On the surface, we live in a world of human connections: handshakes and small talk, networking and fostering long-term value in relationships. But beneath that surface is another world, one of numbers, dollars, percentages and ratios. That is the mighty world of statistics.
CRM statistics abound on the world wide web today more than ever, and even make up a large part of overall software market statistical studies. This is likely because CRM is one of the fastest-growing and most important kinds of business applications and software-as-a-service (SaaS) on the planet.
This article goes over some of the more interesting results from CRM research, collected from a range of useful resources including business magazines, networking social media sites like LinkedIn, as well as directly from some CRM software companies. It covers topics like CRM profits, CRM revenue, and CRM growth.
17 2023 CRM statistics & facts you need to know
Once upon a time (say, before the pandemic), business was conducted out in the open, face to face, in crowded meeting rooms and bustling cafes. Now, with the pandemic, more and more business goes online and remote, so it’s not surprising that software and SaaS are increasingly crucial to help mediate between the now-remote human minds and hands which make the business world go round.
If you have a business or are thinking of starting a company in this day and age, then you’ll need a CRM solution. That’s why you should check out these important statistics, facts and forecasts about CRM software and the future of the CRM industry. Knowing the numbers helps you plan a budget when choosing the right CRM, and will give you a head start on the best ways to implement the CRM among you and your team.
These 17 statistics and facts will offer you a great foundation to educate yourself on the benefits and barriers of total CRM implementation.
CRM adoption rate statistics
Statistics about CRM adoption rates refer to the number of people, companies and organizations who are using or plan to use a CRM solution. What we see with the below data is that CRM adoption has only one direction to go in, and that’s up.
12% - CRM adoption growth over the next 5 years
What does this CRM adoption statistic mean? It means that between now and 2028, the amount of businesses adopting a CRM system will steadily increase by 12%. This is regarding a figure known as compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, which means that each year the percentage increase applies to the previous year and not the initial figure when the increases began. So how does this turn into money talk? The answer is that the value of the CRM industry in total by the end of this 12% growth in 2028 will be a whopping $129 billion dollars, not to mention a boost in customer satisfaction which also feeds into increased sales, profits and ROI on that CRM software purchase.
$55 Billion - Increase in CRM revenue between 2010 and 2020
According to Statista, reporting on a study from Gartner, the revenue of CRM businesses has increased from just under $14 Billion US dollars in 2010, to about $69 Billion in 2020. That’s an increase of about $55 Billion, or in percentage terms, an increase of an impressive 393%. This statistic isn’t exactly reflective of adoption, however, revenues by CRM platforms do offer a window into the rates of increase in the adoption of CRMs by businesses.
CRM solutions will make up the largest area of expenses in enterprise software
Remember, customer relationship management are far from the only business SaaS providers in the game. There are ERP apps, or enterprise resource management, as well as CMS, content management systems, and a range of other business acronyms. CRM systems are actually newer than ERPs, so it’s not surprising that ERPs have historically sucked up the most money companies were spending on productivity software to boost business and increase profits. But famed research and consulting firm Gartner, as reported on by business magazine leader Forbes, proposes that we are undergoing a shift, and that the best CRMs are poised to surpass ERPs.
Benefits to companies that use CRM
There are many benefits to companies that use CRM, mainly to get new customers, close more deals, and deepen customer loyalty. Because without constant and steadily increasing sales, a business can’t really survive in today’s competitive arenas.
$8.71 - Expected average ROI for every dollar spent on sales CRM software
Back in 2014, a popular study of the benefits of sales CRM solutions came to the conclusion that for every dollar a company spent on a CRM system, they could expect a return on investment (ROI) of about $8. Now, eight to one is a solid investment statistic, but those numbers need to be compared to what’s come before. The last time this study was done in 2011, the ROI ratio was only $5.60 to one, which means we have a 38% increase in just a few years. More recent studies have predicted that in the future, that magical ROI figure can get up to as high as about 30 to 1. This is surely because of the value added to a company via CRM when it comes to giving sales teams better tools for higher customer retention and being able to offer an overall better customer experience.
$1.1 Trillion - Revenue from CRM solutions that use artificial intelligence
This CRM statistic comes directly from CRM powerhouse and sales technology pioneers Salesforce, so you might want to take that data with a fraction of a grain of salt (though we trust it’s been delivered in good faith). CRM software rarely comes these days without some AI sales tools and functionality, especially when it comes to automation, workflows, email marketing, follow-ups, notifications, and even contact management as well as new lead acquisition. So this impressive CRM trend of over one trillion dollars is no statistic to thumb your nose at. That’s a lot of cash over and above the old school manual CRM advantage.
