Last week I sat in a meeting with a sales manager. He was frustrated. Not with his salespeople. With the situation.
"We have invested in HubSpot. But nobody uses it."
I asked why.
"Everyone has their own system. Excel. Notebooks. One uses Google Sheets. Another uses some app he found. We have 40 salespeople and 40 different ways of working."
When the system becomes the problem
This is not unusual. In fact, it is more the rule than the exception.
A company buys a CRM. Pays for licences. Runs the implementation. Maybe even runs training.
And then... nothing happens.
The salespeople carry on as before. The system becomes an administrative burden instead of a tool. Data is everywhere. And nowhere.
The sales manager cannot see what is happening in the pipeline. Forecasts become guesses. Follow-up becomes impossible.
The concrete problems nobody talks about
Over the past six months we have worked with two different companies. Both use HubSpot. Both use the phone as their main outreach tool.
Both had the same problem: neither of them could make calls through the system.
Not because HubSpot cannot handle calls. But because nobody had helped them set it up. No onboarding. No implementation of the calling feature. No support.
So what happens? The salespeople call from their mobiles. Maybe they note the call on the phone. Or in a notebook. Maybe they log it in HubSpot afterwards. But most of the time they don't.
Of course they try something else.
It is not resistance. It is not laziness. It is pure self-preservation. They have to get the job done and the system does not help them.
Another example: one company had bought HubSpot for prospecting. But nobody had defined what counted as a qualified lead. The salespeople interpreted it differently. Some entered everything. Others nothing. The data became meaningless.
Why it goes wrong
The problem is rarely the technology. HubSpot works well. So does Salesforce. And Pipedrive. And every other CRM system.
We see the same pattern regardless of which system a company uses. Salesforce with all its possibilities. Pipedrive with its simplicity. HubSpot with its integration. It does not matter which one you choose if the underlying problem is not solved.
The problem has two parts:
Part 1: The technology is not configured for how you actually work.
Do you call? Then the calling feature must be set up, tested and working before the salespeople are expected to use it.
Do you email? Then the email integration must work smoothly, not require five extra clicks.
Do you book meetings? Then the calendar feature must be synced and simple.
If the basics do not work, nothing else matters.
Part 2: Nobody has set clear rules for how to work.
Nobody has defined what prospecting actually means in this particular organisation. Which steps are included? When should something be logged? How do you follow up? What is a qualified lead?
Without structure, the system becomes meaningless. And when the system is meaningless, salespeople choose their own solutions. Because they have to get the job done.
What the sales manager really wanted
"I just want a system that is simple and works."
What he meant was not a new tool. Or more features. Or better integration.
He wanted:
Clarity. Everyone should know exactly how to work with prospecting. From first contact to close.
Technology that works. If the salespeople are going to call through the system, they must actually be able to call through the system. Not "in theory they can", but "it works when I press the button".
Simplicity. No unnecessary fields. No complicated processes. Only what is actually needed to do the job.
Adoption. A system the salespeople actually use. Voluntarily. Because it helps them sell more.
Visibility. The ability to see what is happening without having to chase information from 40 different places.
Technology does not solve the problem
Here is the truth: you can switch CRM systems as many times as you like. The result will be the same if you do not fix the underlying problem.
The structure has to come first. The process. The rules. But also the actual configuration.
A system that does not support how the salespeople work is worthless, no matter how advanced it is.
What is a lead at your company? How do you qualify? Which steps are part of the sales process? When do you move a deal forward? What is required to close?
And above all: do the tools the salespeople need to use every day work?
When that is defined AND configured, the technology suddenly becomes simple. Because then everyone knows what is expected and the system actually supports the work instead of getting in the way.
How to get started
If you recognise yourself in this, start here:
Map reality. How do the salespeople work today? Not what the handbook says, but what actually happens. Do they call? Email? Book meetings?
Configure the system for reality. If they call, make sure the calling feature works. Test it. Let the salespeople test it. Fix what does not work.
Define the process. Not the perfect process. The one that actually works for your business.
Set clear rules. What should be logged? When? By whom? Which fields are mandatory? Which are optional?
Simplify the system. Remove everything that is not used. Every field, every step, every feature that adds no value is in the way.
Involve the salespeople. They should not just follow the process. They should understand why it exists and how it helps them. And they should get a say, so the system actually supports their way of working.
From chaos to clarity
After the meeting the sales manager sent an email. They would start over from the beginning. Not switch systems. But build the structure first.
Configure the features the salespeople actually need. Test that they work. Define how they work. Simplify the process. Get everyone on the same track.
Then HubSpot can do exactly what it is meant to: support the sales process instead of getting in the way.
The technology is rarely the problem. The lack of structure and working configuration is.
Recognise yourself? Get in touch if you want to talk about how you can get your sales process in order.