Why managers make you plug data into your CRM system
Remember the reps' needs when implementing CRM/SFA
In their report series apparently inspired by the British children’s TV show Magic Roundabout, 
analysts at Gartner (pictured, left, in researching action) just released their Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation, 2007. I got a sneaky peak inside the full report and, aside from a good overview of the vendor situation, a couple of points grabbed my attention.
Firstly, “Gartner predicts that within three years the majority of new SFA deployments will be based on SaaS.” (SaaS – Software as a Service, delivered through the web, like SalesForce.com. SFA - Sales Force Automation, basically, what most of us call CRM). If you’re not using one now, you may soon be!
The most interesting point for me though was “Finally, we see a focus on simplicity as a theme to improve adoption among salespeople”. Adoption is still a problem? I’ve long had a theory about SFA systems :
- SFA systems are implemented primarily because of what they do for management (and what they do for management is impressive, important and useful – forecasting, overviews and near-infinite breakdowns of sales data, etc)
- The sales reps’ needs and viewpoint come second
“The system doesn’t map onto how I sell!”
“I’m a sales rep, not a techie – I’m buried in this “System”!”
“I’m spending all my time inputting data for management – who is this system really helping?”
It doesn’t have to be this way. Management can improve SFA adoption by:
- Balancing the needs of reps with the needs of management
- Ensuring the system maps the processes used by sales reps currently (if your reps are all using different processes, God help you, go back a stage and find yourself a suitable sales process/methodology.)
- Ensuring the sales department (at all levels) is involved in the implementation/design of the system
- Once your custom system is set up, train your reps in YOUR system, rather than generic training
- Be realistic in your expectation of reps. They will only gather so much data on behalf of management.
- Sell the benefits to your reps. Publicize examples of reps who have had results because of the system
- Last but definitely not least, three key points from Aaron Ross’s excellent “Sales Machine” blog :
- Executives must lead by example, from the CEO to the sales manager
- Make the system as easy to use as possible (backing up Gartner’s observation)
- Make compensation depend on usage of the system (I expect to get flamed for this one!)
2 comments:
I worked for several years at Pivotal Corporation, prior to them becoming part of CDC. My observations were:
1) Managers who used the system and regularly encouraged reps to work in the system performed better, and had results more in-line with their forecasts, than those working outside the system;
2) When I polled them, reps said they would be more likely to use the system if it had things in it for them (ie competitive reports; demo templates; OneSource data, and so on). We realized that the best use would be to automate the pipeline completion percentage based on actual efforts performed by the rep (ie if they download competitive reports the opp must be at 20%; if they've used 2 demo templates they must be at 50%, and so on).
Rick, that certainly makes sense. Usage by managers is surely key - leading by example.
I like the idea of tying raises in pipeline % stage to usage of the system. There's an element of carrot and stick there (sales people particularly need motivation one way or the other. Dare I say it tounge in cheek, "It's in our genes"!
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