Analytical people like statistics. It’s quick, it’s to the point, and it often encompasses everything that is needed to be known in one figure. That is true until it isn’t. Sometimes statistics are thrown in as headlines to grab the attention of the decision makers, and they make their decision without reading all the details. VentureBeat, VB News, says, “As many as 70 percent of CRM implementations fail,” one Butler Group analyst said, according to analyst Michael Krigsman, who quizzed The Butler Group about this very stat back in 2009.”
“As many as 70 percent of CRM implementations fail,” is an attention grabbing headline, isn’t it? The problem is that unless the decision makers would’ve read about it, they wouldn’t have known that it’s just not true. A quick rumor can spread around like a wildfire and have a big impact before anything is even confirmed. VB News also gave a great comparison. “You know the sort of thing … like when John Lennon was asked whether he considered Ringo Starr to be the best drummer in the world and he supposedly answered: “he’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles.” Lennon obviously never put down Ringo. That statistic wasn’t reported but it certainly made the rounds like it was. Like I said, the news spread like a wildfire. It went around the business world so fast it could’ve made your head spin. Statistics are very useful, but the facts behind the statistic also need to be corroborated.
VB News states, “Of 2,119 respondents from G2 Crowd’s data, only 77 (3.6 percent) stated that they had received no payback on their technology investment.” Technology investment doesn’t necessarily mean CRM, or CRM software. It could be other things like sales software, project management software, marketing automation, email marketing, social media management, content marketing, analytics, and ecommerce. It covered several different platforms. However, 3.6 percent of those companies not receiving any payback on their investment are quite the difference from 70%.
As you can see a CRM solution should be nothing to fear. Actually, it’s quite critical in accomplishing many of a company’s goals. Being provided such features as email marketing, sales automation, and social media campaigns are major opportunities to connect with prospective customers. Here is one more statistic that VB News provides: “…we can state the following: With a high level of confidence, between 1.47 percent and 5.73 percent of marketing technology implementations fail to provide a return on investment over a 3.5-year life cycle.” You almost have to try to not make money and lose out when using a CRM solution.
In summary, statistics are your friend, but make sure they’re real statistics. Phony statistics can only cause people to make rash decisions and come to the wrong conclusions. The smart thing to do is once presented with a statistic; check the source of the statistic. As an example, if you were to check the statistics that I quoted in this article, then you would be able to trace it to VB News’ report that they published.
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