Hello, this is Matsubara, CRM Evangelist.

"5 million yen was wasted over two years."

These are words I actually heard from business owners. I hear this kind of story a lot as a failure in CRM implementation.

We implemented Salesforce. It's the world's No. 1 CRM. Its functionality is impeccable, and it has a proven track record. We were confident that this was the right choice and signed the contract.

However, two years later, the input rate drops to below 30%. When the system administrator leaves, no one can change the settings anymore, and the system becomes nothing more than a "box for entering data"—this is a common pattern of failure.

This article is for small and medium-sized business owners considering switching from a high-performance CRM system. We will honestly explain "why we failed," "what criteria you should use to make decisions," and "why we chose EMOROCO CRM Lite."

Salesforce is not a "bad CRM"—the question is, "Whose CRM is it?"

Let me first clear up a misunderstanding. Salesforce is one of the most widely used CRMs in the world and is one of the best choices for large and global enterprises.
This article is not intended to criticize Salesforce.

The question is whether Salesforce is suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.

Salesforce is designed with the complex business processes of large enterprises in mind. While it offers a high degree of customization, it requires specialized knowledge for setup, management, and operation.
In exchange for offering world-class features, the annual license fee is in the range of tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand yen per user.

This is why the expression "it's like driving a Ferrari to the convenience store" is often used in the industry. The performance is genuine, but the cost and knowledge required to use it effectively are excessive for the purpose.

Three structural reasons why Salesforce doesn't take hold in small and medium-sized businesses.

Reason ①: It's too complex for on-site use to be effective.

"It's difficult to understand what changes when you touch certain settings, making it hard to use. It results in duplicate data entry, which is time-consuming. As a result, the salespeople in the field don't use it, and only about 30% of people are actually using it."

This is feedback I've actually heard from several small and medium-sized businesses. Salesforce's strength, its "high degree of flexibility," also means "a lot to learn." While large companies with dedicated administrators can handle this, for small and medium-sized businesses where sales and management roles are often combined, the cost of setup and operation becomes a burden on the staff.

Cause ②: Dependence on the system administrator

"As a result of the SFA system administrator leaving the company, there was no one left who could change the environment settings, and it had become just a tool for inputting numbers."

To effectively use Salesforce, specialized knowledge such as Salesforce certification is required. Having only one person with that knowledge within the company means there's a risk that the CRM will cease to function the moment that person leaves. This risk is very real for small and medium-sized businesses.

Reason ③: The cost is not justifiable

Salesforce (Sales Cloud Essentials) starts at approximately 3,000 to 5,000 yen per user per month (excluding tax). When you add in implementation support fees, customization fees, and maintenance fees, it's not uncommon for even small and medium-sized businesses to spend between 1 million and 4 million yen annually.

For a sales team of 5 people, EMOROCO CRM Lite costs about the same as the annual cost of Salesforce.Approximately 3 to 5 years worthThis is the usage fee.

*Prices are general estimates. Actual prices may vary depending on your Salesforce plan and contract.

It wasn't a matter of "giving up," but rather a decision to "switch to a tool that suits me."

The important point here is not that "Salesforce is bad," but rather that you should "choose a tool that suits your company's size and objectives."

There are four common criteria that many business owners who have decided to switch providers cite.

Criterion ①: Can the person in charge on-site change the settings "on their own"?

Business processes are constantly changing. If you need a new field, or you want to add a workflow—if your system requires you to "request changes from the IT department or an external vendor"—your CRM will be unable to keep up with these changes.

EMOROCO CRM Lite features a metadata-driven design, allowing you to add fields, modify forms, and configure workflows all from the administration screen. No programming is required, enabling business users to implement changes "today's discoveries" "today's results" "today's changes."

Criterion ②: Does the nature of the pricing change between 3 users and 30 users?

Salesforce charges based on the number of users. Costs increase linearly as the team grows. EMOROCO CRM Lite also charges ¥1,500/user/month per user, but because there are no upfront costs and additional options are transparent, it has a structure that makes it easy to calculate costs as the system grows.

Criterion 3: Is the design user-friendly for those who input data?

What determines the adoption rate of a CRM is not the will of the administrators, but whether it is helpful for the field staff who are actually inputting the data. The design philosophy of EMOROCO CRM Lite is a UX where "main operations can be completed in 3 clicks or less." This is a design principle that Mr. Matsubara, the representative of Arcus Japan, has pursued for many years as a pioneer in bringing UX to Japan.

Criteria for Judgment ④: The Philosophy of CRM 4.0 – Is it about "co-creation" rather than "management"?

