On a recent episode of The Sales Hunter Podcast, Mark sat down with Kris Billmaier, EVP and GM of Sales Cloud at Salesforce, for a deep dive into the real-world adoption of CRM systems and what separates teams seeing ROI from those stuck in “gotcha tool” mode.
Why CRM Adoption Still Lags
Despite the explosive growth of CRM platforms, many teams aren’t using theirs to full effect. Mark encountered a group who’d invested in Salesforce, but admitted they didn’t use it much. When pressed for why, their answer boiled down to habit and overwhelm.
Kris explained the aha moment: “It is that system of intelligence and action that helps you decide who to focus on, when to focus on them, and how to really drive your overall goal, which is crushing your quota.”
Sales pros often become true believers after they see how CRM surfaces otherwise buried opportunities. For example, being prompted to follow up with a lead who mentioned a six-month callback, or realizing which cross-sell products aren’t being approached.
Tackling Non-Selling Tasks with AI Automation
One of the biggest blockers to CRM adoption? Salespeople feel snowed under by admin. The reality matches Salesforce research: “Seventy percent of seller time is on non-sales tasks.” Most salespeople are only spending 30% of their time with customers.
The solution isn’t to force more CRM logins. It’s to automate the grind. Smart CRM platforms are starting to take over administrative busywork, like scheduling meetings or identifying next steps, so reps can focus on what brings revenue: customer-facing time. As Kris put it, “We want to take away the administrative grind so sellers can do what they were born to do.”
When CRM Is a System, Not a Silo
Too many sellers bounce between dozens of open tabs, trying to connect LinkedIn, sales enablement tools, and their CRM. Best-in-class CRM should bring the tools to the rep, integrating data and surfacing actionable insights, all in the flow of work.
As Kris described, “I don’t think we’re in a world where you should be swivel sharing between a CRM and a system of engagement like Slack. We want you in one place to be efficient and we want the tools to come to you.”
Daily Best Practices for Reps
The key to effective CRM use is to keep things simple and systematic. For reps, that means starting each day with a prioritized list of leads (curated by the CRM), letting AI agents handle basic prospecting, and having meetings auto-transcribed and summarized with next steps.
Every touchpoint is logged and suggested actions surface naturally, so sellers don’t wind up wasting Fridays on manual data entry. The CRM’s job is to ensure that by the time a rep meets a customer, even if it’s the first call, it’s as informed as meeting a longtime client.
Managers: From Spreadsheet Jockeys to Coaches
Effective CRM isn’t about policing; it’s about guidance. When managers use CRM as a coaching platform, they can spot where reps need help, use call insights to guide training, and focus less on gut feelings and more on data-driven decisions.
Kris summarized the new reality: “For a manager, I actually think it’s all about coaching, all about identifying hotspots where you know your reps need help closing.” Instead of wrangling spreadsheets, managers leverage insights from call recordings and deal trends to help their teams win.
Where CRM Is Heading Next
Looking ahead, Salesforce sees CRM transforming into a self-driving system, with AI agents handling much of the pipeline choreography and sellers and managers focused on high-value customer conversations.
“The way we’re building today is everything along the overall rep’s workflow can be assistively or autonomously managed,” Kris noted. The human seller isn’t going away, just getting supercharged by better tools and less friction.
Embrace Simplicity, Maximize Results
Most teams get overwhelmed because they overcomplicate CRM. Simplify the approach: focus on one step at a time. Let AI handle the routine, and use CRM for what it’s best at: helping sellers prioritize, build customer relationships, and focus on results.
For teams still hesitant, now’s the time to lean in. CRM isn’t about tracking, it’s about unlocking smarter, more effective selling. When adopted fully, it stops being a “gotcha” and becomes the engine for quota-busting results.
Mark Hunter :
Your CRM system, what is it doing for you? Is it a get you tool or a gotcha tool? It’s not a gotcha tool. It’s a get you tool because it’s the tool that makes you money. With me today, EVP of Salesforce, why am I talking? Let’s get the show going.
Mark Hunter :
Right now, you’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a salesman sell with confidence and integrity. And now here’s your host.
Mark Hunter :
Well, I’ll tell you what, if you’re going to talk CRM systems, you got to get the experts in here from Salesforce. Welcome to the show. Introduce yourself, tell the audience what it is that you do at Salesforce, and we want to dive in on the CRM systems.
