5 Ways To Boost CRM Adoption By Your Sales Staff

Transcription

1 Whitepaper 5 Ways To Boost CRM Adoption By Your Sales Staff Chris Bucholtz

2 ...but what s in it for the sales staff? Executive summary Sales managers usually have no problem grasping the value of CRM it presents sales data in an easily-digested format that allows them to adjust programs, processes and people to optimise selling. Simple. Salespeople however, often view CRM as a hindrance and a way for the sales manager to shift his or her work on to them. In reality, CRM is as helpful to sales staffers as it is to managers, if used right. But for that to happen, sales staff need to buy into it, and that often means that sales managers need to sell it to them. That needn t be a struggle, so long as you pitch it right, and outline the benefits for everyone. Introduction Defining what CRM is and what it s used for is crucial to its success. Because the decision makers are often sales managers rather than actual salespeople, CRM is all too often presented as a tool to make it easier for the managers to manage their sales staff. It certainly can be, but what s in it for the sales staff? They re the ones who ll spend extra time entering data, keeping them from their key task of selling and making their targets. Some also see additional data as just another way for managers to keep tabs on them, which they resent. brings success for management, but also for the entire sales team and the business as a whole. Of course, CRM is much more than a management tool and the more data that s entered into it, the more effective it is, which not only brings success for management, but also for the entire sales team and the business as a whole. So how do you get past the idea that CRM is an eavesdropping tool for sales managers and a burden on the sales staff, and instead cultivate a view that CRM is a tool that helps everyone? Simple. You have to sell the sales staff on CRM. You can do it if you re in sales, you ve probably sold things in the past with less measurable benefits than CRM. 2 5 Ways To Boost CRM Adoption By Your Sales Staff

3 Five Ideas for Selling Your Sales Staff Here are five ways to position CRM to help you show your sales team that using it will make their lives easier and their commission cheques larger. 1. CRM boosts brainpower Contact management is a very basic function of CRM, and it s a critical capability for salespeople. But with sales teams shrinking, quotas rising and sales pros constantly begging for greater numbers of marketing leads, at some point the data becomes overwhelming. No-one can hold all the pertinent contact information in their head and it can t be managed in a spreadsheet in an easily-accessible way for long before it becomes overwhelming. But once that data s entered into CRM, it s there for good accessible, and easily modified if need be. Think of it as an assistant for the sales pro s brain; instead of devoting brain power to remembering where data on prospects and customers are hiding on the desk or on the desktop, they can go to a single source, get the data they need quickly and then devote the rest of their mental energy to selling. 2. CRM helps you get organised Salespeople have complicated calendars, especially for long sales cycles, and most have their own reminder systems to help them follow up with calls or collateral when the time is right. But with just a little pressure, these home-grown systems can start to struggle. CRM builds these reminders into your daily process, and helps you standardise your sales processes so that you never forget a follow-up call and you can track all the calls you ve made. CRM also takes the hassle out of making reports. Weekly status updates and forecasts can be automated using CRM, so sales staff actually get more time to sell not less and managers find it easier to assemble their forecasts, giving them more time to act as coaches and mentors. 3. CRM helps everyone to work together Of course, salespeople are fiercely jealous of their accounts, but if one approach is working, why keep it yourself? Being the most successful seller on the floor doesn t count for much if your company goes bust. Tracking selling patterns shows what works; instead of the sales manager imposing best practices, salespeople can develop and share them among themselves. CRM also boosts efficiency when territories shift or when responsibilities change; instead of starting again from scratch, the record of the business s CRM also takes the hassle out of making reports. Weekly status updates and forecasts can be automated using CRM behaviour in those regions or markets is immediately available to help the sales pro who inherits them get up to speed. 4. CRM makes it easier to use social data CRM is becoming increasingly attuned to the social world and instead of having to look up a prospect or customer s social profile on LinkedIn or Facebook manually each time, socially-enabled CRM applications can pull this data into the customer record for easier access. Some CRM applications now include 5 Ways To Boost CRM Adoption By Your Sales Staff 3

