An Honest Discussion about Organic Growth

As long as I’ve been in the CRM space, I’ve struggled with the fact that the technology was being sold as a guarantor of growth when it was never clear how that would happen or if it ever happened. Coming out of the banking world where I had reviewed thousands of business plans, financial projections and results, I always had a bad feeling about the truth in such claims. As the CRM industry continues to grow, year after year, I have to ask those of you who have made the CRM technology investments in your business if you have realized those wonderful predictions of 25% growth that I’ve heard many sales people boast? There is strong evidence to the contrary.

The Corporate Executive Board published a study (and a book forthcoming) called Stall Points. It paints a picture that everyone reading this should think long and hard about. The study shows that the growth claims of CRM vendors are baseless. It also shows that the projections many companies use as the basis for their business plans …