Salesforce is designed as a CRM for "managing" customer data. EMOROCO CRM Lite, on the other hand, is designed with the CRM 4.0 philosophy of "growing relationships with customers" by recording customer emotions, narratives, and relationships. The concepts of emotional temperature, ICX capture, and narrative memos are aimed at "designing relationships" rather than data management.

What actually changed after changing trains? — 3 patterns

Pattern A: The "problem of not inputting data" has been resolved.

The first change that companies see when they switch from a high-performance CRM to EMOROCO CRM Lite is an improvement in data entry rates.

In one B3B trading company (with 5 sales staff), the input rate for their high-function CRM system, which was below 30%, improved to over 85% three months after implementing EMOROCO CRM Lite. The reason is simple: they designed it so that "inputting data benefits the user." When they input their emotional temperature, a "list of customers to contact today" is automatically generated—this "self-benefiting experience" created a habit.

Pattern B: The fear of changing settings has disappeared.

One of the most common concerns with high-performance CRMs is the fear of "wanting to change settings but not knowing what might break if I do."

EMOROCO CRM Lite uses a metadata-driven design, which means that adding or deleting fields is less likely to have a cascading effect on other settings. One company experienced a transformation where "the moment an employee changed a field themselves, the CRM went from being 'the company's system' to 'our own tool'."

Pattern C: Costs have become "visible".

With high-performance CRM systems, customization costs, maintenance costs, and training costs, in addition to license fees, tend to accumulate, making it difficult to know the actual total cost.

EMOROCO CRM Lite has a transparent pricing structure with a monthly fee of 1,500 yen per user, no initial setup fee, and clearly stated additional options. You can easily calculate the total cost for how many years your team will use it.

Things to check before deciding to switch carriers

Switching from Salesforce or other high-performance CRMs carries the risk of "failure again" if done without proper preparation.

Confirmation ①: Can the data currently stored in the CRM be migrated?

EMOROCO CRM Lite supports Excel import/export. You can migrate by exporting from your existing CRM as a CSV file, formatting it, and then importing it.

Verification ②: Have you identified the reason why the data was not entered in the previous CRM?

Simply changing tools won't guarantee adoption. It's crucial to identify the reasons why data wasn't entered (e.g., the design was too complex, data wasn't returned after entry, or it was only for management purposes) and avoid repeating the same mistakes in the new design.

Confirmation ③: Have you decided what you will do in the first 30 days?

The period immediately following the switch is when retention rates are highest. Start the migration by first deciding on a phased approach, such as "only inputting 5 fields for the first 30 days" or "only importing customer data in Week 1."

[For those who are unsure about switching trains] With a 30-day free trial, you can try EMOROCO CRM Lite alongside your current CRM. We strongly recommend that you make your decision after confirming whether the alternative is a good fit for your company.

Summary: Don't change the tools, change the design philosophy.

A common message from companies that have abandoned Salesforce is, "It wasn't that the tool was bad, but rather that we had chosen a tool that didn't suit our company's size and objectives."

I'll summarize the three key points for deciding whether to transfer trains.

• Can those on the ground "change things themselves"? A structure that relies heavily on managers creates problems with employee turnover and speed.
• Is the design helpful for the person entering the data? The adoption of CRM is not decided by administrators, but by the field staff who input the data.
• From "management" to "co-creation": Choose a CRM 4.0 system based on the philosophy of fostering relationships, rather than simply managing data.

EMOROCO CRM Lite is a CRM that "grows to suit your business needs." You don't need to aim for a perfect design from the start. Start with the first action of "setting the emotional temperature for all customers" with a 30-day free trial.

[The first step you can take starting today] Simply export your customer list from your current CRM as a CSV file and import it into EMOROCO CRM Lite, and you can start using it today.

You can try it with a 30-day free trial.
Digitalization and AI Implementation Subsidy 2026 Compatible Tool Number: DL07-0022934
Product Info:https://www.emoroco.com/

Related article

• Why choose EMOROCO CRM Lite over Salesforce, HubSpot, or kintone? A comparison of the key differences from a CRM 4.0 perspective.
• Five reasons why CRM implementations fail in small and medium-sized businesses, and how to choose the right one to avoid failure.
• The decisive difference between companies that "failed" and "succeeded" in CRM implementation: Commonalities revealed from on-the-ground perspectives
• A comparison of no-code tools: kintone and EMOROCO CRM Lite—the criteria for deciding whether to build from scratch or start with a CRM.
• Changes after CRM implementation: What happened to companies using EMOROCO CRM Lite after 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year.