Kris Billmaier :
Sounds good. Thanks for having me, Mark. So I’m Chris Billmeier. I’m the EVP and GM of sales cloud over at Salesforce. So I build all the sales cloud products and we’re really excited to be here today.
Mark Hunter :
Well, okay, let’s talk about CRM systems because I was with an organization this week and they, oh, we really don’t use our CRM system that much. I go, why? Well, we just. Okay, how do we get people past that? Because there’s still a segment of America out there that’s they’ve got it, but they don’t use it.
Kris Billmaier :
You know, I loved your statement. If it, is it a gotcha tool or is it a get you tool? And I think we’re building a CRM that does get you. It’s going to go out and hunt for you, bring in prospects, but really, it’s where you run your business. And having that single source of truth is so important for a business overall. I think it’s from prospecting to pipeline to forecasting, that source of truth is so incredibly important. And that’s what CRM does for you. That’s what Salesforce does for you.
Mark Hunter :
I tell you what, I want to unpack this because as I was talking with this organization, they were saying, oh, they got this tool, this tool, this tool. And I go, hold it. It all integrates. In fact, they happen to be a Salesforce customer. And I was. I was, like, shocked. I was like, oh, please, please. And it’s interesting because you reach some salespeople and they’re, oh, we love, you know, you know, we love using Salesforce and yet other people, oh, no, I can’t stand it.
Mark Hunter :
So here’s the deal. Is there a tipping point where salespeople finally Realize their CRM system is here to work for them and is going to help them.
Kris Billmaier :
I think it’s the aha moments you have when you make discoveries about things you didn’t otherwise know that helps you move deals down the pipeline for you. And we think about it very much like it is that system of intelligence and action that helps you decide who to focus on, when to focus on them, and how to really drive your overall goal, which is crushing your quota. And. And so I think in any series of steps that happen where a customer is like, oh, wow, I didn’t know I should reach out to that lead. They got buried. Oh, but Salesforce recommended them to me because the customer actually, in a call recording said, follow up with me in six months. There are those quick aha moments that actually happen where it’s like, wow, that was powerful. That was huge.
Kris Billmaier :
And that helped me move my deal forward.
Mark Hunter :
See, I love it. I call it. That’s one of those trigger moments where there’s something that happens that suddenly says, wait a minute, I need to be reaching out to this. And yet on the other side, I see. And I was talking with the CEO of a company yesterday, another company, and he was saying, my salespeople are great at selling in one product. I said, well, what about all your other products? They just never get to it. They never get to it. And I go, hold it.
Mark Hunter :
That again, is where your CRM system, the power of the tool, comes into play again. What. What’s the advice that you give for sales leaders? Because you work with a lot of people. What’s the advice that you give to sales leaders? Helping them to get their organization into their CRM?
Kris Billmaier :
It’s really running, really going. You know, we think about it. You made a great point. The white space analysis of, hey, I can only sell one product versus, you know, how do I sell this next product? That’s one of the ways that we actually talk about getting our sellers into CRM is, hey, look, this is the system of record, but it’s also the system of engagement for you, where you can see accounts that look like other accounts, See what’s worked here, what hasn’t worked there. The consolidation of data that we have inside these CRM systems, inside Salesforce, is really powerful and really helps you make the decision on the next step to take. And especially in the world of AI, where we’re doing a lot of this work for you.
Mark Hunter :
Well, that’s the whole thing, because I think adding AI into your CRM system just exponentially increases the value of it. It’s almost like a 10x because it does so much of the background for you. And yet I find salespeople struggling. And you brought up something great. Because sometimes what happens is I’ll be working with a salesperson like, hey, why aren’t we talking to this customer? Why aren’t we talking to this? Well, I don’t know anybody there. Well, have you checked, have you checked your CRM system? Have you checked Salesforce to see who else might have a relationship there? And again, we are leaving so much of this out or it’s clunky. Well, let’s go into LinkedIn, let’s go into this, let’s go into this tool. Let’s.
Mark Hunter :
Hey, you know what? We can have it all integrated. All integrated. But again it’s, it’s. Salespeople still are just. Can we, can we call it slow? Slow to adopt?