Improved customer experience - Top benefit of using CRM customer analytics
While CRM may stand for customer relationship management, what that basically means for the customer is that companies who use CRMs are doing so to deliver a great customer experience. And this Statista study shows this to be true. The study shows that back in 2018 in the USA, 85% of CRM users expected an improved customer experience to be one of the best benefits of a CRM. Next on the list at 58% is that CRMs help make decisions faster. Then 54% said streamlined operations, and 53% said better collaboration between sales, marketing, service and operations. Other benefits lower on the list include introducing new business models or products, increased innovation, and finally, CRMs help businesses be more competitive in the digital sphere.
CRM users & usage statistics
This set of statistics is about the numbers of CRM users both in general and within organizations. It’s important to look at CRM usage as a separate factor than CRM subscriptions and sales, because even though a company may purchase CRM software, it doesn’t mean everyone there is using it or all its features to the maximum potential.
91% - Percentage of companies with 10 or more employees who use CRM
We hear a lot about CRM solutions for small businesses, or if anything SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses). This is no coincidence, as much of the early bread and butter of the customer relationship management industry has been startups and small businesses. Perhaps this is the case since larger companies and enterprises have historically been earlier adopters of very robust (and expensive) business applications, like products from Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and even Salesforce. But this CRM statistic is telling, that now even small companies with tight budgets and an employee count of barely more than 10 people consider CRM tools a necessary feature for sales professionals.
18% - Percentage of a salespeople’s time spent using CRM applications
It should be obvious that the top sales priorities are not doing administrative tasks like data entry. Rather, sales teams need to focus on what matters: finding new customers, getting more opportunities into the sales cycle, and focusing on ways to increase sales and blast through sales quotas. So what does this CRM statistic say really, since it seems that most salespeople spend a bit less than one fifth of their day on a CRM platform or actively using their CRM features? It says there is room to improve, and we’ll surely start seeing that percentage go up with the popular adoption of mobile CRM, more streamlined functionality around workflow automations, and tighter sales funnel management.
Lead generation and customer retention - Largest use of CRM by application
By now we all know that CRMs are way more than complex spreadsheets for customer data management systems. They have many different applications, ranging from marketing tools, to sales features, to customer support and service tools. However, this Fortune Business Insights statistic shows us that the most common applications of CRMs are still for sales, that is, getting new leads and keeping customers happy by providing a great customer experience. These applications make up about 32% of CRM usage. Going down the list after lead generation is customer support, contact management, automations like for email marketing, and then other tools like social media marketing and brand management.
Statistics on CRM barriers to entry and use challenges
While CRMs are getting easier to buy, onboard and use, there are always some problems which cause some CRM barriers to entry. These statistics demonstrate some of those problems, along with other challenges or using a CRM platform.
50% - Percentage of sales managers who say CRM is difficult to implement
This CRM statistic comes from inbound marketing giant HubSpot, which also offers a wealth of software advice and data on their blog. This statistic may seem a bit troubling: after all, half is half no matter how large your sales team is. The fact that half of all sales leaders and managers openly admit that CRM implementation is a problem is a huge barrier for companies and sales reps to be able to take advantage of these sales process optimization tools. The good news is that CRM software is improving regarding ease of use, becoming more affordable and more customizable with every year. This means that we hope to see this percentage drop as barriers to CRM entry slacken.
<40% - Percentage of CRMs that have full-scale adoption in a company
There are many reasons why a company that implements a CRM fails to get everyone on board and fully taking advantage of the tools and features to boost sales productivity. According to this one study reported on by CRM solution SuperOffice, there are several reasons for this. They are as follows: The technology actually only counts for part of this problem, according to 35% of people asked. 40% of people asked think it's a strategy and deployment issue. Most importantly, 42% of people who were asked about why less than 40% of CRM implementations are fully successful said the problem was with people, that is, companies did not have CRM implementation experts or properly train their sales managers to help their teams with CRM onboarding.
Manual data entry - Biggest challenge using CRM
This statistic is less about barriers to entry and more about barriers to full and proper CRM usage. What these figures, reported on by Statista from a HubSpot in-depth study of inbound marketing, show is that 23% of people say that manual data entry is one of the main barriers of beginning to use a CRM or challenges of using one regularly. At 17%, the next barrier and challenge is a lack of integration with other tools. After that, other barriers and challenges listed include sales funnel tracking difficulties, bad data, a lack of adoption or use by the managerial class, and of course, there is the barrier that it is (or seems) too complicated, though only 7% of those surveyed gave that answer.
