Over 70% of SMBs don't use or even know what CRM is...

I agree with Michael. Small or medium sized companies often feel they can "get by" without investing in any kind of customer relationship management software. There is also a stigma that CRM is built for large enterprise organizations with money to burn on complex and expensive software. Sometimes, SMB's are not aware of inexpensive CRM's geared for small business, or the lengthy list of benefits: better communication, collection of data, reporting / analytics, transparency, relationship tracking, sales and marketing automation, etc. All things considered, the initial investment is often well worth the return due to increased sales and overall efficiency. As usual, this business purchase comes down to ROI, and even the smallest of businesses should value that.

Well, start by not calling it CRM. Its the kind of acronym that bigger companies have time to bother understanding what it is. Small companies have specific needs around developing thier business and keeping existing customers (particularly in these times). I would say, don't start by trying to force a CRM solution onto SMBs. Start by understanding the specific problems they face and help them understand what such systems can do to help them.

There are many good points made here. Two of the most important, in my opinion are Peter's "not calling it CRM" and a few others who point to quantifying value to the organization.

Technology of any sort (any "flavor" of CRM being one of them) is too many times seen as an advantage that large companies have - a luxury that the SMB space cannot necessarily afford. As advisors in this space, we see many different business models, business weaknesses and pains ... and business successes, and we can bring a lot of value to the SMB space by, as Peter said, not focusing on what "CRM" can bring to the space but instead focusing on what current, severe business pains traditional CRM functionality (all of it - sales automation to customer interaction enhancement) can affect positively. In my experience, many SMB companies don't have deep awareness of the processes that they would need to benchmark and track in order to even have a starting point for an ROI case for CRM technologies. Thus, even if we are armed with in-depth ROI models structured to prove immediate, positive business impact, we aren't speaking the same language as many SMB companies because they haven't reached the point of identifying and tracking (and thus having beginning benchmarks) the processes upon which CRM technologies have the most positive impact. They are good at running lean and mean ... and generally have excellently skilled labor resources that allow them to function well in that model.

This could be why the adoption rate within the SMB space is so poor for CRM tools. The lifetime value of a customer is meaningful to any organization as a % of the value of that organization. Helping SMB companies identify and quantify that value and putting it into context of the issues they may have with current business processes that traditional CRM technologies can positively impact may help speed that adoption rate.

I think a company is never too small to track sales on an SFA system. As companies grow and the need for tracking sales becomes more evident, it's really hard to back-track and capture important historical information if it's been tracked on spreadsheets, etc.

Unfortunately, many SMB's are product or service oriented rather than customer focused. Their orientation causes them to look to internal cost savings in 'production' or 'delivery' efficiency instead of concentrating on identifying sales / marketing process and tracking improvements. Lacking formal sales processes and organization it is difficult for the owner / managers to see how they could 'fit' into a CRM solution. I agree with James, ROI has to justify the investment. Michael's and Mary's comments speak to the return provided on the CRM. Quantifying the CRM solution's value in a way that is tangible to the decision makers is critical to sales success. Your own CRM system should be full of templates, tools and success stories to aid in the effort.

The economy is in bad shape. SMB's may not think they can afford to implement CRM. I think you have to move off "solutions" for SMB's and focus on structuring the conversation around their pain, and show ROI. Once they see that CRM is applicable to their problems, and that it is worth the money, they'll adopt in greater #'s.

I agree with Mark that you need to focus on a business pain and show ROI that they believe. Instead of trying to get them to buy into doing everything at once we find that eliminating one significant pain is often enough to start. Many times for us it might be as simple as giving the owner or VP of Sales the ability to easily get timely, accurate sales forecasts.

Has anyone found any good tools to generate CRM ROI other than just Excel?

SMBs don't have CRM tools because first they don't think that they can afford it. Or they've tried a cheap route and have failed. With SMBs and with any business for that matter the CRM tools can't really support CRM if they don't have the right data integration and data structure beneath them. If you can't tie a contact to how much that contact is worth then you can't even calculate ROI. Companies that are using solutions from companies that ALSO provide that data integration expertise are finding success.

This is a great discussion!

Small businesses attract sales people who like freedom and independence. Most SMB's invest in CRM because they are seeking control and oversight. The small business owner or sales executive must be sure they have clearly identified what workflows and processes are required to be performed by sales reps in the CRM and "what's in it for the sales rep".

