I like borrowing cowboy wisdom to make a point and this is no exception. No matter how good a CRM system you have there is always a salesperson that will figuratively lift his leg on it and say he won’t use it.
Why do salespeople literally lift their leg on the CRM System?
The primary purpose of a CRM system, even if they don’t believe it, is to help bring control to their sales lives. Control time, reduce use of spreadsheets, track hundreds of prospects, reduce the need to remember appointments, important dates, and ultimately close more sales. Why do salespeople resist CRM systems? The reasons are common:
1. Too little training
2. Resistance to change.
3. What’s in it for me attitude.
4. A poorly customized CRM system installed without salespeople’s opinions and input.
5. Ignorance of management about the customers buying process or the salesperson’s selling process.
6. Lack of input from marketing about their needs from a CRM system.
And yet salespeople are often forcing management to replace good systems. I have seen companies spend five or six figures on a CRM system and after a few years replace it because they say the salespeople won’t use it. But I think there is another reason. Most issues and especially the CRM issue can be resolved with leadership.
All right, before you decide I am jumping on the leaders for another failure consider:
• Leaders must be as involved in the implementation as the salespeople and IT.
• Leaders have as much if not more to lose when salespeople do the preverbal leg lift
.• Leaders waste the cost of the purchase and installation of the software.• Leadership loses the productivity and sales gains it hoped to achieve.
• Leaders lose hundreds or thousands of man hours as salespeople struggle to use the software.
• Leaders lose the information it expected to gain from using the software: forecasts, reasons for sales losses, reasons for sales gains, accountability for marketing lead generation spending, etc.
I think the most successful thing leaders can do is to be sure the CMR system is installed in compliance with the company’s sales and the customers buying processes.
Yes, it takes a specialist several days or maybe if the company is large enough, several months to set the CRM system up according to your selling needs.
Listen to An Expert on CRM Implementation: Mark L. Friedman on SLMA Radio
The co-founder of the Sales Lead Management Association Mark L. Friedman was recently interviewed on the SLMA Radio program. He talked about the four issues that cause most systems to fail. Please listen to his thoughts. Otherwise your salespeople will continue to figuratively lift their legs on your CRM system much to the consternation and complicity of management.
Can't see player? Try this link: Listen to this episode
