CRM has created conflict with sales. Aligning these teams is always a challenge, but the wrong CRM can quickly become a source of friction.

The biggest gap between the two teams? How they define lead quality. And once again, the CRM is at the center of the problem.

Without an agreed definition of a qualified lead, or any sort of lead scoring built into the tool, these teams will continue to be misaligned in their lead generation efforts.

On top of that, poorly defined processes, lack of clarity around responsibilities, and limited functionality can lead to missed opportunities, attribution headaches, and a competitive rather than collaborative mindset.

Then there’s marketing automation. If the CRM can’t integrate with the tools Chris’ team are using, it can create fragmented data, making the sales team’s job even harder.

It’s issues like these that make marketing feel like the scapegoat, when the real problem is the CRM itself.

The ripple effect

These challenges create rifts between departments and can impact your bottom line. A weak CRM can trigger a ripple effect, fueling a culture of blame across the organization.

A company like the one in this example could easily go on to miss its targets due to data silos, inter-departmental friction, and opportunities slipping through the cracks.

And the worst part? The root cause – the CRM – might be going unnoticed the whole time.

The solution

A CRM should bring departments together, not drive them apart.

So instead of pointing the finger at each other, the leadership team needs to recognize the real issue and work together to find a solution.

Switching to Workbooks can help them break the cycle. By collaborating throughout the process, each leader can ensure the new CRM meets their team’s specific needs:

• The CEO can get the reliable, comprehensive insights she needs to share with investors
• The CFO will have access to financial projections that he can trust
• The Sales Director gets a simple interface with built-in automation, making it easier to track real opportunities
• The Marketing Director finally has the visibility he needs to understand what’s working (and what isn’t)

If this story sounds all too familiar and your CRM system has been giving you and your teams a headache, get in touch to find out how the right system can connect, not divide.

Onboarding the right CRM can bring your organization together, but it’s no simple task. You’ll need buy-in from each of the departments we’ve explored here, and likely from investors too.

To help you build your business case and get the wider team on board, check out our latest eBook.