A CRM is like a backbone for the functioning of an organization. Several teams such as sales, alliances, procurement, and marketing rely heavily on it to run their operations efficiently and help the core business.
According to a Forbes study, 97% of teams say a CRM is vital for success.
However, keeping the CRM updated proves to be a behemoth of a task, taking up 19% of their total working hours.
As your organization grows, teams should explore technology based solely on benefits, without being burdened by complex integration and technical processes.
Cloud Marketplace and Co-sell channels are promising growth avenues for ISVs of all sizes. Canalys predicts that software sales through hyperscaler cloud marketplaces will hit $85 billion by 2028.
These channels, unfortunately, come with additional portals to operate with external partners.
Leveraging quick and powerful integrator solutions for Cloud GTM helps companies work from their existing CRM system while automating the selling process and reducing dependency on engineering.
Let’s first understand the potential downsides of having a disjointed CRM system.
Why disjointed systems are the bane of every cloud GTM team
Here’s why disparate CRMs could prove disadvantageous to your team:
Wasted time due to manual data entry
Data fragmentation is one of the leading causes of unproductivity. When your data is spread over multiple systems, it’s called data fragmentation.
Alliance or sales teams spend a significant amount of time keeping your CRM updated with all opportunities across all marketplaces. It’s time that could be well spent on other important tasks, such as building relationships and closing deals.
This hinders productivity as reps have to break their focus and complete what is essentially mind-numbing, data entry work.
Additionally, managing multiple disparate systems complicates workflows, leads to lost opportunities, and increases the chances of human errors.
Lack of visibility and hindered collaboration
Disjointed systems can cause barriers between sales, alliance, marketing, and partner teams. For co-selling, it’s super important to stay on the same page about opportunities. But with two separate systems of data, there’s a lot of back and forth to stay updated about the status of current opportunities.
When teams operate in silos, they struggle to respond quickly to customer needs and market changes. Scattered back and forth between partner teams and in-house reps often leads to delayed decision-making, and could sometimes cost you an opportunity.
Customers left dissatisfied
Without integrated systems, your alliance or sales team may struggle to gather full insights into customer information and history. This affects your team’s communication with a potential opportunity.
Also, scattered back and forth with the partner team delays decision-making — further affecting customer experience as they may feel neglected.
Broken communication between internal teams
25% of employees cite that lost opportunities are a direct consequence of communication barriers.
One of the reasons could be data fragmentation. When the necessary teams involved in an opportunity do not have visibility into the sales pipeline, communication mismatch happens.
Moreover, departments besides sales or alliance would also like insight into your cloud marketplace opportunities. For example, the finance team may also want visibility into revenue generated. They may not have access to the marketplace systems to get this information.
This leads to a lot of internal back and forth as well.
Why you need an integrated CRM system to propel your cloud success
Time is money, so wasting time on keeping multiple platforms updated takes away from the time you could spend on meaningful co-sell activities.
Your team probably spends an average of 7.6 hours a week on updating your CRM. Phew, that’s a significant portion of time.
So, how can you fix this?
This is where automation steps in.
But with the right co-sell automation platform, CentralSquare Technologies was able to integrate their CRM and reduce the number of hours spent on manual data entry to zero!
Let’s look at some of the benefits of an integrated CRM.
Centralized data management
Every organization needs a system that’s their single source of truth. By that we mean, your CRM needs to be updated with all relevant information about leads and opportunities flowing from the marketplace.
With an integrated CRM, all teams in your organization can have end-to-end visibility into the opportunities pipeline. This drastically reduces internal back and forth, as teams can log in and download any information they might need.
Besides, if you’re listed on multiple cloud marketplaces, you can reduce context switching by simply collating all listings’ information in one single dashboard.
Imagine the number of hours you can save per week! Companies like IBM are saving an average of 8 hours per person per week with this integrated approach using Labra for AWS co-sell.
Advanced performance analytics
A great CRM should not only centralize your data but also provide relevant insights and takeaways about your performance.
Now that you’ve sorted out the data flow problem, you can leverage built-in analytics to closely monitor your co-sell success.
Additionally, you can also keep track of your high-performers, and make sure your team is well on its way to hitting their quotas.
Streamlined communication
By integrating your CRM and cloud marketplace portal, your team and the partner team can be on the same page about opportunities.
Instead of an email back and forth or a weekly catch-up call, they can collaborate better and close bigger deals quickly.
Manage scalability
It’s a matter of fact that when an organization grows, its opportunities pipeline grows as well. As more and more opportunities start flowing in from one marketplace, it only makes sense to broaden your horizons into other cloud marketplaces.
An integrated CRM will help you accommodate and better manage this influx of deals.
Final thoughts
Adopting an integrated CRM system is not just a strategic move, it is essential for the success of your alliance or sales teams, especially in a co-sell environment.
With automation taking over routine tasks, organizations can redirect their efforts toward meaningful activities that drive growth.
A co-sell automation platform like Labra Platform integrates your CRM (Salesforce, Hubspot, Dynamics, ConnectWiise, and others) with major cloud marketplace portals. This helps you efficiently navigate co-sell intricacies and manage your opportunities pipeline.
Begin your cloud co-sell journey with Labra.io
