Help your sales team learn to love CRM sales features
By Fawn Fitter
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are only as effective as the data they contain, yet often, salespeople don't update them.
These tips will help you persuade your sales teams to update their CRM sales features, and make their jobs easier.
In Summary:
| • | Give your sales team an integral, ongoing role in the design of your CRM system. |
| • | Customize CRM tools to support salespeople's specific needs. |
| • | Make the CRM sales features and system as user-friendly as possible. |
 | Salespeople are like hunters: They target a potential customer, make the sale, and move on to the next. |  | | Dean Carroll
Vice president
Aspective Ltd. | |
|
In June 2005, business-to-business sales expert Brian Carroll wrote a blog about how often sales managers told him they struggled to get their salespeople to update CRM data. Two years later, many CRM solutions include new tools for sales, but nothing else has changed. "Nearly every CEO and manager I ask still say their salespeople don't regularly update the CRM system," says Carroll, author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. "But you can't hold someone accountable for a process they didn't agree to and don't know how to follow."
Salespeople are like hunters: They target a potential customer, make the sale, and move on to the next. Process matters less to them than results. Many of them simply don't see how a CRM system will help them—and for good reason, says Dean Carroll (no relation), vice president of Aspective Ltd., a Microsoft CRM reseller based near London. "What makes them willing to adapt to a new system or process is whether they believe it will make them more effective and help them do their job," he explains. "Traditionally, though, they see the CRM system more often than not as … something they need to do to keep management happy rather than an effective tool to find and close prospects."
To overcome this cynicism and include salespeople in your CRM success, your company must address these barriers directly.
1. CRM sales features and systems do not give salespeople useful information.
The problem: Most CRM sales features and systems include standard reports that give management a company-wide view of ongoing customer relationships.
The solution: Ask your sales team what information they need in the course of an average day, Dean Carroll advises.
How will they use the CRM sales features and system on the road, in front of the customer, and at the office? What must they know about the customer at
various points in the sales process, and how do they currently access this information? Then customize your CRM solution accordingly.
For example, in one recent deployment, Aspective modified Microsoft Dynamics CRM
to search the Web for industry news, recent press releases, and other information about the client company's prospective customers.
The CRM sales features and system now summarizes background information and important sales messages for each customer in custom reports, which have quickly become important in preparing for sales calls.
In another innovative customization, Aspective created a form that builds a color-coded map of relationships between people in the client organization
and people in the prospective customer organization. The client's sales staff can look for relationships in green, indicating a person in their own company who
has a strong connection to someone in the target company, and approach their co-worker for an introduction or strategic suggestions.
2. CRM sales features and systems are overwhelming and intimidating.
The problem: When your sales agents begin to input CRM data, they see a form with every possible field in the customer record. This might make them feel as though they are being asked for more data than they can reasonably provide, says Brian Carroll.
The solution: Include salespeople in the process of database design to ensure customer records include sales-relevant fields, he says, and set up the data entry interface so that salespeople see only those relevant fields.
In addition, make the interface as user-friendly as possible to avoid confusion and frustration. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is ideal because it uses the familiar Microsoft Office Outlook interface, says Dean Carroll. "Everyone is familiar with it, they can use it online and offline, and they can input data quickly with a PDA, which makes it that much more convenient," he says.
3. CRM sales features and systems take too much time.
The problem: Your CRM records are out of date because salespeople avoid data entry for weeks or months at a time.
The solution: To people who are paid on commission, even the most efficient CRM interface can be an unwelcome distraction, Brian Carroll points out. After all, from their point of view, every minute of data entry is a minute that produces no income.
If you have Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you could provide your salespeople with personal digital assistants (PDAs) or smartphones equipped with Windows Mobile so they can update customer records via Office Outlook when they have some downtime. However, if your salespeople still do not enter and update their own contacts, find another way to make it happen, Brian Carroll says. For example, ask them to toss business cards and other customer information into a centrally located bin or folder, and hire a temporary employee once a week to sort and input the data.
Whatever you do, do not punish your sales team for failing to enter data into the CRM system, he adds. They will perceive that as micromanagement and control tactics, which can deeply offend their sense of autonomy—and they may rebel with further noncompliance. At that point, you will have to start all over again to convince them that CRM will help them do their jobs better.
Fawn Fitter is a freelance writer in San Francisco who specializes in business and technology. She contributes regularly to the Microsoft Midsize Business Center.
