THE TOP 3 REASONS SALES REPS HATE YOUR CRM

It's Monday morning. You start your meeting with the staff like you normally do. You review sales from the previous week, and you look at the sales pipeline to forecast. Simple right? We both know it's not that simple. In fact, the same problem continues to plague the discussion. The data in the CRM is wrong. Sales reps incorrectly enter the information or don't enter it at all. The list of excuses is long. As a Sales Leader, you ask yourself the the following questions: 'Why can't I count on the forecasting tools that were built into my CRM? I was told this would automate the sales process and give me insight? So far, it's just giving me a headache!'

So let's put this in perspective. 91% of businesses in the US with over 11 employees now use CRM. Comparable statistics in Canada. This compares to 50% of those businesses with 10 employees or less. This will turn the CRM industry in the US into a $37 billion industry by the end of 2017. Wow. ref: click

LESS THAN 40% OF BUSINESSES HAVE FULL SCALE END-USER ADOPTION ref: click

So CRM success is much more than choosing software and rolling out a quick training program to get 'everyone' using it. This is a Change Management Program. It's human nature to resist change. More importantly CRM systems are not easy to adopt. Sales teams are often the toughest group to change. Why? The list is endless, but here are the top 3:

1: It's taking time away from making money. Sales activity is directly related to compensation. Any new system of measuring and managing sales activity requires time to adopt. A rep only has 1887 hours a year to make money (Canadian Professional Sales Association average stat). They will default to their regular selling routines if the change is considered too time consuming.

2: It's not working properly. Oh oh. This is what I hear almost everyday from the font line. Training is not an event. It's an ongoing part of the change management process. IT people need to work with someone in sales to ensure the user experience (UX) of the rep is a good one. Broken links and error messages are poison in the change management success formula.

3. I am providing a lot of information, but I don't get any value from the CRM. Sales people need to see the value in entering the customer information. Sales leaders often are blindsided to their value proposition but not the reps. Clearly you will be a more effective sales manager with your finger on the pulse of sales. Make sure the rep can see the value of managing their sales through the system.

As a Sales Leadership Strategist I am often asked to complete a (UX) user experience audit of the sales process which includes the sales rep CRM experience. The result of these audits often result in these top 3 issues being discovered. They also provide recommendations to IT staff that will fix the issues, and HR recommendations to help with increasing CRM adoption rates.

Give me a call if you would like to further discuss this article or are interested in having your selling system reviewed.

Paul Kidston, MBA, CSP

Sales Leadership Strategist

paul@careerwatch.ca

1-877-353-7253