We've found that sales reps understand how marketing can benefit them so, creating automated email marketing campaigns that nurture current leads for the sales rep is highly motivating for them.

There are dozens of awesome answers here, but I will add my two cents.

Back in 1987, ACT! pioneered CRM for the SMB market or for any market. Pat Sullivan made an easy-to-use program that turned a DOS PC into a sales tool. It helped sales people first.

Now, when I read about CRM, it's all about the "big boys" such as sf.com, MS-CRM, Siebel, SalesLogix, SageCRM etc. The press ignores ACT!, WiredContact or Business Contact Manager from Microsoft. Why ? Perhaps the press doesn't perceive these programs as CRM. I am not sure.

For example, ACT! is CRM too! It's a software that improves a sales, marketing or customer service procedure that helps you create a unique advantage when talking to customers and prospects.

I think the press can go back and write about, "How does David beat Goliath ?" ACT! , Goldmine and WiredContact can be used to create efficiencies a combination of Word, Excel and Outlook cannot.

A lot of good comments. It's all about:

1. Customers
2. ROI
3. What's in it for me?
4. Education

In many cases, understanding how CRM (or CMR) can benefit the first three, comes back to education (4).

I believe that many SMB's think that they do not need CRM because they are small enough to communicate amongst themselves. Again, this is very business-centric. Start thinking about how you can communicate better with the customer, how you can identify their needs before they do (being proactive) and how even small businesses can become more productive (something a spreadsheet has a very difficult time with).

Show me an executive that doesn't want to be more profitable and grow their business and I'll tell you not to waste your time with them. They are out there, but if they are happy with "status quo", they are in the minority and there are a lot of fish in the sea that want more to eat! Those are the ones that will listen and see the benefits of CRM.

That's my two cents worth.

Re: Is CRM necessary? The answer is a definite "I don't know." Actually, it's more like "I don't care" because the technology is not a sales nor business strategy. CRM implementations don't succeed because the only part of the implementation that concerned everyone was setting up the technology. No one asked, let alone answered, questions like "What is the business purpose of this implementation?" "Where are we trying to go?" "What are we going to do when we get there?" "How do we know we've gotten there?" (Maybe CRM is a good solution for Iraq.)

As an ACT! Certified Consultant I was hired by a company that had a BIG CRM installation.

I said "I'm confused. You already have BIG CRM, why do you need an ACT! consultant?"

He said, "Well, we bought BIG CRM when the company was started, but it is difficult to customize, the sales people haven't been trained on it. the people who knew how to run it have left the company, yada, yada. So one of the sales guys went to Sam's Club and bought a bunch of copies of ACT!."

Fortunately, people don't learn, so there's always a billable opportunity out there.

Like to start by qualifying what a CRM is that we are discussing and what the SMB's that I talk to think a CRM system is. We are defining a CRM system as Customer Relationship System and SMB's think they have a CRM with either Outlook, Excel or ACT..& sometimes Goldmine, which I will define as Contact Database tools. Not offense to ACT or Goldmine but not what I think of when I think of a robust CRM.

So why SMB's don't have CRM solutions in place is in part they think they have them and also they are not clear on what a robust CRM system can bring to them in the way of efficiency and productivity. And will agree with several of the commentators that it is about the SMB's pain and perception of what they will gain ROI) with a robust or real CRM system.

I agree with Peter and Rachel this whole "CRM thing" has got blurred and not just in the SMB sector. A recent survey by IBM's global CRM practice found that only 15% of large scale CRM implementations had "met or exceeded our expectations." My take on this debate is that it should start with the language. To me Customer Management is the appropriate name for the skills and tools related to deepening relationships, creating better experiences etc for customers.. CRM as a term has got locked onto the software component and we should just accept that. The "CRM issue" is that businesses think that technology will solve all their problems, when what they really need to focus on (before even thinking about CRM software) is their customer management compentecy. The Cmat CM benchmarking tool is worth looking at as they currently identify 420 business practices related to CM. How many SMB's would even see this as a seperate function far less be able to articulate the practices and skills required to perform the function successfully ?

Here is a link to Avidian press release on the topic -- http://www.avidian.com/businesses-want-crm.aspx. This seems to support Peter's comment that while not calling it "CRM".

