The CRM Trap: Why Fancy Tools Fail Most Speakers

“What CRM program do you use to run your speaking business?”

That’s what we recently asked our subscribers.  

This is an important question because there are hundreds – maybe thousands – of CRM options out there.  They are the main piece of tech you’re using to track your leads, revenue, and referrals.

We learned some interesting things about what CRMs you’re using… and more importantly… which ones you’re actually enjoying!

(And no judgment if “enjoying” means “not actively cursing at your screen.”)

Given our survey, 17% of professional speakers still track their business using basic spreadsheets.  Sure, only 24 speakers responded—but based on the countless conversations I’ve had over the years, I think this number reflects what’s really going on in the industry.

It seems that most speakers who do have a CRM barely use it.  They log in once a week, update a field, and then go back to using their inbox and email to do the bulk of the work.

The truth is, the best CRM isn’t the most powerful one.  It’s the one you actually use.  If your current CRM requires too much work for too little value, you’ll be in the constant cycle of looking for something better.

That’s what happened to me…

I used ActiveCampaign for years, but couldn’t stand it.  Then, I tried dozens of others, including Hubspot.  In the end, I ended up building my own CRM called GiGs.

So, why the constant search for something “better?”  Well, here are five ways that CRMs make more work than value for most speakers.

#1: You Run Up Against an Event Date “Wall”

This is probably the most relevant one for us speakers.  Most CRMs don’t understand that a gig event deadline is 100% final.  Once that March 15th event in Denver is over… it’s a dead lead.  There are no extensions, or raindates, or second chances.

The generic CRM mindset is...

“Oh, just move the close date and we’ll keep trying to win that opportunity.”

That may work for most businesses, but it doesn’t work for speakers.

Often, speakers abandon these systems because they’re constantly manually checking calendars.  The CRM doesn’t actually alert you on any date conflicts.  It doesn’t know when the event is ending. You then end up using sticky notes for ‘dates on hold’ because the CRM makes things way too complicated.

When you find yourself working around your CRM instead of with it, you end up with a problem…

For example, let’s say you’re holding April 10th for two clients.  Your CRM should SCREAM to you that there is a conflict.  But instead, you only discover the problem on April 9th.  That’s a ‘no go!’

(Unless you’ve recently figured out how to clone yourself, in which case… please call me.)

When you can’t trust your CRM for the one thing that matters most – dates – you’re going to stop using it.

This is something we saw clearly in the survey responses.  Some of you use Excel to track your engagements, which is fine, because it’s completely customizable.  One comment we received was that Excel was...

“...a simple manual solution that I prefer.”

That’s great.  If you actually USE it, then it’s the right CRM for you.

#2: Many CRMs Are Missing the Speaker Data That Actually Matters

There’s this common problem in a lot of systems called the 5% problem.  Basically, it describes when you’re only using a tiny fraction of the features because the rest are irrelevant to you.

It’s like paying for the fancy all-you-can-eat buffet… and just eating the rolls.

A generic CRM tracks things like call logs, email opens, pipeline velocity, and lead scores.  These are all great, but only if you can customize them to work for your speaking business.  

These are all great… if you’re selling enterprise software or vacuum parts.

Next, you need the location, a place for travel information, fees, and status of the event (date on hold, client theme call complete, etc). You also need to think about contact info for the client, travel notes, expense tracking, invoice payments, and more.

A lot of this information can be customized in your CRM, but that’s only okay if you’re actually doing the customization.  Many speakers just don’t.

When you’re paying for hundreds of features on your CRM, but you’re only using five, you’ll start to feel guilty about the other ninety-five.  You’ll start to feel like you’re missing something.  If your CRM is really made up of multiple programs like your CRM, Google Calendar, Evernote, and Excel… then your CRM itself has failed.

(At that point, your “CRM” is really just you—wearing six hats and Googling your own flight time.)

#3: Death By a Thousand Irrelevant Fields

Holy smokes!  If it takes you ten minutes to enter a single new gig as an opportunity versus thirty seconds on a spreadsheet or 5 seconds in something like Trello or Notion… then your CRM is really just a big ol’ time suck!

For instance, some CRMs have a required field for “industry.”  If it’s a dental conference and that’s not on the drop-down list, you have to go to the trouble of adding “dental” as an option on the drop-down list.  All of a sudden, it killed a huge amount of time.

A lot of these tools have mandatory fields that just don’t apply to you.  Or, they have complex workflows for very small updates that you’re trying to make.  Worst of all are the error messages or tasks that are automated.  I hate it when a tool tells me a field is ‘missing’ when it’s not something I need… much less care about.

Every one of these friction points will make you less likely to open that tool for gig updates.  If you don’t actually open the tool, the data that is in there becomes stale.  Then, your trust in the system erodes and you’ll use it even less.

See where I’m going with this?

When you say to yourself...

“I’ll update my CRM later,”

It really just means that you’re not using your CRM at all.  A simple spreadsheet - as silly as it sounds – is ugly but it beats using a beautiful, fancy CRM tool that you’ve abandoned.

#4: Referral Blindness

This next CRM problem costs you money, but it also costs you reporting insight.

If you can’t answer what event generated the most referrals this year in ten seconds by hitting a button, then maybe your current CRM isn’t for you. That’s because it’s failing you on the one thing that drives speaking success.  

When you can’t say something like, “73% of my gigs this year came from referrals” then your CRM isn’t delivering what matters most..  You won’t know where to invest your time and energy and which events to do again.

Many speakers give up on their CRM because it’s too much work to manually connect all those dots.  There’s no automated way to track them. 

Look for information on the following:

• Which free gigs actually pay off.
• Which clients are your best referrers.
• Which events are worth going back to even if the fee is low.

Working harder than your CRM to track less information makes no sense.  Multiple speakers in the survey said that they are in the midst of changing CRMs right now. This just illustrates how we’re constantly searching for better solutions because the current system doesn’t actually deliver.

#5: Square Pegs and Round Holes

In my opinion, most CRMS just don’t fit what a speaker needs to run their business.  It’s a pipeline problem.  You’re fighting the CRMs workflow instead of following it. 

A lot of people just use the generic pipelines that come with the tool: prospect, qualified, proposal, closed, deal, negotiation, etc.  

But as a speaker, you need much more concrete stages so you can report on the exact stages your gig is in and where they get stuck.  

You should know at any time where that gig stands in terms of winning or losing it:

• Has the client put a date on hold?  
• Did you have a client theme call?  
• Did you lose the gig?  If so, why did you lose it?  

When the stages and statuses in your CRM don’t match your process or reports showing stalled deals that are actually normal, it causes frustration.

A lot of these tools just stop at the deal close.  There’s no post-event tracking for testimonials or referrals.

When you’re viewing your pipeline and it creates confusion instead of clarity, it’s not working.  You’ll stop using that CRM, retreat to your spreadsheet, or start the search (again) for something better.

The Best CRM Is…?