Kris Billmaier :
Well, I actually, I wouldn’t say slow to adopt. I pivoted a little bit differently. I think salespeople right now are inundated with non selling tasks. And we did our state of sales report a few months ago and one thing we found when talking to sales teams, 70% of time spent of sellers is on non sales tasks. And that just broke my heart a little bit. Well, you’re only spending 30% of time actually engaging with customers. And I took, me and my team, we take that as a challenge. How do we give the time back to sellers? Take those rudimentary tasks that nobody really wants to do.
Kris Billmaier :
Think about the last time you tried to book a meeting with a client or a customer. How long did it take you back and forth and email take to actually find a time? Right. Those kind of tasks, that’s the past. We’re going to take and automate those tasks for you. So a seller can spend a time doing what they really want, which is engaging with the customer intelligently.
Mark Hunter :
I love what you’re saying there because I’ve got CFT customer facing time and I challenge salespeople to measure how much of their time are they truly customer facing. This means actually interacting with a customer. And it is, it’s considerably, you know, they will spew out a number and it’s always quite a bit higher than it really is.
Kris Billmaier :
Yeah.
Mark Hunter :
Because they’re caught up in all of this other stuff. But CFT is really the one of the most valuable things any salesperson could be doing. If you want to make commission, if you want to make quota.
Kris Billmaier :
And it’s probably why you got into sales in the first place, because you wanted to Spend time in engaging, building relationships, closing deals. Like those are the things that we want sellers to focus on. We want to take away the administrative grind so sellers can do what they were born to do. And that’s our goal.
Mark Hunter :
You know, the ROI of a CRM system is phenomenal.
Kris Billmaier :
Yes.
Mark Hunter :
And yet so many people, so many companies don’t realize it. They don’t realize the value. Okay, here’s an argument that I’ll hear and I want you to pop. You know, well, once I get in, once I get into it, I never get out of it. I get caught up in all these loops and all these things. I, it just, I wind up spending too much time in my CRM system. What’s your response to that?
Kris Billmaier :
I actually think you should work where you want to and the data should flow to you. So the way I think about the future of CRM is, and we’ve talked about this at Salesforce a bunch, is headless. So if you’re working in teams, if you’re working in Slack, if you’re working in Gemini, if you’re working in ChatGPT, these modern tools where sellers are working, we want to be the system of record, but the system of intelligence that returns the data and experiences you need in the flow of work to get your job done. I don’t think we’re in a world where you should be swivel sharing between a CRM and, you know, a modern system of engagement like Slack. I think we’re in a world where we want you in one place to be efficient and we want the tools to come to you.
Mark Hunter :
That is a great way to put it because again, so many times I see sellers, they’ve got so many programs open on, on their computer and they go, well, you know, I, I can’t, you know, I, I, I have just, they just drown themselves in it. So walk the audience through what would be a best practice for using CRM? Let’s use Salesforce. Let’s use it as an example. What would be a best practice for how they should start out the day and work their way through the day?
Kris Billmaier :
Yeah, let’s take the role of a rep. Right. The way I think about it is we build for different roles. We build for reps, we build for CROs, we build for managers. But let’s just take the rep. I believe a rep should wake up every day with a full list of leads to work. And now that we’re in this agentic era, we’re actually going out and prospecting for you. So you tell us your Your icp, your ideal customer profile.
Kris Billmaier :
We’ll go out and we’ll find that customer, that account, we’ll bring it back in for you. We’ll enrich existing accounts with things like call data, transcription, et cetera. See all those leads, decide which you want to work personally and which you want to assign to an agent, or what you want to put in the cadence. But ultimately goal is to get to that in person meeting. So what we’ll actually do for you is get the meeting booked, build an account plan that you can always automate or tweak, but get in front of that customer, either live or in a call like we are today. Get that call transcribed, make sure all of that contextual data that is so important to the overall experience that you’re providing to your customer is recorded. Because great experiences and great AI are built on great data. And then once you’re through that call, at least in Salesforce, we actually suggest actions for you.
