CRM Tools for Sales Forces: A State of Play

03/07/2026
11:42

reading time : 2 min

Lucie Monnot

Content Marketing Manager

The commercial efficiency of your sales force depends primarily on the reliability of the tools made available to it, the accuracy of the data recorded in its CRM system, the ease of use of features, automation capabilities, mobility, and the accessibility of history (customer visits, key indicators, etc.) that it draws on every day.

To learn more about the practices of GMS sales forces and the opinions of area managers on CRM and SFA tools, B&B Market conducted several field studies. This investigative exercise drew its findings from listening to and observing field users as they used sales force tools in a production context, including field accompaniments and exchanges with area managers and their regional managers.

The results of our studies show that area managers and their CRM tools do not always work in harmony.

Focus on 3 major findings

1. Area managers are overwhelmed by a multitude of tools and data sources

Area managers use tools in highly heterogeneous ways, depending on their habits, their level of experience with IT tools, and the support provided by regional management. Typically, they juggle a host of tools and information pushed out by headquarters. A large majority of area managers still use paper documents and Excel/PowerPoint files to prepare visits and collect field information.

2. Too much time spent on tools and data analysis, and too little time on business

More specifically, the tasks on which area managers spend most of their time are:

Office work / Administration: An area manager spends an average of 2 hours per day on tasks such as visit preparation, reading emails, or communicating between the field and headquarters, and analyzing information shared by management (objectives, bonuses, scoring, data sharing, etc.)
Communication: An area manager devotes 30 minutes to 1 hour per day to communication via phone, SMS, and WhatsApp to coordinate merchandising and promotional activities, exchange within their regional team, or communicate with customer contacts.
Visits and field execution: The average duration of a visit is 1 hour 40 minutes, including travel time (approximately 30 to 35 minutes of travel per visit). A full shelf survey in a large-format store can take 1 hour. A face-to-face meeting with a customer contact (department manager, store director, etc.) can last 20 to 40 minutes.

3. The CRM systems deployed are not always suited to the needs of GMS sales forces

The main conclusion of our studies is as follows: CRM systems are rarely adapted to the needs and activities of a GMS sales force.

Vertical CRM systems specifically designed for the GMS sector are not always intuitive or ergonomic.

Meanwhile, the horizontal (multi-sector) CRM systems that dominate the market today are not adapted to the GMS sales force scope (missing features or business processes that are not taken into account).

In practice, they are so complex to use that most area managers rely on only a small portion of their features. To compensate for the gaps in the tools deployed, area managers spend a great deal of time juggling numerous tools and information (bonuses, objectives, scoring, business plans, sales arguments, etc.) made available to them.

How many times have you begged your sales team to make more use of their CRM tool? Despite your efforts, they cling to their old habits.

Here are the figures gathered:

70% of the sales forces interviewed use workarounds to compensate for the gaps or missing information in their CRM — for example: the absence of a native BI module, difficult access to customer history and KPIs/reporting, or the absence of an integrated sales book module.
90% want an all-in-one CRM platform to avoid juggling between multiple tools and third-party information sources (visits, resource management, promotions, assortment, sales book, reporting/stats, documents, video conferencing, etc.).
85% report a clear rejection of the CRM system in place when it is not adapted to GMS activities and is complex to use.

The main reasons for rejecting an ill-suited CRM are:

Fragmentation of key information needed to help the area manager negotiate promotions and shelf space with customers (for example, showing a photo of a completed promotional operation to help close a sale).
Time wasted in planning and preparing visits due to the proliferation of information sources, since the CRM tool does not centralize information and processes.
Too much time spent analyzing information sent by headquarters to compensate for the gaps in a horizontal CRM (business processes cannot be integrated, KPIs are not relevant, lack of business alerts and notifications, etc.).

Disengagement from the CRM on the part of area managers is one of the most commonly observed pitfalls of CRM projects that do not adapt to your context (company culture, business, strategy, maturity, user and customer profile, etc.).

Do you have a CRM that is too complex, too expensive, and packed with features that are of no use to you? In that case, you can indeed consider switching to a simpler, more cost-effective solution that is better suited to your business.

The good news is that alternatives do exist. As an expert in CRM solutions for the GMS and consumer goods sector, B&B Market is able to support you in a new CRM project with its all-in-one, powerful, and ergonomic SOLVNet solution.

Project, request for a demonstration or a free trial?

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