What Does CRM Integration Mean?

Yesterday, while scrolling through my LinkedIn feed, I stumbled across a post where the CEO of a smaller company shared his thoughts on what he learned during two years of his CRM (Customer Relationship Management) journey. While I didn’t get his permission to publish the post, here are a few takeaways:

• In the beginning, we heavily underbudgeted the “soft” part of CRM implementation.
• We also underestimated the importance of collecting customer data, which led to significant issues later on.
• We had to restart the whole project.
• If only I knew what this project would end up like, I would have never started it.

That post inspired me to write this article, where I’d like to take a deep dive into what CRM integration really means, the pitfalls to expect, and how lowering expectations can sometimes lead to better results.

What Does It Mean to Integrate Customer Relationship Management?

Let’s start with the basics. Here’s what I believe CRM integration truly means, explained in a way no one else might tell you.

Officially (if there’s such a thing), CRM integration is the process of customizing CRM software to meet a company’s needs, followed by training users to ensure the software is properly used within the organization. This process also ensures the accuracy of data collected and organized within the CRM database, which is crucial for long-term success. This also includes sharing customer data efficiently across teams and systems.

But in practice, it’s far more than that. It’s a process of transforming the entire organization. If a company wants to make this project successful, the first thing that usually needs to change—and more often than not, be revolutionized—is the management.

It’s the one truth no one wants to admit. Company leaders love to say, “We are leading the change,” and they proudly wear medals for “driving innovation.”

But that’s all nonsense because the first thing that truly needs to change during a CRM implementation is how the company is managed. Whether you like it or not, whether you admit it or deny it, it’s management that often needs to change the most.

And guess what happens? The biggest resistance occurs there. The most intense political battles and excuses for not changing emerge at that level.

There’s an old saying: “If the business isn’t going well, don’t rearrange furniture in the office, change the employees.” If you know what I mean. 

CRM integration means you are integrating a new way of managing your company, and that ultimately means dropping a bomb on your management structure.

On Which Side Are You?

Alright, now you understand that change is inevitable. Lovely. But let me introduce you to another critical aspect of CRM integration.

You see, more often than not, companies looking to integrate one of those CRM solutions will hire a CRM consultancy firm to purchase customization services for their chosen CRM product. 

Most of the time, the quote will include 80%-90% of services related to the technical customization and development of the selected product. But here’s the harsh reality—you’ll end up throwing most of that into the trash. And here’s why.

If this is your first CRM software integration, you have no idea yet how much change you actually need to implement. Even more importantly, you don’t know which software tools you’ll be using within your CRM system of choice.

It doesn’t matter which system you choose. Well, unless it’s Salesforce. Just kidding. 

What I mean is, regardless of the software platform you pick, you won’t even be able to “digest” the basic out-of-the-box features. Why? Simply because your company isn’t ready yet.

As a result, any customizations you’ve invested in for your CRM platform will end up being discarded. And there’s just one reason for that: your organization isn’t prepared for the full scope of change that CRM implementation demands.

Making Business Processes Digital

A robust CRM investment organizes data and helps businesses analyze customer data to refine their sales and marketing efforts. By utilizing the data efficiently, you can better target customers and streamline communication.

When you integrate Customer Relationship Management (or any other software), chances are you already have some processes in place within your organization. In most cases, however, these processes aren’t suited for digitization.

Digital tools are “stupid” and “linear.” The first step you need to take is to simplify what you’re already doing. But here’s the catch: consultancy firms don’t want you to simplify.

Why? Because if you streamline and automate processes, you won’t need to pay them thousands for software customization. You could pretty much get by with out-of-the-box functionality.

However, to simplify your business operations, you’ll need to make actual business decisions. You’ll need to change the way you operate. And that’s where the problem lies—many business owners aren’t ready or willing to make those changes.

A lot of business owners try to justify their unwillingness to adapt by saying, “We’re different.” But in reality, most businesses operate more or less the same way. Sure, there are differences, but they’re not as drastic as many like to claim.

