For those organizations that have already consolidated onto their preferred CRM platform (i.e., their limited and standardized set of applications for marketing, sales, and service), the best strategy maybe to enhance organizational adoption of the processes and tools that are already in place.
Low adoption of a CRM system often comes from poor design of processes or interfaces. The design mistakes may occur as the system is being implemented or as it's maintained and enhanced over the years. (Incremental changes, each of which made sense at the time, can easily come to make no sense whatsoever in aggregate.) But a substantial impact can come from low- or even no-cost fixes within the application: rearranging the screens; adding workflows and automations; or deploying new reports and dashboards.
Low adoption often has another cause: inadequate executive commitment (e.g., the person in charge of sales failing to enforce the process for managing the pipeline). The fix here is straightforward: invigorated top-down leadership, a strategy that may entail no expenditures whatsoever.
For those with a preferred CRM platform that is not yet broadly or uniformly deployed, the best strategy maybe to extend that platform's reach. This strategy might entail the expansion of the platform's footprint, or the extension of the preferred CRM processes and tools to new branches, divisions, acquisitions, or geographies. The sales force automation system might be extended upstream to the marketing function; downstream to the order management function; even outward to channel partners.
Source: CIO Today