How to Solve the Most Pressing Challenges of Implementing CRM

Multiple challenges of CRM implementation spill over into project failure rates between 20% and 80%, varying by methodology, year, and focus area surveyed. But what does it mean in the daily grind of businesses? 

Forrester hits us with gut-wrenching figures: 48% of businesses cannot generate the customer insights needed to make informed decisions, 68% are limited with a fragmented customer picture, 39% grapple with data quality issues. Plus, there are other facets of a CRM failure like poor user adoption, security breaches, and negative ROI. 

Since 2000, we’ve navigated dozens of CRM projects, each accompanied by a myriad of obstacles and just as many lessons learned. In this article, we share the inside scoop on why CRM projects fail and how to prevent this from happening to you.

1. Choosing the right system to build on top of

With CRMs being around for over two decades, there’s almost no need to reinvent the wheel, developing from scratch. At least, if you’re not functioning within a highly regulated environment with very specific security and compliance requirements or don’t have unique (and we mean it, unique) workflows.

But does that make choosing a system which would be a perfect fit for your business any easier? Hardly. With hundreds of existing tools and thousands of features, it’s easy to drown in them. An abundance of options requires more effort and knowledge to make the right choice… and increases the odds of making the wrong one. 

The most common mistake — actually, two of them — is that companies either pick the most expensive system, thinking it must be the best one, or they go super budget without considering long-term needs.

You need a CRM that’s flexible enough to fit your business now and scale with you as you grow.

Based on our experience, other rookie blunders companies tend to make include:

• Skipping a proper needs analysis
• Chasing endless features, viewing the CRM as a be-all and end-all
• Overlooking user experience, which tanks adoption rates
• Ignoring scalability, leaving them with a system that won’t grow with the business

Fend off the desire to make a decision of moving to a particular CRM top-down, failing to explain to yourself and others why you do it. One of our clients nearly jumped from Zoho to HubSpot without even assessing flaws in the current setup. We showed them that often — as was the case here — a proper review can bring out the best in what’s already in place. We recommended cleaning up their data, optimizing configurations, and adding several custom modules. So, instead of a hasty switch, they opted for a well-planned fix, avoiding migration risks and saving both time and money.

—  Liudmila Stselmashenka, Project Manager, *instinctools

As you’ve probably noticed, too many things can go wrong unless you start with a solid game plan — one that covers all your technical and business requirements. 

One of our clients was overspending on their CRM until we pointed out: ‘Guys, you’re wasting money on features you’re not even using.’ Luckily, they ended up scaling back the subscription. Always double-check if your package matches your actual needs, otherwise, you might be losing extra thousands monthly.

—  Liudmila Stselmashenka, Project Manager, *instinctools

Try demos for your CRM top picks and jump on discovery calls with sales teams… But if it feels too much, and you need extra hands for this lengthy, intricate process, you can always turn to a reliable CRM consultant. Backed by their expertise, you’ll avoid being misled by overblown promises or flashy brands. Besides, you’ll save many hours and resources on research, all while signing up for a solution that is easily adaptable to your unique business needs.

2. Crafting an implementation plan 

You want your CRM to boost profits, not drain them. However, without careful planning, things like unexpected issues, tight deadlines, and poor resource management can quickly spiral out of control, driving up costs. The old saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” couldn’t be more true. That’s why you can’t just wing it with CRM projects — they require a well-honed implementation strategy that leaves no stone unturned. 

Yet, industry reports reveal that more than a third of companies struggle to create one. So, where do these companies go wrong?

• Failing to map out clear objectives and milestones. With no clear understanding of what you want to achieve, deadlines get pushed back, and no one knows who should be involved to meet the goal.
• Inadequate project scope assessment. If you don’t define the scope from the start, it’s obvious you won’t be able to set realistic deadlines, and there will be endless changes. Gauge how easy/difficult the implementation process will be and how much it might disrupt daily business operations during the system setup. 
• Overloading the initial rollout with too many CRM features. There’s no point in waiting forever. It’s important to focus on what’s necessary for the launch, so you can start using the system and it’ll begin delivering value and solving business problems. Less critical features can be added later.
• Underestimating the time needed for testing and fine-tuning. Testing is needed not so much for system configurations (like contact cards and such) but, first of all, to make sure all the automations, for example, workflows or field updates, are working properly. Migration testing is also something not to be neglected if you want the transition from one system to another to go hitch-free. These things can’t be done on the fly — they need to be thoroughly planned.