"The survey found that the majority of small to medium businesses (SMBs) are unfamiliar with the terms Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Software as a Service (SaaS), and that those who do know about CRM connect it to products that only apply CRM in indirect ways. Of those surveyed, 70 percent reported they did not know what CRM meant and only 47 percent were even sure they had heard of it. Familiarity with SaaS was even lower, with 74 percent reporting they were unfamiliar with the term"

Further, Avidian seems to imply that "CRM" via small business apps SMB are already familiar with - e.g. MSFT Outlook and Intuit's Quickbooks -- have the highest adoption. Of course Avidian sells an Outlook-based CRM system ;-).

SMB's do not typically require the complexity most of the CRM technologies out there entail.

As someone who has used CRM, implemented, sold, maintained and built CRM systems for over 10 years across all size companies and a variety of industries, SMB's want the same thing across the board- something fast and easy. Small businesses do not tend to be process driven, yet the CRM tools require process to make the tools understandable.

When I was selling a CRM I was also building, I found that trying to educate prospects on how sales, support, and service work together in a central fashion, the idea of actually taking on the work to implement that was simply overwhelming, and simply unnecessary.

For the small mom and pops, Sales Force Automation (SFA) set up was overwhelming because of the time commitment and knowledge needed. What I found was that the primary goal of a small business is usually to sell something with as little cost as possible. Knowing who to call, email, meet in person with as well as taking notes on what happened were top priority. All the automation and process and following those things were secondary. SMB's have little bandwidth to handle secondary projects, i.e. marketing campaigns, logging support cases, setting up field-level and notification automation.

My experiences ultimately tell me is give people what they want, no more and no less. SMB's need basic functionality for selling. Having been a small consulting business owner for several years, my most effective marketing came from relationship building, not email campaigns, advertisements or banner ads. Form listening to customers, my experiences with my own business aside from my experiences with customers and prospects continue to be consistently echoed.

I have run multiple 'small businesses' over the past few years, MOST in the high-tech space, but a number in the magazine and printing industries, one in the racetrack business, and even one in the oil drilling business, and I have sat/sit on the boards of countless other SMB companies. I have had teams of sales people working for me from 1 to 20 (including some cold-call phone groups), and in each company we NEVER used a CRM system. We relied upon spreadsheets, or phone calls or weekly meetings or ‘trust’, and something ALWAYS slipped between the cracks. In my earlier days, I worked for a couple of the VERY large high tech companies (Dell and Tivoli). I was the first CIO at Dell and helped develop their internal CRM system (which they still use to this day), but at Tivoli I don’t remember us even HAVING a CRM system. “WHY NOT SMBs?” seems to be the question of the day, and I think in my case with all the SMBs that I was involved with, or on whose boards I sat, there were two answers…

1) Cost…the big CRM systems (especially the 800lb industry gorillas…no names, so as to protect the innocent) all cost close to $1000 per salesperson per year, and that’s just for the basics. If you want anything other than the basic system, you then have to pay even more to get such functionality as ‘mass mailing functions’ etc. Sorry, but for an SMB, that $10,000 (or more) can buy me an awful lot more promotion or advertising or even sales rewards, so we would make do without a CRM and use my spreadsheet program.
2) Complexity…the last thing I want salespeople doing is filling in information on computer screens, and the last thing that ANY good salesperson wants to do is fill in ANY kind of sales information. Almost all the CRM systems we’ve looked at, (which is all of them) are much too complex.

A few years ago, on a whim and with a VERY talented partner, we founded a company called SoftwareOnSailboats (don’t even ASK about the name…it involves drinking, sailing and general time wasting!) to solve both of the above stated problems that we saw in the marketplace. My partner had been in sales for most of his career, selling products and/or services for both large and small companies, and had the usual salesperson’s disdain for CRM systems. We wanted to beat what we saw was the SMB price ‘barrier’ …

After 20 successful years in high tech sales and marketing, there are at least two things about selling I don’t love: cold calling and CRM. Now that I am writing CRM software at Software On Sailboats, I’ve changed my perception on CRM. Victim no more, I’m seeking CRM revenge after those years of abuse!

A 70% non-adoption rate of CRM by SMB is a pretty clear statement. SMB’s that make it past the 4 year mark are pragmatic bottom-liners. My view - drawn over the last 8 years and 40,000 downloads of our software - is that the CRM payback must be immediate and dramatic to have ANY chance in SMB. So just do the same practical Pepsi Challenge that between products that have done very well in SMB's - let's say Quickbooks or Microsoft Office at around $200-$250 versus pick-your-favorite-CRM. And let’s be clear, QuickBooks powers an amazing number of SMB’s.

