Sales Force Automation: Toward a Successful Implementation

Transcription

1 GLOBAL SALES SCIENCE INSTITUTE CONFERENCE June, Athens Sales Force Automation: Toward a Successful Implementation Othman BOUJENA ISG Paris Business School

2 Introduction Objective of SFA : collection and dissemination of market information and the creation of profitable customer relationships (Ahearne 2008; Hunter and Perreault 2007) SFA/CRM : a specific project (budget # behavior) High failure rate : 70 % of SFA/CRM projects (Reinartz et al. 2004)

3 SFA literature : 3 main streams Impact in terms of HRM Speier and Venkatesh 2002; Rangarajan et al Adoption issues Parthasarathy & Sohi 1997 ; Keillor et al. 1997; Schillewaert et al. 2000; Jones et al. 2000; Zablah et al. 2004; Shim 2004; Avlonitis and Panagopoulos 2005; Jelinek et al Sales force automation Impact on salesperson performance Johnson and Whitehorn 1997 Ahearne et Schillewaert 2000 Ahearne et al Sundaram et al. 2007

4 What about the implementation issue? Going beyond leading factors Jelinek et al. 2006; Jones et al. 2002; Rangarajan et al. 2005; Speier and Venkatesh 2002 Repositioning the SFA/CRM project Communication policy

5 Research process Literature review SFA adoption Qualitative exploratory study Thematic content analysis Recommendations for a successful implementation

6 Qualitative exploratory study Data collection semi-structured in-depth interviews (45 mn to1hour) Sampling triangulation SFA/CRM editors, sales managers, salespeople Thematic content analysis dissection of the data in meaningfull semantic units (N Vivo 2) using meta-categorization (Miles & Huberman 1984) : from inductive themes to metathematic ones

7 Sample characteristics Companie s SFA/CRM editors Selligent Pivotal Oracle Peoplesoft SAP Coheris Sage Sales managers and their salespeople GIRAUD INTERNATIONAL (transport) KRAFT FOOD (consumer goods) SFR (telecommunications) UNILEVER (consumer goods) IBM (high tech) MERCK (pharmaceutical & health) SODEXHO (food and management services)

8 Salespeople statements Is it really useful? It s just a tool to spy on us! It was simpler before! We waste time doing training

9 Managerial implications of the study results Managing salespeople perceptions Influencing their attitudes Canalizing information Project accompaniment

10 Implementing SFA : a roadmap

11 Aligning CRM/SFA and the company strategy Gaining competitive advantage Improving customer interaction processes SFA : a salesforce and customer minded project Costs reduction Company reorganization

12 Valuing the implementation decision Communicating SFA implementation objectives (selling the project inside the firm) Stressing the match : objectives # salespeople needs (SFA as a participative project) Creating or strengthening the company s innovation culture

13 Thinking the SFA project Implicating salespeople in problems detection and needs assessments Inventory of customer interactions types Listing essential data Setting specifications for solution acquisition Initiating benchmarking and technological intelligence

14 Creating an accompaniment structure Common project pilotage/monitoring board (users and technicians) Appointing an SFA project sponsor Optimal programming of training sessions

15 Mobilizing salespeople around the SFA project Emphasizing SFA solution benefits for salespeople (over features) Ahearne and Schillewaert 2001; Barnes and Engle 1995 Hunter and Perreault 2007 Managing SFA training sessions Keep listening to salespeople during the implementation process

16 Valuing salespeople performance Cultivating management leadership Communicating the revision of performance evaluation criteria Ahearne and Schillewaert 2000; Sundaram et al Promoting salespeople performance reward

17 Adaptability Ergonomics Choosing the more suitable SFA solution Compatibility with the current operating system Durability Power and capacities Evolutionarity Cost After sales service Training offer

18 Measuring the ROI in SFA Setting objectives Specifying indicators to measure SFA impact : conversion rate (Pullig et al. 2002), customer satisfaction, order processing time, reactivity to customer claims (Gilbert 2004), time spent on support tasks (Rivers and Dart1999), call planning (Ahearne, Jelinek and Rapp 2005) Reference base : investment amount