• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

For all the talk about CRM, few B2B companies are getting the most they can out of it, judging by a new study titled “Right-sizing your CRM,” from Insightly by Unbounce, conducted by Ascend2. 

In fact, just 34% of teams fully embrace and effectively use their CRM.

Another 51% use it effectively, but some resist. And 14% report that some people use it, although not consistently enough to maximize the value. 

Yet they face these challenges to improving sales efficiency:

• Too many manual tasks and inefficient processes — 31%
• Limited team capacity — 31%
• Misalignment between sales, marketing, and/or customer success — 30%
• Lack of integration across tools and platforms — 29%
• Long or inefficient sales cycle — 25%
• Difficulty accessing accurate data and insights — 24%
• Limited training and enablement — 23%
• Complexity or difficulty using sales tools and software — 22%
• Too many tools/software to manage — 22%
• Missing the right tools/software — 21%
• Other — 3%

Among the many hurdles to getting a handle on it is that executives and their subordinates disagree on several points.

For instance, 55% of executives feel their firm’s CRM is being used effectively, versus 27% of non-executives. 

Similarly, 44% of executives feel they would benefit most  from gaining more insights into customer behavior, but only 31% of non-executives feel the same. 

And 46% of non-executives cite increasing sales efficiency would make the biggest impact on revenue this year, compared to 38% of executives. 

In another divergence, 54% of executives say  implementing AI would have the greatest impact on revenue in 2025. But only 38% of non-executives agree.

How would companies use AI? The respondents cite:

• Task and workflow automation — 41%
• Creating reports — 35%
• Suggesting next best actions based on the sales process — 31%
• Creating, edits, and organizing contacts/leads — 30%
• Identifying trends and insights — 30%
• Following up with leads at the right time — 29%
• Writing emails and follow-ups — 29%
• Logging emails, calls, and meeting summaries — 26%
• Preparing for meetings with leads/opportunities — 24%
• None, I wouldn’t use AI in my CRM — 3%

Meanwhile, 21% companies say their biggest complaint about their current CRM is high initial or ongoing costs, and 12% specify the lack of ability to scale. 

On the positive side, 86% of firms with full adoption feel their CRM is the right size, compared to 62% of those with less than full adoption. 

And, CRM satisfaction has gone from 21% in 2022 to 40% today, showing that technology is improving. 

The most widely deployed CRM tools used by go-to-market teams are Salesforce (43%) and Microsoft (27%). The other contenders are in the single digits.

Working with Insightly by Unbounce, Ascend2 surveyed 379 B2B marketing professionals in the U.S. in February and March 2025. The respondents work at companies with from 50 to 500 employees.