I am going to argue that many CRM offerings look way, way over-priced to a SMB. Gartner puts the average cost-per-seat for CRM in 2009 at $1,000 - $1,500. The 70% non-adoption rate says that any CRM software that doesn’t appear over priced is not winning hearts-and-minds in other areas. The opportunity to become the CRM Swiss knife for SMB’s still seems to be wide open.

I believe it is simple issue of not looking long term, in addition to finding that most people find it difficult to find a CRM they feel comfortable with and a CRM that the works for them.

How many times to you hear sales people say they HATE CRM systems...Answer: most of the time. I have only found one CRM system, where push back was minimal from the team.

If SMB's clearly understood the benefits of having and consequently the ramifications of not having a CRM, combined with a CRM that actually worked for them...I believe you would find the adoption rate higher.

Most SMB sales people are wearing multiple hats and CRM's have historically been clunky, hard to use and expensive, consequently there is no perceived value.

Those of us who have been in the business for awhile know that a good CRM can help sky rocket sales. But it A. must be easy to use B. people must use it C. the data collected in it must be utilized effectively by the business.

I think SMB's have the same CRM needs as larger companies, but obviously have proportionally smaller budgets, fewer sales and marketing staff and therefore, fewer resources available to effectively evaluate a growing range of CRM/SaaS solution offerings. The temptation is to "follow the herd" in terms of a solution, but this approach typically leads to unplanned complexity and scopecreep.

Guiding (and educating) an SMB through a CRM evaluation means managing a trade-off between functionality and technical complexity, simplifying their evaluation process and maintaining focus on what is absolutely essential. This will help to minimize risk and expense. Plan for change management and diffusing emotional heat through the selection and implementation process, as well.

SMB's need some type of contact management system...call it SFA, CRM or ABC. Price becomes less of an issue once a legitimate ROI can be established. When I started my company (a CRM type company) I had one goal in mind..."Create something that sales people love to use and the entire company will benefit as a result".

Most CRM implementations fail with SMB's simply because no one uses the program therefore there is no ROI. CRM has always been a "Top down" initiative..."Because management says so!" Hence the HUGE failure rate and lack of desire to "fail again". Lisa is right on! Make it easy to use and make sure it brings value to the REP FIRST and everything else will fall inline.

Another point ot make has to do with the sophistication of owner or executive management. I have been in many selling situations where the owner has said he/she needs to do something, but just doesn't want to spend the money to do it. He/she would rather take the money as a compensation than put it into their business.

Customer relations do not "require" a particular software nor would characterize a particular piece of technology as not abiding by a definition of CRM, etc. In my opinion, the attitudes or perceptions of technology are wholly driven by sales propositions and messaging that miss the primary premise of business.

CYCLE
1. Marketing has shaped a product to respond to a market need, either sublimer or obvious
2. Marketing identifies the kind of people or customers who would purchase
3. Sales develops lead generation programs
4. Sales mines the lists for "hot" vs. "cold" leads
5. Prospect is contacted and if prone to buy, a buying cycle is initiated
6. It is here that CRM, SFA or manual systems (really business processes) are created to track and account for the sales activity. This tracking is both meant to account for the activities of the sales force as well as monitor success/conversion rates and effectiveness of messaging or product design
7. If a sales is made, the CRM/SFA (manual or automated) is needed to ensure post purchase support as well as upselling later on.

I think it is easy to say that one particular technology or another will magically convert a broken or inefficient sales apparatus into one that is smooth running or effective. In my opinion, that is absolutely perverse. It is a mindset in the whole company that needs to focus on the customer satisfaction. Therefore, poor customer satisfaction will ruin or break any kind of ROI from the stand point of a SFA/CRM.

On summary, SMBs need first to cast the sales cycle and customer satisfaction as one of their prime success factors. They have to think about how they want to do that. In some respects, they can purchase technology to adapt to the business processes, but more often than not, SMBs tend to buy the technology and try to force the business process to fit it. No wonder the success rate is so poort.

Let's ask another question.

Is CRM necessary?

One of the most valuable assets of any organization is their current customers. To enable adequate servicing of these captured clients, I think it the prior posters have already argued that the term "CRM" may be easily misunderstood. Likewise, even "SFA" is too simplistic.