Kris Billmaier :
We have a tool that basically pushes deals forward, crafts next best steps, all of those things. It allows you to streamline your overall approach to how you engage with customers, to make the moment where you’re in the meeting matter the most. And I think that’s what really needs to be true for sellers going forward. This one to one time meeting on day one needs to feel like a meeting of day 100. Because you’re so equipped and so knowledgeable, because the data that is surrounding you that we’ve mined for you, that we found on the web, that we found in your CRM, that we found from your transcripts and recordings, I think that’s the overall deal flow that we really want to streamline.
Mark Hunter :
And if you’re doing this right, it’s keeping up to date all the way through the day. Because again, salespeople will sit there and say, well, the reason I don’t like my CRM system is because at the end of the day I got to spend an hour updating it.
Kris Billmaier :
Yeah, I think the days of admin Friday are over. This is now self driving CRM that’s we’re moving to.
Mark Hunter :
Thank you for saying that. Because I find that Fridays is the best day for selling Fridays, Friday afternoons in particular, we happen to be recording this on a Friday afternoon. But I find Friday afternoons is when I can, I’m the most productive on the telephone because I can call people and I get people, I get conversations with people I don’t normally get. And because so many times they’re just,
Kris Billmaier :
they’re in admin mode, I totally, I totally Agree with you. When I. When I was a seller back in the day, it was. I’d write on my whiteboard how many calls I needed to make on a Friday, because Fridays are for selling. I love it.
Mark Hunter :
I. It’s just so funny because I. Again, I find so many sellers. Monday is. Well, I spend all day Monday getting ready. I spend all day Monday, you know, getting ready. Then I spend all day Friday, so. Hold it.
Mark Hunter :
I’ve now taken 40% of the week off of my calendar. How am I supposed to make quota? I can’t. I can’t.
Kris Billmaier :
I don’t think that’s the way it should work anymore. And I think we’re building the tools to make it so that every day is a closing day. I. I really think that with the tools that we’re building, with the way the industry is moving, the idea of finding prospects and finding leads manually, that’s over. Booking meetings with customers, going back and forth, that should be a thing of the past. That’s. That’s agentic work that should be done for you. Your goal is how many ever.
Kris Billmaier :
However many calls a day you want to make, you should be able to make them. You should have the context around all of those accounts. You should know what lookalike accounts are and how they closed and influence that deal motion for you. So I. I think that’s the world that we’re living in now.
Mark Hunter :
I love what you’re saying there, because one of the strat. One of the philosophies that I have is the reason salespeople aren’t more efficient is because they get overwhelmed. They get overwhelmed because they feel they have so many different things. And I say if we just simplify it, just keep it absolutely simple. It’s just one step. One step, one step. And you just repeat it. And that’s what a good CRM system, that’s what Salesforce does for you, is it allows you.
Mark Hunter :
But again, salespeople are scared to kind of let it do its thing. Wow. Hey, I want to go up the food chain a bit here because. Let’s talk about that sales manager. They’ve got maybe 5, 10, 20, 30 salespeople that are reporting to them. And the old adage, they’re just a spreadsheet jockey, you know, they’re managing the business by way of a spreadsheet. What is the advice that you would share with them as to how to use CRM system, Salesforce, in the most efficient manner? To not just be managing numbers, but truly helping your people?
Kris Billmaier :
This is where CRM really helps you run your business right because we always say if it’s not, at least our sellers internally say if it’s not in Salesforce, it doesn’t exist. And for a manager, I actually think it’s all about coaching, all about identifying hotspots where you know your reps need help closing. I think it’s that observability layer that is so critical and the insights that you get from each deal you’re working to make your quarter that, that single source of truth is so important for those, for those managers. I think about how we roll up forecasts and the insights we get from call transcript versus a gut feel of a rep on what’s going to close when. If a manager can understand the conversations that are happening between a customer and, and a rep, they’re going to be able to better forecast, they’re going to be able to interject more effectively to close those deals that matter the most. So I think you’re, you’re a player coach as a manager and you need to, to be best in identifying those hotspots and you know, understanding the data and the signals that are coming from your reps and customers.
Mark Hunter :
Hey, I love the word that you use. You said coaching and coach and that’s so critical. It’s the piece that gets left out. And I love hearing it coming from you because again, we got to get rid of this whole idea of a spreadsheet jockey. All I’m doing is managing the numbers. I’ve got to coach. The number is going to tell me who to coach and how to coach.
