Your CRM isn't broken – Your people just never use it

Here's what I want to tell you that I'm sure you already know but don't have the guts to say aloud: Your CRM isn't broken — your team just never uses it.

I hear these type of complaints from most of the business owners and sales leaders I work with:

"We tried Salesforce — nobody used it."

"Our CRM is cumbersome."

"It's just not worth the hassle."

“They’re just spying on us.”

But the real issue is this: You don't have a technology problem. You have a leadership problem. A culture problem. A "we-don't-follow-through" problem. It hurts less to criticize the platform than to look into the mirror and ask: Why haven't we made it a non-negotiable?

The most powerful CRM in the world is completely useless if your team doesn't find it obligatory. And they don't. They use it as a burden, a checkbox, a punishment even — instead of what it really is: a revenue machine, a customer retention tool, and your marketing team's best friend.

Let's stop pretending that the software must be perfect. It isn't. It must be utilized, constantly and correctly, by everyone. And that doesn't start with a better UI or hipper dashboard — it starts with leadership, habits, and definition.

In this article, I'm going to break down why your CRM isn't working — not because it can't, but because your people haven't been trained, empowered, and held accountable to use it the way it's supposed to be used.

The myth of the "broken" CRM

Let's shoot down the myth right now: most CRMs aren't broken — they're abandoned.

Blaming the system is convenient. “It’s not intuitive.” “It doesn’t fit our workflow.” “It’s outdated.” Sound familiar? These are the exact excuses teams use to justify why nobody logs in, updates data, or follows through. But the truth is that even the simplest CRM, used daily, will outperform a fancy platform left untouched.

Most CRMs come pre-installed with capabilities that salespeople never touch. Why? Because the tool wasn't properly implemented – your team wasn’t made aware of their mission. When CRM adoption fails, it's not usually because the software isn't powerful enough to do the job — it's because nobody made it a priority.

And no one wants to admit that their team is still scribbling handwritten notes to marketing, hoarding contacts on their phones, is afraid to give you their contact, or “remembers everything in their head.” That’s not a modern sales organization — that’s flying blind.

A CRM doesn’t have to be complex. It needs to be consistent. The issue isn’t capability — it’s commitment.

Why your people don't use your CRM

Let's rip the band-aid off immediately: Your staff isn't utilizing the CRM because they simply do not understand it. Period. And they are probably too scared to tell you.

It's not laziness or incompetence. It's a combination of poor onboarding, poor expectations, and no leadership reinforcement. We don't live up to the potential of our CRM software — we sink down to the level of our training and culture.

5 things that are going on behind the scenes that no one wants to admit:

1. 1Nobody's keeping anyone accountable: Nobody's checking if it's current. Guess what? It isn't.
2. Alignments are wrong: Salespeople aren't rewarded for good data — they're rewarded for closed deals. If adoption of CRM doesn't make it easier for them to close faster, they see it as a waste of time.
3. Management isn't using it either: If the manager isn't in the system, why should they be?
4. Lack of training: The employees were thrown into the deep end and instructed to figure it out — and never did.
5. Fear of micromanaging: Reps believe that CRM is some sort of spyware high-tech stuff. And that fear builds resistance.

The issue isn’t that your salespeople are disengaged with the CRM — they’re disengaged with the why. They don’t understand how it fits into the bigger picture: driving marketing campaigns, improving client retention, sharpening forecasts, streamlining follow-ups, and, ultimately, boosting their commissions. No one has shown them that a CRM isn’t a tattletale; it’s their ticket to a more profitable and effortless sales process.

A business owner once vented to me, “I just want my people to care.” I told him, “They will — but only when you do.” Your job is to connect the dots for them. Show how their work fuels the entire engine. Make it clear that the CRM isn’t a punishment — it’s a performance tool. Until they see that, you’ll keep hearing the same excuses, and the gold mine you could be tapping together will stay buried.

So the next time someone grumbles, “Our CRM sucks,” hear it for what it really is: “We never built a culture for using it.” And that? That’s fixable.

Leadership sets the tone: Accountability over excuses

Let's be honest: if your team isn't using your CRM, it's because you haven't made it matter.

CRM adoption isn't something the salespeople need to figure out by themselves — it's a leadership standard. And if leadership doesn't prioritize the usage of CRM, your team won't either. You can't ask for responsibility without showing it yourself.

• If you don't examine it, your team won't revise it.
• If you don't ask questions about it, they won't make it a number one priority.
• If CRM data isn't tied to KPIs, commissions, or visibility — it is ignored.

This isn't micromanaging. This is management, period.

High-performing teams treat the CRM as a core sales activity — not an administrative chore. Every sales call should be discussing it. Every pipeline discussion should be founded on it. And every team member should be reminded: "If it's not in the CRM, it didn't happen."

