The Fallacy of CRM Metrics

Sales pipeline.  Weighted forecast.  Average sales cycle.  Qualified Deals.

…all the familiar sales analytics.  Yet, the deals you expected to close didn’t and some blue birds came in at the end of the quarter.

Is this simply the uncertainty of sales?  Or is there some science we can apply to better understand and manage it?

Sales forecast and sales team management data in a CRM system is a good start, but it’s far from what is needed to effectively manage the business.  Customers interact with many parts of a company.  They are influenced by marketing, work with sales, are served by the supply or delivering chain, and are supported by customer service.  All these groups impact the Customer Experience.  Surveys are now conducted to understand a customer’s experience with many parts of the company.  Then why don’t we quantify these interactions, integrate them together and get a more complete picture of the customer and our expected business with them.  Previously, this was very difficult and time consuming to do – but now we can.

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