3. Engaging the right people

You’ve chosen the system, drawn up the plan — now who’s going to execute it? One of the biggest CRM challenges is getting the right people involved. You may assign 5-10-however many people to the project, but unless their roles align with project goals, you won’t get far.

Don’t let the attempt to cut costs, lack of available talent, or a simple oversight imperil your CRM project success. Engage relevant team members, such as:

• Product owner sees the big picture and balances the needs of different teams — marketing, sales, and beyond. Without this, you’ll have every department pushing their own agenda, and no one pulling it all together. 

There has to be someone with a bird’s-eye view, someone who can sync all these processes and guide how best to implement things so that it works well for everyone. For example, every role uses a contact card in a CRM, but you need to avoid having a million fields while still making sure everyone has enough information. Some of our clients learned this the hard way when each team focused on their own processes, and they had no one to synthesize the overall strategy.

—  Liudmila Stselmashenka, Project Manager, *instinctools

• Business analyst analyzes business needs and requirements, translates them into functional specifications to guide the implementation of a CRM, and supports data preparation and migration.
• Project manager oversees the project from initiation to completion, coordinates resources, manages timelines, and ensures that the project aligns with business goals.
• Data analysts are responsible for auditing, cleaning, and processing datasets to ensure the CRM captures only the right data and in a correct manner. 
• Developers (backend and frontend) support the CRM tool’s architecture and user interface, facilitate data migration, API configuration, integration with other systems, etc.
• QA engineers to assess if the CRM system is efficiently managing customer data and aligning with business goals
• Representatives from sales, marketing, and account management units provide insights and feedback from their respective departments to ensure the CRM meets cross-functional needs and supports overall business objectives.
• Senior management offers strategic direction for the project.

4. Getting data in order and migrating it without loss

Some still think that data migration is just importing all data from point A (a current CRM or spreadsheets) to point B (a new tool) and that’s it. Except… no.

Reality hits when you realize just how much stuff you’ve collected. Years of scattered customer contacts, siloed notes, and, let’s be real, terabytes of trash. Add to this inconsistent fields, duplicates, mismatched formats, and the infamous rogue Excel sheet created by that one employee, which somehow became the “sacred source of truth” for the entire company. Prior to dumping all this mess into the new system, it needs to be reviewed, cleaned, and reorganized.

Here’s what to avoid:

• rushing the migration process without thorough validation
• migrating data ‘as is’ — both critical and useless — all thrown together
• downplaying the differences in data structure between the old system and the new one

One of the examples of CRM implementation challenges that few people consider is the phase when you’re moving from one CRM to another. During this period, you often have to juggle both systems in parallel, which can result in a lot of duplicate data.

To ensure nothing falls through the cracks, prioritize a flexible data model from the start. Before going all-in, run a trial on a smaller data sample, catching any potential complications early on. Once your new CRM is production-ready, move data in functional blocks — marketing data, sales data, etc. — to minimize disruptions. A critical step here is ensuring a one-way data flow from the old system to the new one, preventing inconsistencies and safeguarding data integrity every step of the way.

5. Integration with other systems

A CRM system’s ability to connect with your other business applications is crucial. 

Marketing automation tools, analytics systems, ERPs, team collaboration software, ticketing tools, ecommerce platforms… Each comes with its own data formats, technologies, and other integration quirks.

The common pitfalls at this point typically boil down to: 

• Failing to check API compatibility with existing systems 

Most CRMs come with standard APIs that make it easy to integrate with world-known business systems. But if you’re trying to integrate with something low-key, you’ll want to know ahead of time if it’s even possible or if you have to develop custom APIs.

At the same time, don’t overrate the challenges of custom integration. While lacking a standard API can be a hurdle, it’s rarely a reason to abandon a project. For one, the desired API could be released sooner than expected. And secondly, there are plenty of modern tools that enable to quickly build reliable custom synchronizations, making integration feasible even without a pre-existing API.

• Overlooking the importance of real-time synchronization

Trying to pull the deal into the CRM and getting stuck waiting a couple of hours for it to update across other systems is super frustrating because it interrupts your flow, and you have to juggle everything in your head. In most cases, real-time sync is really important. Take a website — if data from contact forms takes forever to sync with the CRM, you’re delaying your response to the customer, which results in lost opportunities. It’s less crucial for things like reports, though. You just need to agree on how often the data updates. 

6. Striking the balance in customization

As ironic as it may sound, the line between a CRM that feels like it’s built for you and a bloated system that’s impossible to manage is often blurred.  

