2024's Most Impactful CRM Statistics & Predictions

Any business person will tell you that building strong customer relationships is the key to long-term success. This applies to almost every industry I can think of, from car dealerships to medical sales and small businesses.

No business is too small to benefit from customer relationship management (CRM) software. Even my favorite local coffee shop uses a CRM to send marketing emails to customers.

A CRM takes the heavy lifting of managing your customer relationships and turns customer data into actionable information you can use to make key business decisions (or, in the case of my favorite coffee shop, send email reminders about using my loyalty points).

In 2024, missing out on the value a CRM can bring may be a huge mistake. I’ve compiled 25 of the most relevant CRM statistics today to show you the benefits of implementing customer relationship management.

Around 60.8% of companies (nearly 20.2 million) use customer relationship management software.¹

CRM software is like a mighty bodyguard to the king — I’m thinking of Ser Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane from the Game of Thrones (GoT) universe. After all, the customer is king, and CRM software helps you sustain your royalty.

In geek terms, modern CRM software helps businesses manage and bolster customer relations across all divisions.

A third (33%) of small businesses (SMBs) prefer web-based CRM software.¹ Some of the most popular web-based CRM tools include monday sales CRM, HubSpot CRM, and Zendesk Sell.

Web-based CRMs are cloud-based, cost-effective, easy to install (on your system), user-friendly, scalable, and highly integrable. If you’re an SMB owner, I highly recommend HubSpot’s free CRM software to start things off.

If you have a budget for CRM software, well and good. If not, hey, at least HubSpot offers a free CRM tool with limited capabilities. However, this mentality might be holding you back. By now, you know the importance of CRM.

Think of a CRM solution as a long-term investment. This stat should aid your imagination: For every dollar you spend on CRM software, you’ll receive an ROI of $8.71 — look beyond HubSpot Free CRM.¹

As a web hosting expert, my first word of advice to prospective website owners is to purchase a speedy and robust hosting plan. There’s nothing worse than a slow website; It sucks the life out of a business.

Do everything in your power to (ethically) increase conversion rates. Purchasing CRM software is a step in the right direction, as it increases conversions by 300%.¹

The heart and soul of a business is its customer base. Personalization is one of the greatest assets of CRM software. We all enjoy a personalized experience, and shopping is where it matters most (consumerism at its finest).

It personalizes shopping and communication, brewing perfect conditions for spending and retention. CRM solutions improve customer retention by 16%.¹

CRM tools compile all relevant customer information into consumable formats, making customer conversations a piece of cake. If you’ve watched “The Office” (US version), you’ll know exactly how important this is.

You need not dig around for “clues” — everything you need to know about a customer to make a sale is available to you. It’s no wonder CRM solutions increase agent productivity by 21%.¹

Productivity tools are necessary, and customer relationship management is non-negotiable — every workplace should employ a software instance. To put it into perspective, 92% of the 20.2 million companies that use CRM software deem it crucial to their revenue goals.¹ I’m surprised 13 million companies don’t use the technology at all (39.2% of companies don’t implement it)!¹

Revenue in the CRM sector is forecasted to reach around $88.2 billion in 2024, which is approximately 11% more than in 2023 — the market is growing rapidly.²

You may think major players dominate the market, but this is only a partial truth. Customers demand personalized experiences, and smaller, niche companies are developing specialized business solutions (they’re delivering big time). The grass is green on both sides.

Revenue in the CRM market is projected to show a CAGR of around 10.6% between 2024 and 2028, which means the sector is likely to achieve revenue of nearly $132 billion by 2028.¹

Revenue in the industry grew consecutively between 2016 and 2024, and new growth indicators are music to the ears of both consumers (software buyers — you) and clients (your customers).

For every $1 you spend on a CRM tool, you will reap returns of $8.71.¹

Since employers are projected to spend around $25.10 per employee for CRM software in 2024, this translates into approximately $218.6 in profit per employee.² That’s not bad at all! I can only imagine how beneficial CRMs are to mid and large-sized businesses.

The US is home to some CRM goliaths, including Hubspot CRM, Pipedrive, Creatio, Salesforce CRM, and NetSuite CRM. Rather unsurprisingly, the USA is forecasted to generate the most revenue in 2024 — $4.8 billion.² Other key players in the CRM space include Canada, France, Netherlands, and Germany.

American companies will likely spend a whopping $264.7 per employee on CRMs in 2024.⁴ This is more than ten times higher than the projected global average per employee in 2024 ($25.10).²

From a financial standpoint, this shows the importance of customer relationship management solutions in the USA, and we already know the ROI is pretty rewarding — I’ll let you do the math on this one!

If you haven’t tried a CRM solution yet due to budgetary concerns, it’s better to use HubSpot Free CRM than to not experience customer management bliss at all. I know I said, “Look beyond HubSpot Free CRM” earlier, but some situations warrant different approaches.

To put it into perspective, 47% of companies that incorporate a CRM into their day-to-day have higher customer retention rates — do you feel left out yet?⁵

I took my sister shopping at H&M a month ago and noticed the retail chain’s exceptional CRM system. Each shopper can open a personalized digital membership account and reap benefits like pre-sale access, extra discounts, free delivery, bonus vouchers, and birthday offers. A pair of trousers caught my eye, and well, I’m a member now.