Think about it: if businesses were truly that unique, we wouldn’t be able to implement standardized accounting software, and tax authorities would be far more flexible. They aren’t. So why should you be flexible with your business processes?

Digital processes are often built on the “if this, then that” principle, while human-run processes tend to have exceptions, detours, and complexities that can’t easily be implemented in software designed for straightforward execution.

But here’s the good news. There is light at the end of the tunnel—and no, it’s not a train heading toward you. It’s the potential for business growth and operational efficiency that comes with embracing these changes. Once you have integrated data, it becomes easier to gain customer insights and exchange data between different departments, ensuring smoother workflows across your entire organization.

KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid

There is a solution to that problem, and it lies in simplicity. Great CRM integrations often start with something so simple, it’s almost stupid. “Hey, we’re launching a webinar and need to send all leads multiple emails and SMS reminders.” This is how a multi-million dollar implementation began at our customer’s driving school. Or, “Hey, we want to enable click-to-call.” That’s how I accidentally got involved in a local telecom company’s digital transformation.

It all started with something simple—so simple it seemed almost stupid. But slowly and steadily, the scope grew. What began as a small, almost temporary feature evolved into an “Oh, let’s add this on top” idea, which eventually turned into a huge project.

Innovation can’t be fully planned, written on paper, and just “launched.” It’s always a path of trial and error—something hard to forecast but surprisingly easy to implement.

To make your CRM integration a success, you need three key ingredients:

• Open budget. You need a budget dedicated to CRM, but not fully allocated to specific “features.”
• Your full involvement.
• A great “quick fix” idea.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a strategy or future plans in mind. But remember—successful CRM integration method lies in knowing what your end result should look like, while only planning one next step at a time.

Define Failure

Let me put it in another perspective.

Often, when a customer comes to me with a “big” idea for their CRM journey, I carefully listen until they finish—which could easily take anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours.

But then I ask one question: “How do you know if you failed?” Imagine building something big, spending thousands of dollars on a project, without having a clear benchmark on where to stop.

It’s like investing in a property that starts to fall apart. At some point, you take out a calculator and realize it’s cheaper to cut your losses by selling the property, or maybe demolishing it and building something new instead.

The same logic applies to your CRM project. You need to know when to stop. And you should define that “stop” point before you even begin. This is a sobering exercise, but it massively helps shift priorities and prevents you from doing things that could harm your business.

CRM Integration Is Not Software Development

CRM integration, in reality, means you’ll have to invest a lot of your time, effort, and budget into the “soft” areas of business that are hard to measure.

You’ll need to invest in building a better culture. You’ll need to invest in yourself by learning and adapting to new ways of visualizing results or forecasting. You’ll have to invest in change.

Companies often confuse integrated CRM systems with buying software configuration and development services. But it’s not a software project. It’s a business transformation project.

You have to get comfortable with the idea that you may need to spend part of your CRM budget on hiring new personnel to support the new system or pay consultants who won’t always deliver “new features.”

Ownership

Another thing you need to prepare for is being ready to take ownership of the system or hiring a great product owner.

Often, especially in smaller companies, CRM software is perceived as a standalone, independent piece of software that can “do the job” on its own. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. A proper CRM investment requires continuous evaluation, which means regularly analyzing customer data to ensure it aligns with business objectives, enhances marketing campaigns, and improves customer experience.

A CRM is like a spouse. Simply getting married isn’t enough for a happy marriage—you have to invest time and money. Otherwise, it ends in divorce.

CRM projects are intellectually and attention-heavy. They pay off, but they require a lot of effort to keep them alive and functional.

CRM integration means you should plan on “owning” the product, constantly evolving it, and continuously investing in it.

Don’t Be Scared

I hope I haven’t scared you with what I’ve said. My goal is to save you some time and maybe some money. If you’re not ready for the sacrifices and changes involved, it might be worth reconsidering this risky venture.

But if you still want to transform how your company does business, I have great news.

On average, every $1 spent on CRM brings in $8.37 in ROI. If done right, this could easily become a money-printing machine.