A tenet of good customer service is the ability to converse with a customer and be aware of their past and present activities. This kind of coordination is difficult without some kind of collaboration and automation. The key to "CRM/SFA" isn't only the ability to understand the customer, it is also the collaboration that is possible within an organization.

Therefore, the task of CRM/SFA companies is to understand their product and services. I don't believe all CRM/SFA vendors deliver similar products and services. There is sufficient market exposure that one can say that it is almost a commodity from the simplest manual system to the most sophisticated automated system.

SMB/SME cannot know what kind of product they want or need. Vendors presuppose and try to force fit their prospects into their products, often not understanding the workflow processes already inherent in their customers. Therefore, the goal, in my opinion, of CRM/SFA products isn't to force a customer to change to suit a software but to formalize them.

One of the problems of CRM/SFA are their inherent difficulties in trying to customize the software to suit customers. In this time of uncertainty, customers want services and products that delvier almost all of the value they expect. That includes expectations

Our company, DCS Group, is focused solely on helping small businesses (1-25) leverage advanced technology. I replaced my homegrown dBase sales tracking system with Act version one and since have been using software to keep track of who I've spoken with, who I need to call back, who has bought which product and who is a prospect for products.

I was disappointed in the mid nineties when the Gartner, Yankee Group co-opted the contact management/SFA movement with CRM.

We approach the solution by asking the business owners what outcomes they desire and how much management time and money they're willing to put into it. Usually I can get them to at least one level above Outlook/spreadsheets.

The software vendors in this space got caught up in the CRM idea and priced their software out of my client's price range. I work with salesforce.com, GoldMine and MS CRM but am looking for something that costs about $200/seat one time or per year. Most of my clients have stuck with GoldMine 6.7 which is now 10 years old. With SQL backend scripts and triggers, Crystal Reports and some semi automatic processes we are able to carry their sales process. If my clients have a better budget I've been using salesforce.com pro but frankly I think its over-priced.

Microsoft is blowing a great opportunity right now by not putting together a small business offering for MS CRM.

I once looked at Rod's software but don't remember why we didn't go further with it.

CRM, SFA, ABC...take your pick. Here is a simple way to look at it...You hire a sales rep to sell your product or service. Your sales rep must keep track of Who they called on, What they talked about, and What the next step is with that client or prospect. The true value of any system is in what the system can do for the rep, the value for management will flow to them automatically, becaues the system gets used on the front line. Basically, if the system you implement at the home office is really only valuable to management, and reps are forced or dragged into using it (ie reducing commissions, etc), you will never get anything out of it but sour reps. If it's EASY TO USE and the information helps the rep sell more they will love it. $XXX.00 per seat per user per year, day, month, week is not the true COST of CRM's. The true cost is how much time does it take the rep to use the system, how difficult is it for him/her to access the information? How much time and energy is wasted trying to conform to a tool that only is valuable to certain levels of the company? Think sales rep up, not Gee-Whiz reporting down.

I agree with the above posts. I feel the adaptation is low because the awareness of what is out there, and how it will open up new windows for those within the company - from the President to the managers to the reps = is lacking. Change is scary! But big improvements on processes, and organizing data, and of course revenue will shock them. I am experimenting with this idea as we speak.

Here is a quick thought on price per seat. Companies already invest $40, $50, $60, $100.00 + PER HOUR to put a rep in the field...take a look at all the expenses: Car allowance, mileage reimbursement, cell phones, laptops, air cards, bb's and other devices...all these things are so a sales representative can meet face to face with a client or prospect and sell their stuff.

Is it too much to invest about $100.00 or so per month to have a centralized database to house all that information? The value is in the information, not how flashy the car they drive, or which mobile device they use. What's more, if the rep leaves the company, so does all that market intelligence - there goes that 100K out the door.

Market intelligence is vital in any business climate, especially today! There has to be a way to convey this important fact to every level of the sales organization. Having a robust Contact Management solution is worth its weight in...sales!

It's not about ROI. It's not about information. It's not about any of these things. At least not to start with.

It's about understanding where these tools can assist a sales force, and more importantly demonstrating that they can fit with the current pattern of work.

The inertia demonstrated by organisations avoiding CRM is usually down to the fear of the unknown and the fear of the backlash from a small sales team which is critical to the business by introducing this kind of product.