Kris Billmaier :
Well, the numbers and the insights, the thing we just acquired a company called Momentum and they’re a call recording platform that has amazing insights associated with conversations. And the one thing that they do incredibly well is they understand how to coach based on insights. And so your best reps, those insights from their calls flow through to you and your reps that need help. You can coach based on rep to rep communication and it’s really, really empowering. So signals and how you coach and how you push your reps forward. You know, I think it’s just mission critical.
Mark Hunter :
You know, it’s, it’s so funny that we’re having this conversation today in 2026 regarding CRM systems. And like I started off at the beginning working with an organization that got CRM system but they don’t. All the salespeople don’t use it. What do studies show on your end in terms of the percentage of, of salespeople that are actively using a CRM system?
Kris Billmaier :
Salesforce Gosh. Well, you know, we have hundreds of thousands of customers and we have very active, I can’t disclose exact numbers but we have, I would say, very active usage. Whether it’s usage of data through third party tools or whether it’s direct usage of our interface. People are using these systems, people are using this data. And I’m actually starting to think about CRM and the evolution of CRM as more agentic revenue orchestration. It’s less about, you know, the contacts, the opportunities, the accounts and it’s more the data flows and workflows that live on top of that and the outcomes. So if you want to drive significant outcomes for your business using those tools to push deals along to mine and prospect for new opportunities and enrich existing and that’s the way I think of things maturing. We’re all building on top of that CRM data because it is such a source of truth.
Kris Billmaier :
But it’s so much more than that as I think about it.
Mark Hunter :
Yeah. Because I work with companies that use Salesforce extensively and it’s amazing how efficient they are when everybody’s using it. The level of efficiency, the level of roi and you talk to those salespeople. But the organization has to embrace it.
Kris Billmaier :
So.
Mark Hunter :
Okay, I want you to give us a peek. What does, what does the system look like two or three years from now?
Kris Billmaier :
Oh, I think it’s a self driving ae. So I think it’s the way, I think the way we’re building today is everything along the overall reps, workflow can be assistively or autonomously managed. And so the way I think about it is our job is to allow a replacement to manage a team of agents, background facing, customer facing and employee facing and all working toward the same goal, which is what’s that quota that I need to burn down over the next 90 days. And it’s all about outcomes associated with that. So from prospecting to customer engagement to writing back to CRM and pushing pipeline forward and closing deals, it’s all going to be about the humans and agents working together to achieve the goal of quota.
Mark Hunter :
Thank you. I like the fact that you use the word human. It’s not going to replace humans. We are still very much going to be engaged and involved.
Kris Billmaier :
I think we’re going to be 10x. I think the way that we think about removing the capacity constraints that exist today for human sellers is going to be huge and we’re going to be able to get back to doing what we want to do, which is, you know, interacting with other individuals and closing business.
Mark Hunter :
I love that because sales is. It’s a people business. It’s an emotional business. And if I’m caught up doing all this garbage, I can’t do it. But that, again, that’s what Salesforce allows me to do, to do all, all that work. So, hey, this is absolutely fantastic. How do people get in touch with you? No, before we do that, what’s the next cool tool that Salesforce is? Right. Rolling out.
Kris Billmaier :
Oh, we just launched our prospecting agent and what it allows you to do is go out and find unlimited amount of prospects for you to work defined in natural language by who you want to sell to. It is very cool. It’s prospecting agent. Go to salesforce.com check it out. To get in touch with me, hit me up on LinkedIn. I’m posting pretty actively and love to connect with the. With the viewers here.
Mark Hunter :
Great. So is that the best way to get in touch with you? Yeah.
Kris Billmaier :
And, and just hit me up. I check my messages all the time, man.
Mark Hunter :
And, and I love your new prospecting tool. And of course, Dreamforce is coming up here in a few months, so, hey, always, always look forward to that. So anyway, with that, we want to say thank you for listening to Sales Logic. Sales Logic. That’s the other podcast to do. This one is the Sales Hunter podcast. My name is Mark Hunter. Two episodes a week, one like this where we do a deep dive.
Mark Hunter :
Certainly today. Deep dive with a subject matter expert. Second solo topic. Just me. Hey, do me a favor. Subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks so much. Great selling.