You can make this shift. You can go from zero accountability to full adoption in less than 90 days — not by switching software, but by switching leadership behavior.

And this is how you set the tone. The distinction between merely telling your team to "use the tool" and showing that the tool is part of how we get things done here. Because when usage of CRM gets into your operating rhythm, results will follow.

Imagine if you start to add CRM usage to performance reviews and made it a job requirement, not a “nice-to-have”. What would happen then?

So cut the excuses. Start to lead by expectation – because if your team knows it matters to you — it will start to matter to them.

Data is your marketing gas — or your blind spot

Let's talk about the downstream impact of CRM abandonment — because it doesn't stop at sales. When your team isn't feeding into the CRM, your marketing is dead.

This is how it plays out:

• The salesperson fails to log the meeting.
• The customer title never gets updated.
• None of your team members log that the client talked about a new location, a product interest, or a budget change.
• So when your marketing team launches a campaign? The wrong target with the wrong message at the wrong time.

That's not a technology issue. That's a data gap.

And data gaps cost you money — in lost follow-ups, wasted ad spend, and cold leads that go dark because nobody stayed warm.

Your CRM isn't a sales tracker. It's the basis for all your marketing decisions. When the data is poor or stale, your targeting is a failure, your personalization crashes, and your revenue pipeline vanishes before it can even get started.

When your CRM is tidy, up-to-date, and refreshed on a regular basis, your marketing crew can segment by industry, role, pipeline stage — even activity by customer. They can write improved emails. They can mail more effective offers. They can plan strategy based on what actually matters to your clients.

That's not efficiency. That's power.

I tell my clients this again and again: No data, no direction.

If your CRM is just a digital junk drawer, your campaigns are going to be a shot in the dark. But when it's tended to as the strategic tool that it is — as a living, breathing ledger of your relationships — that's when the magic happens. That's when marketing and sales get out of silos and begin driving results hand-in-hand.

Make it easy, not optional

Here’s the truth … the best way to remove the friction is to make your CRM easy to use. If the system itself is clunky, cumbersome, or just plain irrelevant, your team will work around it. Not because they're slackers — but because humans default away from complexity. That's neuroscience, not an attitude problem. So, your task? Make it ridiculously easy to use and not possible to avoid.

Start by inquiring: What's truly required? Most reps don't need 47 fields to capture a lead. Cut it back to the five things that truly drive deals: name, company, contact, last touch, and next step. Done. Discard the filler.

Then, introduce the CRM into their real workflow. Ensure it's mobile-compatible. Make it integrate with email and calendars. Automate logging activity where possible. And include cheat sheets, short videos and templates.

And don't train once and pray it sticks. Touch base with it monthly. Incorporate CRM mastery into team huddles and one-on-ones. Normalize it. Make it a joyous conversation.

Then — enjoy the victories. Recognize publicly the team members who give regular updates. Show the entire team how that one follow-up, tracked in the CRM, ended up as a closed deal. Positive peer pressure works.

Finally, stop asking them if they are. Just assume they are.

The less complicated you make it, the more likely it is to become a habit. And the instant it's a habit; it becomes a culture. And culture is what produces results.

Fix the culture, not the tool

Let’s be honest — your CRM habits mirror your company culture. If your team treats it like drudgery, you’ve built a culture of compliance, not excellence. And that mindset doesn’t just show up in your pipeline — it seeps into communication, accountability, and, ultimately, your customer experience.

The question isn't, "How do I get my team to use our CRM?"

It's, "What kind of culture have I created around clarity, follow-up, and ownership?"

Winning teams do not just have tools — they have standards. They document because it saves relationships. They update because it's good for the whole team, not just themselves. They use the CRM because it's part of how they arrive with professionalism and pride.

It's not a systems problem that must be fixed — it's a leadership opportunity.

Shift the tone. Restate the why. Celebrate the victories. Frame it like it's a team exercise, not a solo activity.

When your culture declares, “We value our data as much as we value our customers,” everything improves — sales, service, retention, and beyond.

You don't need a new CRM — You need a new standard

Your CRM isn't the problem. Your platform isn't the chokepoint. The issue isn't functionality — it's follow-through.

Tools don't create businesses. People do. But only when they're fueled by clarity, consistency, and culture.

Before you spend dollars on another system or book that next software demo, take a close look at the bar you've set. Ask yourself:

• Do we model accountability?
• Do we reward consistency?
• Do we instruct the why of the system?

Because until your people get how CRM usage powers the whole business — not just the sales pipeline, but marketing, retention, expansion — you'll be mired in the same vicious cycle.

So no, you don't need a new CRM.

You need a new expectation. A new habit. A new level of leadership. Set the tone. Build the rhythm. Reinforce the standard.

That's how you stop blaming the tool — and start building real traction.