4 sales intelligence tools like InsideView that automatically provide social media data each time a customer s record is opened. So instead of fishing through the entire social media world, these emerging tools allow salespeople to get the information that s most useful to them rapidly, so they can devote less time to scouring the internet, and more time to do what they do best selling. 5. CRM guarantees repeat sales The customer record is a terrific tool for customer support, helping your organisation to provide better service. It s also a big help to marketing, which can better segment the customer audience for its messages and use the data to hunt better leads. As a result, salespeople will find happier customers when it s time to renew a contract, sell a replacement product or upsell a new service. Good support and marketing can be a great boon to salespeople and directly help them with recurring business. By documenting customer relationships, salespeople are laying the groundwork for future sales. Identify the eager adopters within the sales team, and watch their wins. Strategies for Selling To Your Sales Staff Telling your staff about the benefits of CRM is one thing, but proving it is another, and you may have to break through some initial scepticism to win them over. 1. Show results Nothing beats the sceptics better than real results. So keep an eye out for early wins that used CRM. Identify the eager adopters within the sales team, and watch their wins. When a sales pro can describe how CRM helped him or her reach a sale, take notes and make sure everyone on your team hears about it. Whenever you can say CRM contributed to a closed sale, say it. Then repeat 2. Make better forecasts Committed use of CRM by all staff leads to more accurate forecasts, which can eliminate frantic quarter ends when everyone tries to make up the gulf between what s been forecast and what the actual numbers are. Better forecasting reduces the stress on sales staff and helps them increase their commissions. 3. Use carrots, not just sticks Rewards like examples of CRM successes tend to be more effective than punishments. Try using CRM in a monthly competition in which consistent users get a prize. Introducing technologies that use CRM for alerts, lead management and other functions to help salespeople can also help get them on board the CRM train. Punishments like reducing commissions on sales that weren t tracked through CRM can be effective, but they tend to reinforce the perception of CRM as a management spy. You may need both carrots and sticks to persuade everyone, but leaning toward the carrots is usually the best way to get the most out of your staff. Conclusion CRM has a lot of benefits for your business and everyone within it. But change is tough, especially when your sales team is already succeeding at what they re doing and they see new technology as a hindrance rather than a help. To help them to help you as a sales manager, you need to demonstrate how CRM can help them boost their commissions while making their lives easier. Just like selling any other product, it s important to outline the benefits of CRM for your sales staff and it really will help them to save time, increase commissions and sell. 4 5 Ways To Boost CRM Adoption By Your Sales Staff

5 About the author Chris Bucholtz is Editor-in-Chief of CRM Outsiders. Chris is a longtime journalist, blogger and CRM industry influencer. For over 17 years he s been a technology journalist for some of the industry s best print and online media. After his role at VAR Business, he became the first Editor of InsideCRM, a Focus.com brand. He then took the reigns as Editor-in-Chief of ForecastingClouds.com an online destination delivering rich content and thought leadership views regarding CRM and ERP cloud solutions. He s also a regular columnist for CRMbuyer.com and has been writing about Social CRM for the last 4 years. In his current Editor-in-Chief role, Chris is the voice of CRM Outsiders and continues the CRM Outsiders tradition of being an independent and opinionated CRM advisor, who provides trusted and useful content to the market. He uses his extensive network to encourage other CRM visionaries to contribute regularly on CRM Outsiders. About the sponsor SugarCRM is the world s leading provider of open source customer relationship management (CRM) software. Over 7,000 customers and close to a million users rely on SugarCRM to execute marketing programs, grow sales, retain customers and create custom business applications. Leading publications such as CRM Magazine, InfoWorld and eweek praise SugarCRM for its ease-of-use, flexibility and open design. SugarCRM is available in 4 different subscriptions and can be installed on-premise or can run in the cloud. For cloud deployments, customer can choose to run on Sugar On-Demand, a traditional SaaS deployment, or run on one of the leading cloud computing platforms, including Amazon EC2, IBM SmartCloud Enterprise, Microsoft Azure, or Rackspace Cloud. Sugar customers can also leverage the cloud infrastructure of one of the 350 partners around the world who resell SugarCRM. This breadth of options offers customers an unparalleled choice and control over their data and deployment. For more information visit Are you ready to transform your sales team into a sales machine? Start your free trial of SugarCRM today: Or learn more about SugarCRM via a free webcast: 5 Ways To Boost CRM Adoption By Your Sales Staff 5

6 SugarCRM Customer relationship management CRM software for business. In the cloud, online, on demand, onsite - the best sales, and mobile CRM integration North Wolfe Road SW2-130 Cupertino, CA T: F: SugarCRM Deutschland GmbH Erika-Mann-Straße Munich Germany T: +49 (0) F: +49 (0) T: +44 (0) T: +33 (0) Copyright 2012 SugarCRM, Inc. All rights reserved. SugarCRM and the SugarCRM logo are registered trademarks of SugarCRM, Inc. in the United States, the European Union and other countries. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective companies