If you sell into major accounts, you'll know this, because you'll know how many infuencers you need to convince to get the sale, there may be one decision maker, but many are involved in the process.

One of the key failings of SME salespeople is that they don't quite get this.

To increase take up of CRM in SME environments, they need to start reaching out not just to the decision makers. But also to the sales forces for advocacy.

I've sold a lot in my life, if someone came through the door and showed me a tool that would increase my revenue earning potential, and for a reasonable cost to the business, I'd kick in the door of a sales manager/director and demand they took it seriously and move it up the food chain for consideration.

All the points about information loss are correct, but the sales force don't care. All the points about ROI are correct, but the sales force don't care.

Sales people care about commission. Show them how they can earn more of it by implementing a CRM system, and they'll sell it to the boss for you. And if you can show them it's easy, with no steep learning curve, so much the better.

I guarantee it.

In a geographically dispersed virtual organization, CRM/SFA/Contact tools all help the organization function in a unified manner, and hopefully with a unified selling message.

First, it formalizes and almost standardized sales processes, something that helps organizations transfer knowledge and get sales people productive sooner than otherwise without a tool.

If not computerized, some kind of CRM is needed. Even a common Excel spreadsheet might work.

Second, CRM/SFA/Contact tools can always be sidestepped by individuals who do not believe in them or who are "lone rangers". Although they may be super stars and can be lauded during the survival stage, the cohesiveness and collaborative manner of a growing company will likely invalidate the extended utility of the lone ranger.

Finally, CRMs are soon to be vital for contract compliance where accountability will often be as important as the actual close of the transaction.

That's a shocking statistic. I even use Salesforce.com in our tiny startup. However I'm no fan of CRM.

Since it is not customer-facing, I see it as a database, rather than a selling tool. Sure, I can send emails and track opens, but can I do lead nurturing and lead scoring? Can I track pages visited and content downloaded? No, it cannot. To do that you need products like Marketo and Genoo, not to mention Eloqua, Silverpop or Genius.

Every business needs a CRM -- just like they need payroll.

Jeff Ogden, President
Find New Customers
"Lead Generation Made Easy"
http://www.findnewcustomers.net

A CRM like Salesforce can be used as a component inside of your business process. The key is to break down your business and understand each component within it which includes the CRM. Currently, I am unemployed and the below two paragraphs snipped from my last cover letter summarize how I did this in my previous employers' business which was software products:

"I have more than 10 years of programming and application development experience and about 3 years of design, development and maintaining release management software. Recently, I was a Principal Release Engineer at [some company] and I played the lead role of defining, designing and coding a web-based application that automated the multiple processes required to create and deliver updated software BIOS products to the customer. It was quite a complex system that interfaced to multiple servers (Windows and Linux) both within the company and outside of it (Salesforce.com and Intraware.com). Each aspect of the process including fail-safe measures for pinpointing where any error might occur including specific messaging of what component failed; solutions were generally implemented quite quickly as a result.

Specifically, I created a hybrid business organizational method based upon Business Process Management (BPM) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Basically, the BPM section of the model focused on the definition of the event and it's order in the process (1. detect new revision, 2. check-out source, 3. build/validate, 4. preparation, 5. delivery, 6.notify). The code for each event was located in the SOA section which monitored, processed and managed the event with data abstraction services (e.g., database update, shell scripting). This system worked very well and proved to be very scalable as new software product additions were easily added and managed."

A CRM like Salesforce can be used to serve a variety of purposes. An a software developer, not only could we use Salesforce for data storage, we could have it interact with our business dynamically each time an event of interest occurred.

Anyone who says a CRM is just a database is not seeing the big picture.

The problem is their lack of systems in general and the acroymn. Once I tell them what it is, they realize they need one in order to grow. Most solos or micros end up using Outlook or Outlook/Phrophet or Customer Manger from QB to start with then grow into other programs.

But if in corporate America they used Salesforce or ACT or Goldmine, they usually go for those programs.

Upwards and onwards

Maria Marsala
http://www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com

There are already a lot of great responses, but I'll still throw my two cents into the hat.

I believe the reason SMBs lack CRM adoption is because they don't believe that the tool can help their small 2-5 person sales team. They think that they're too small and the system can't help them. Conversely, CRM vendors haven't done enough to prove to SMBs that their costly software product is worth the time and investment for their ROI.