CRM market share statistics
The customer relationship management market share competition is getting fiercer by the year, both in terms of CRMs competing with other SaaS, as well as between different industries. CRM comparison statistics help us understand what’s really going on.
CRM market size in 2022 – Greater than $47 Billion
Statistic website Statista is the source for this highly impressive figure. This is the total worldwide market size of CRM as calculated in US dollars. That number has gone up from $24 Billion back in 2015, and $45 Billion from 2020. The same source is also willing to put their forecast accuracy to the test by predicting the future market size of CRM across the globe. They say by 2025 it will be close to $50 Billion. This projection demonstrates a compound annual CRM software market growth rate of 1.7% between 2020 and the 2025 forecast, or in dollar terms, almost $5 Billion dollars. If you could put a dollar amount to the value of great customer data, then these statistics show how important customer data is now and will continue to be in the future.
Salesforce - Leading CRM vendor since 2016
This is one more set of statistics brought to you by Statista. It covers the market share divisions by some of the biggest names in CRM and business software. These vendors include Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics 365, among others. The years covered are 2016 until 2020, and Salesforce has remained on top each year, getting anywhere between 16.8% (in 2018) and 19.6% (in 2017) of total CRM market share, with 19.5% for the most recent year. Number two rotates between SAP and Oracle, while Microsoft and Adobe enter the scene only in 2017, with each never quite hitting the 5% mark.
Professional services - Largest CRM market share by industry
According to a study by Apps Run The World and reported on by Statista, the largest market share for industry-specific CRM goes to professional services, covering close to 30% of the CRM market. This is based on Salesforce’s data. Professional services refer to highly skilled career people who often need some official certification to do their jobs, like lawyers, accountants, medical professionals, engineers, IT specialists and teaching professionals. Next on the list is the manufacturing sector, at about 12%, then banking and financial services at roughly 9%, and finally, retail at about 8%. However, it is in sectors like retail, especially ecommerce, where CRM is poised to become more and more dominant. This is also valid for industries like leisure, hospitality, restaurants and other personalized entertainment services.
Other CRM facts
3:1 - Ratio of sales reps who meet their quotas using a mobile CRM compared to those who do so without
Every good piece of SaaS these days needs to have some presence on mobile devices. Often, the web browser version is responsive to different screen sizes and adapts when accessed with a laptop, tablet or mobile device. Some CRMs have dedicated mobile CRM apps which can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. This statistic shows that for sales reps who use mobile CRMs, they meet their sales quotas about 66% of the time, while sales reps who do not use mobile CRMs only hit their target sales numbers 22% of the time. That’s a three to one ratio, and one not to be scoffed at if you are a salesperson needing to crush those conversion rates and get those bonuses.
Social media monitoring - Most desired new CRM feature
This statistic might seem a bit old and outdated, but still there are some useful insights in there (it’s from 2015). The results of this study featured in Statista show that social media monitoring was the most wanted new tool to be part of a CRM kit, getting 25% of this vote. Just behind it at 24% is the ability to pull in new leads off of social media profiles, something a few of the best CRMs now do. Following these features are: having a mobile app, customer loyalty tracking, ecommerce integration and territory assignment.
How to use these CRM research figures: Our conclusion
There are other online resources which serve up a trove of CRM research and statistics (like Capterra), but we’ve done the work of reviewing and comparing them all to give you the most robust rundown of some key CRM stats when it comes to CRM adoption rates, CRM growth, CRM revenue, and more.
The main conclusion is mostly the same across the board: CRM is only going to grow in importance, in market share, adoption rates, usage, as well as enter into many new industries. Especially during pandemic times, it is increasingly becoming a necessary tool in the business toolkit, not only for salespeople, but for marketers and support agents too.
After all, behind all these numbers, dollar amounts and percentages, are the very people businesses aim to serve, and when it comes to customer satisfaction, all the numbers point to one direction: more CRM, better CRM, The Best CRM!
Resources
On CRM adoption rate statistics
On benefits to companies that use CRM statistics
On CRM users & usage statistics
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/customer-relationship-management-crm-market
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/customer-relationship-management-crm-market-103418
On CRM barriers to entry statistics
On CRM market share statistics
https://www.statista.com/statistics/972598/crm-applications-vendors-market-share-worldwide/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1251110/salesforce-crm-customers-by-industry/