CRM turns into a counterproductive tool when:

• Over-customized: excessive customizations, overengineered workflows slow things down, are costly to maintain, and simply frustrate CRM users. Plus, if we consider CRM software version updates, that’s where your patchwork features that can crash in the new release… and they probably will.
• Under-customized: generic dashboards, undercooked features, restrictions here and there. If the system can’t be personalized enough to fit your specific needs, you might end up feeling like your investment just isn’t worth it.
• And one more thing: customizing too early before understanding the system’s capabilities prolongs the implementation timeline and strains the budget. 

Narrow down the scenarios crucial for you to start and identify corresponding ready-to-use features or pre-built workflows. Sure, no system is perfect out-of-the-box, and customization is still necessary. But customize strategically, not excessively. Don’t turn your CRM into a Swiss army knife when all you need is a strong tool to manage customer relationships.

7. Establishing security and data protection

Sensitive customer data held in CRM systems becomes a prime target for cyberattacks and privacy breaches. To ward off data breaches and the associated CRM problems of fines and reputational damage, don’t do this:

• skimping on data security measures
• giving admin rights negligently and having poor access control
• using weak authentication methods
• neglecting encryption for sensitive data
• missing out on regulatory requirements

Most modern CRM systems offer functionality to maintain compliance with major data security regulations and standards, such as GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001, etc. However, full adherence to these regulations requires more than just using a CRM — it often calls for specific configurations, processes, and governance by the company using the software. 

8. Change management and organizational enablement

No matter how great your CRM is, it’ll inevitably flop if your team doesn’t see the value in it.  

Here’s a list of main reasons why some insist their spreadsheets are “just fine,” while others fear that one wrong click will somehow trigger a major crisis:

• failing to communicate the value of the new CRM to users
• insufficient training or implementing the CRM without training at all
• not involving users in the project (not taking into account their needs and opinions)

There’s only one way to turn skeptics into advocates, which is to show — not tell — users how the new system will improve their day-to-day business operations. 

When rolling out training for a new CRM system, avoid holding sessions for large groups right from the start. Instead, break the training into smaller, manageable chunks, setting aside enough time for Q&A. As you run these smaller sessions, you’ll create a question bank with queries from participants that may be useful for other teams. This question bank becomes a valuable resource, helping to address various scenarios in future training programs.

It’s crucial to not only offer live training but also provide detailed written documentation, so users can troubleshoot and learn independently. Additionally, share useful links and contacts for further assistance in case they can’t find answers in the training materials or documentation. This multi-faceted approach ensures users have continuous support and access to the right resources when they need them.

9. Post-implementation maintenance and update

With your CRM going live, the work doesn’t stop. Assuming the system is ‘set and forget’ is a dead end, reflected in:

• ignoring user feedback post-launch
• failing to stay current with CRM updates
• lacking a designated manager responsible for handling all internal and external updates

Post-implementation holds as much importance as proper implementation. To keep your CRM up and running, ensure there’s a specialist or even a team (depending on your project complexity) that oversees the following:

• diagnosing the system and spotting the issues 
• fixing urgent CRM issues, preventing major malfunctions, and provisioning workarounds
• gathering user feedback to increase user satisfaction rate
• tracking all the product opportunities, system updates, and new releases
• running data security and performance audits

10. Finding the right implementation partner with a proven track-record

Your CRM pipe dreams will turn into dismal reality if implementation is a mess.

We’ve seen it happen too many times… tools get discarded and folded back because of a half-baked CRM strategy and hasty onboarding within the organization. Here is a huge red flag: when a software development vendor promises to transition you to a new system within 1-2 weeks, waving around incomplete, bulky documents and barely diving into the specifics of your case – it’s better to run away.

—  Liudmila Stselmashenka, Project Manager, *instinctools

While choosing a CRM implementation partner, don’t do the following:

• making a decision based on price only
• not verifying the partner’s experience with the CRM you chose
• not asking references or case studies
• falling for unrealistic promises
• ignoring cultural or communication barriers

Get super granular with your “top picks” list to see what they’ve got under the hood. Be it Zoho, HubSpot, Odoo, or other CRM platform, look for real case studies and feedback from actual clients.

Explore how to choose a partner who truly hears your needs and delivers above expectations >>

A good CRM helps you focus on what really matters: customer satisfaction, not on how a single misclick could throw everything off track

As you can tell, when it comes down to CRM implementations, things are more complicated than they seem on the surface — beyond choosing that one magic tool that’ll solve everything in a snap, there’s a whole lot more to it. But now you can spot all possible CRM challenges a mile away and know exactly how to tackle them.