Companies Struggle to Integrate Sales Plays into CRM

Seventy percent of companies are failing to effectively integrate their sales plays into their revenue technology, including their CRM systems, limiting their ability to achieve their expected growth gains, according to a study by Bain & Co.

And this is happening despite the fact that more than 80 percent of companies claim to run structured repeatable sales and marketing activities. Because of this lack of integration, only about 20 percent of them have realized full value.

When companies were asked about hurdles to B2B growth in 2025, the most-cited challenges included adoption of go-to-market technologies, managing price pressures, and improving sales force productivity.

“Most B2B executives we surveyed expect their 2025 revenue growth rate to exceed 2024 levels, and a real gap exists between their revenue strategies and how they use their technology,” says Jamie Cleghorn, global leader of Bain’s B2B Commercial Excellence Group. “Companies that effectively integrate and harmonize their strategic sales play approach with technologies, including AI and CRM, will be best positioned for accelerated revenue growth.”

Nearly all companies have begun deploying AI across most go-to-market functions, though use cases vary by industry, Bain found. Thirty percent of respondents said they have scaled up to between one and two use cases for AI, while 62 percent have scaled up to more than two uses.

In relation to those uses, nearly all respondents said AI has met expectations, while 57 percent said AI has exceeded expectations.

Despite these wins, more than half of commercial organizations acknowledge that they have not yet set up adequate data foundations to optimize the technology, citing hurdles such as incomplete or low-quality datasets and technology that’s not properly configured.

“Real progress requires a systematic and measurable approach to AI deployment,” says Rob Stein, leader of Bain’s Customer Strategy & Marketing practice. “Leading companies allocate more resources to sales and marketing technologies broadly, both in absolute terms and as a proportion of their overall sales and marketing budget—they’re spending more and seeing the payoff. Using AI at scale has become table stakes for B2B companies that are hoping to ensure success, and their growth prospects hinge in part on deploying the technology to operate more efficiently and deliver better products and services to customers.”

In addition to technology adoption, another top hurdle to B2B growth is the inability to manage price pressures. When compared to 2024, more companies anticipate offsetting rising costs this year with higher prices; however, companies are worried about their ability to continue executing margin-enhancing pricing strategies in the absence of high inflation as the default justification for price increases. Competitive pressures, customer resistance, and other market challenges compose the biggest barriers to margin-enhancing pricing, as cited by 67 percent of respondents. Other barriers commonly cited by respondents include insufficient data or analytics capabilities to support pricing decisions and gaps in team skills or expertise related to pricing.

The ability to improve sales force productivity is another top hurdle to B2B growth cited by executives. Overall, 54 percent of respondents said they expect to improve commercial productivity in 2025, though some industries are more bullish than others. Executives from industries including medical technology, machinery and equipment, information services, logistics, and telecommunications expect to see the most improvements, Bain found.

When compared to other business areas, the top three priorities to help increase productivity in 2025 as cited by respondents include providing sales staff with frontline coaching and training, improving customer segmentation, and optimizing market spending.

“Our research shows there are actions that business leaders can take to ensure long-term growth with an added benefit of achieving significantly more productivity,” Cleghorn states.