CRM frustration in SMEs: Keep it simple!

When the CRM suddenly becomes a brake pad

You may be familiar with this: you work for a small company and are introducing a CRM for the first time. Maybe HubSpot, maybe Salesforce - it shouldn't be that difficult, because it always looks so easy in all the YouTube videos and blog articles.

But then comes the practical shock: suddenly you are overwhelmed with functions, pipelines, workflows, duplicate checks, deals, lifecycle stages and integration tools.

You actually wanted to "just manage your leads", professionalize your sales and better understand what is happening with your customers.

But instead of simplifying processes, CRM suddenly makes everything much more complex!

Enterprise CRMs are too complicated for many SMEs

Large companies have entire departments just for their CRM - with admins, power users, external consultants and integrations right through to ERP.

In medium-sized companies? The sales manager often takes on the CRM introduction "on the side". Or the marketing team tries to get the bare minimum out of an overloaded tool.

This does not lead to more efficiency - but to frustration.

The CRM is not used.
Important data is missing.
Employees return to Excel or notes.

But you can't do it without CRM!

The truth is: SMEs don't need feature monsters. They need a CRM that works straight away. One that doesn't complicate processes, but simplifies them. A plug-and-play solution that really takes the pressure off sales, marketing and service.

How digital guides simplify CRM

This is exactly where we at Linkando come in - with digital sales guides that have been specially developed for SMEs.

Digital sales guidelines are ready-made, but flexibly customizable sales and communication processes - directly integrated into the CRM - no programming is necessary.

Examples:

Lead follow-up: Automatic follow-ups & emails so that no contact is lost.
Quotation process: A guide leads sales staff through all the steps from initial contact to the signed quotation - including reminders, templates and tasks.
Customer reactivation: Automated workflows to target inactive customers again - with appropriate messages and schedules.

The best thing about it: everything is ready to use immediately - employees don't need any extensive training.

Automation relieves employees

Sales guides can automate manual workloads. A data mapping function automatically synchronizes the data between sales tools such as Linkedin, Zoom or ServiceNow with your CRM.

Relevant information from the guide lands directly in the appropriate CRM fields
Conversely, CRM data is displayed in the respective sales tools during customer interactions
No more error-prone manual CRM maintenance
No more forgetting - all data is reliably transferred
Saves time, increases data quality and relieves the sales department