Bain & Company: 70 Percent Struggle to Integrate Sales Plays With CRM Tools

Global survey taken by more than 1,200 executives reveals top hurdles to B2B growth

Absence of high inflation has companies worried about ability to execute margin-enhancing pricing strategies

Seventy percent of companies are failing to effectively integrate their sales plays into their revenue technology tools, such as solutions used for customer relationship management (CRM), limiting their ability to achieve their expected growth gains; according to new research released by Bain & Company.

For its 2025 Commercial Excellence and Revenue Growth Agenda report, Bain surveyed more than 1,200 senior commercial executives at major companies from across 18 industries worldwide and found that while more than 80% of respondents claim to run structured repeatable sales and marketing activities, 70% of them don’t effectively integrate their sales plays into their technology, and therefore only about 20% of them have realized full value. When asked about hurdles to B2B growth in 2025, adoption of go-to-market technologies, managing price pressures, and improving salesforce productivity were among the challenges most cited by respondents.

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“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,” said Jamie Cleghorn, global leader of Bain & Company’s B2B Commercial Excellence group. “Those companies that effectively integrate harmonize their strategic sales play approach with technologies, including AI and CRM, will be best positioned for accelerated revenue growth. 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.”

AI is being used for most go-to-market functions

Nearly all companies have begun deploying AI across most go-to-market functions though use cases vary by industry, Bain found. When asked about implementation, 30% of respondents said they have scaled up to between one and two use cases for AI, while 62% of respondents have scaled up to more than two uses. In relation to those uses, nearly all respondents said AI has met their expectations, while 57% said AI has exceeded their 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 data sets and technology that’s not properly configured.

“Real progress requires a systematic and measurable approach to AI deployment,” said Rob Stein, leader in 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.”

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Absence of high inflation has companies worried about ability to execute margin-enhancing pricing strategies

In addition to technology adoption, another top hurdle to B2B growth cited by respondents was the ability to manage price pressures. When compared to 2024, more companies anticipate that they will be able to offset 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 barrier to margin-enhancing pricing as cited by 67% of respondents. The next most common barriers cited by respondents are insufficient data or analytics capabilities to support pricing decisions, and gaps in team skills or expertise related to pricing.

More than half of companies expect to improve commercial productivity

The ability to improve salesforce productivity is another top hurdle to B2B growth cited by executives. Overall, 54% 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 staff with frontline coaching and training to raise seller performance, improving customer segmentation, and optimizing market spending.

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Source – PR Newswire

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