An off-the-shelf CRM is designed for the middle of the market. Your company isn't the middle - so half the modules stay unopened and the things that really matter live in a spreadsheet on the side. How to tell you're paying twice.
Try a quick test. Open your CRM and read down the main menu. How many of those items have you actually opened in the past month? For most companies we talk to, it's three or four out of twelve.
You're paying for the rest every month too.
Why this happens
An off-the-shelf CRM isn't bad software. It's software designed for a very broad audience - a sales team, a manufacturer, an agency, an online shop and an estate agent, all at once. To suit everyone, it contains modules for everyone.
What you need from it is the intersection. That intersection is usually small: contacts, deals and some form of activity log. Everything else is there for somebody else.
That on its own is fine. An unused module hurts nobody. What hurts is the second part.
The spreadsheet next to the CRM
Ask your people where they keep three things: lead source, the date you promised and margin on the job.
The answer is almost certain: in a spreadsheet. Because the CRM has no field for them and one can't be added - or it can, but it means a support ticket, a wait, and sometimes a surcharge.
And this is where the real cost sits. Not in the subscription, but in the fact that:
- the data exists in two places and never quite agrees,
- reports are assembled by hand, copying between systems,
- a new colleague has to learn both,
- and nobody can quickly answer a question that crosses the boundary between them.
You bought twelve modules. You use three. And the spreadsheet is still there.
The unopened modules aren't the problem. The problem is that everything important the CRM doesn't cover gets tracked by each person their own way.
A five-question test
If you're not sure where you stand, work through this list. Every “no” is one thing your system can't do:
| Question | Can the CRM answer it? |
|---|---|
| Where did this enquiry come from? | |
| How many hours have we put into this job? | |
| What's the margin after labour? | |
| Where is the signed contract? | |
| What should happen the day after we finish? |
If three or more answers are “no”, you don't have a CRM problem. You have a problem with your process not fitting inside it.
This isn't your fault
Companies often assume they're not using the system “properly”. Usually it's the other way round - the system was designed for a different kind of company and you built a bypass around it. That bypass is called Excel, and it's a rational answer to a badly posed question.
What changes when the data model can be edited
The difference isn't that the system has more features. The difference is that fields, stages and rules get set up the way you actually work.
In practice that means: you add a “lead source” field to a deal and finally start measuring what earns you money. You rename the pipeline stages so they match your process rather than a generic sales funnel. You attach timesheets to the job and see the margin. And you hide the price column from a role that shouldn't see it.
None of that is development. It's configuration - done by someone in the office, not by a supplier.
For a worked example of three such edits, see What a CRM you can edit yourself looks like. If you're deciding whether an off-the-shelf template would do, the three-question test will help. And a direct comparison with a specific Czech CRM is on the Apexloop vs. Raynet page. The whole selection process, from preparation to the questions to ask a supplier, is in the guide to choosing a CRM.
When an off-the-shelf CRM does make sense
To be fair, there are situations where a packaged CRM is the right call:
- You have a purely sales team and a process that doesn't differ from the rest of your industry.
- You don't need to connect sales with delivery, invoicing or timesheets.
- You're happy not to think about the system at all, and willing to adapt your process to it.
If reading that list you thought “that isn't us on any of the three”, you have a fairly clear answer.
Common questions about an underused CRM
How do I work out what an underused CRM costs me?
Add up a year of subscription, then add an estimate of the time your team spends retyping data between the CRM and spreadsheets. In a ten-person company the second figure is usually larger than the first.
Won't we lose our history if we switch?
No. Contacts, deals and activity history can be exported and imported. The practical procedure is in the guide Migrating from Excel or Notion, which applies equally to moving from another CRM.
What if we only need to add a couple of fields?
Then the key question is whether you can add them yourself. A system where adding a field is a setting behaves very differently from one where it's a request to the supplier - and that difference shows up with every change after it.