H&M is among the 18% of retailers that use CRM software — they aren’t messing around!⁵

This stat surprises me a bit, but I understand why sectors like banking, insurance, and finance avoid CRMs — only 7% of companies in these sectors use CRM software.⁵

Banks, insurance, and financial firms simply can’t risk sensitive customer data. Implementing robust security measures, training employees, and maintaining data quality is expensive (they have lots of employees) and difficult.

Salesforce CRM is easily the most popular CRM software and is used by 19.5% of CRM consumers.⁵ If you’re a small business owner, listen up — Salesforce CRM offers fantastic tools to help you find customers, win their trust, and retain them.

It’s reasonably priced (its starting price is around $25 per user monthly) and promises a jump in customer satisfaction, an increase in revenue, and faster decision-making.

If you’re a business owner with 10 or more employees, I hope you’re among the 91% who use a CRM.⁵ The most sought-after functions of CRM software are sales reporting and process automation — 82% of businesses agree.⁵ That’s just another way of saying if you don’t use CRM yet, you might benefit from it.

The downside of technological advancement is the livelihoods it’ll affect (many will argue it’s a pro). Artificial intelligence, for example, could replace several professions. Unfortunately, many people won’t be able to cope.

CRM software is one of these advancements — it cuts labor costs by 20%.⁵ At least, this is a good thing in financial terms.

CRM technology helps sales agents qualify leads, create outstanding customer experiences, and increase upselling and cross-selling opportunities (each sale is accompanied by an avalanche of data).

No wonder they spend around an hour and a half each day (97 minutes to be precise), or 17.9% of their time, on a CRM platform (considering each agent works for nine hours daily).⁵

Manual data entry is a menace, especially if it’s an endless list. Several companies have enormous customer bases, and manually entering data is a pain. Automation is underway but not at its peak yet.

This is the greatest challenge faced by 17% of businesses that use a CRM.⁵ If we take hospitals, for example, there’s no end to the number of old, dusty medical records that need to be digitized.

Almost one in five (18%) of businesses implement CRM software within a year of launching. Of these, 20% do so within one to two years, and 23% within three to five years. This is where the CRM adoption rate by years in business begins to fall — 10% fall in the six to 10-year category, and 10% are in the 10+ year category.⁵

I’m surprised a business would wait ten years before implementing it (the only logical reason is these companies are old-school)!

This could partially answer the question posed in the previous section: 50% of sales managers find difficulty in implementing CRM.⁶

You see, CRM as software is extremely easy to use and is an incredible business enabler, but adapting to new business elements isn’t easy for sales managers. They may take time to implement CRM, but once they get the hang of things, they will likely sing its praises.

Less than 40% of companies are successful with complete CRM adoption.⁶ Designing a business around a CRM is difficult, as is getting everyone on board. While this may seem alarming, it isn’t. Implementation experts and proper employee training should soon deem this statistic irrelevant. This will cost money, but we know the ROI on CRM software is sky high.

Only 7% of sales managers who are existing CRM customers don’t use the technology.⁶ Well, I believe in the grass being greener on the other side — the other 93% swear by it!

The most obvious reasons why some managers don’t use a CRM are a lack of training and awareness. Others may be apprehensive about changing; If something is working, why change it?

After Salesforce CRM, SAP CRM and Oracle CRM are the leading CRM vendors, with a market share of 4.8% each (Salesforce rules 19.5% of the market!). With a market share of 4% and 3.8%, respectively, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Adobe Experience Cloud complete the top five list.⁶ Microsoft Dynamics CRM is one to look out for, as its adoption rate has been improving each year.

The future of CRM software is as bright as the sun. Let’s take a look at men’s fashion, for example. Let’s say you want to buy a black shirt at a retail shop. The shop is likely to display several branded options for one. These brands may have varying fittings for the same universal shirt size (an M might not feel like an M) — trying on each shirt is illogical. If only there were a way to avoid this — AI CRM software.

In the future, AI-backed CRM could analyze your sales history, exact your measurements, and return personalized results for your shirt search. The sales representative on duty will then guide you through these items. Now that you know which ones fit best, you can try the ones that suit your tastes and purchase the best-looking ones. Now, it’s the job of marketing to communicate such features, sales to enforce them, and customer service to fill the gaps.

The black shirt example shows how important the development of customer-oriented processes will be — businesses will have to see things purely from the customer’s point of view. It’s safe to say customers will become a company’s greatest sales representative (just keep them happy). In a nutshell, CRM software will remain an integral part of business in the future, and the statistics I displayed earlier are likely to improve each year.

1. https://www.businessdit.com/crm-statistics/
2. https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/software/enterprise-software/customer-relationship-management-software/worldwide/
3. https://www.statista.com/forecasts/966692/crm-software-market-revenue-in-the-world/
4. https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/software/enterprise-software/customer-relationship-management-software/united-states/
5. https://www.zippia.com/advice/crm-statistics/
6. https://crm.org/crmland/crm-statistics/