Not literally, of course, but a great CRM can leverage customer knowledge, make use of customer behavior, help your business grow by repeating what works best, and eliminate what doesn’t.

A well-implemented CRM software allows you to track customer interactions and many more – everything happening in your company on a single dashboard, directing your attention only to the areas that need it while ignoring what’s going smoothly. That’s a game changer—if done right.

Stages of Integration

Here’s how to do it right. First, let me introduce you to the correct stages of CRM system integration.

Typically, any integrator will tell you that there are several stages of integrating CRM:

• Planning
• Design
• Build
• Validate
• Deploy

While this is true from a technical perspective, an often-overlooked aspect is who defines what we’re building. It’s great to have a solid design, but what exactly should we design?

Remember when I said you should start with something small, simple, and easy to implement? That’s your first step. This is the only entry point to CRM you should be thinking about.

Start by asking yourself these questions:

• What is one area of our business that must be improved quickly?
• What are the monetary benefits of CRM?
• How much could this change cost us?
• Is the ROI forecast worth the risk?

You should approach your CRM project as an investment. But you also need to begin with a very clear understanding of your WHY. Why are you implementing CRM, and what specific problem are you solving?

CRM companies love providing templates for this reasoning, like “gain a 360-degree overview of your customers.” Okay, you’ve gained the overview—what’s next? How do you monetize that?

Let me give you a concrete example that one of my customers found. They approached me with a problem: their cost of acquisition was very high.

You might ask, “What does CRM have to do with that?” I’m glad you did!

Here’s what we did: we started logging all incoming leads and tracking why they weren’t converting. Since we’re not a marketing company and our marketing tools are limited, we couldn’t directly change their marketing campaigns and implement effective marketing strategies. But what we could do was track all the leads their marketing processes generated. We discovered that, in many cases, their employees simply weren’t picking up the phone or never responded to the leads.

We showed them the CRM data, they made some internal changes (hint: they hired a new sales director and sales reps), and sales more than doubled.

This is an extremely rare success story where the fix was relatively straightforward, but not every case is this simple.

Here’s another example, where we spent nearly two years identifying the right growth area. A construction company from Northern Europe asked us to help them implement a CRM to process inquiries from their partners.

We spent over a year developing a complex system that allowed them to process and quote inquiries from their partners. But then, we decided to test a simple self-service portal from Salesforce.

What happened was that all the functionality we had been developing for a year turned out to be the perfect foundation for the self-service portal. Partners could now log in and generate quotes themselves.

Everyone was happy. Even though the partners now had to spend more time generating their own quotes, they could do it immediately on-site with customers. On our client’s side, they no longer needed to dedicate expensive estimator resources to sales and could focus on new product development and entering new markets.

Know Your Why and What

CRM integration is a project very similar to starting a business. You need to know why you’re doing it and what you’re doing.

Take small steps, constantly reflect, and rethink what your CRM process should look like. 

Don’t blindly trust a CRM vendor’s claim that it will improve your business by X percent and increase sales overnight. That’s simply not true. It’s not an easy journey, and success is not guaranteed.

In fact, 80% of CRMs fail. While the reasons may vary, I find it always boils down to two things: complexity and lack of ownership.

If the leadership of a company doesn’t have a solid why, the entire strategy falls apart. If they don’t know what they are doing, it’s bound to fail.

Start with your reasoning. Understand what you are trying to achieve.

Define your what, then hire a good consultant and ask them, “How can we achieve that?” If the concept of how can’t fit on a napkin, you’ve hired the wrong consultant.

On that note, if you already know your what, give me a napkin and 30 minutes of your time, and let’s discuss it.

My team has been working with Salesforce for over 15 years (each, not combined), and we can help you with integrating CRM. The first consultation is on me, and there’s no obligation. Let’s jump on a call and see if we’re a match.

P.S. And don’t forget to follow me on LinkedIn, I share more valuable insights and news there! Also, check our company website for more information!

Cheers,
J.