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CRM: Get Sales Chiefs on Your Side
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November 03, 2003 (Computerworld) -- Field sales representatives are key to the success of any CRM sales suite, but there's another group of users that may be even more important: their sales managers.
The sales manager is not only in charge of territory assignments for his sales reps, he's also the manager and coach who helps ensure his sales reps meet their objectives. In order to do all of this effectively, the sales manager needs constant information from the sales reps about their leads, their active prospects and the progress of their opportunities. A CRM tool is extremely well positioned to provide this information and can make a sales manager much more effective. In fact, the sales manager probably has the most to benefit from the use of a CRM or sales force automation tool. He's your best ally in the battle for mind share and buy-in for a CRM project.
The close relationship a sales manager has with his team of field reps also means he's the best person to sell them on the benefits of a CRM system. The sales manager has the key advantage of being able to make usage mandatory and to get compliance. If someone has to wield the stick, the sales manager has the best chance of doing it effectively.
On the positive side, a sales manager can help his sales reps accept the new processes and benefits and answer the famous question, "What's in it for me?" He can also insist that all reporting and activity management be done using the new system—not e-mail attachments.
In weekly meetings, for example, if a sales rep refers to a lead or an ongoing opportunity that he hasn't entered in the new system, all the sales manager has to say is that it's not visible on his laptop and he won't talk about it until it is. You can be reasonably sure that within one week of this sort of training, everyone on his team will be using the system.
On the negative side, the sales manager can do exactly the opposite, with devastating results. During the training session for one real-life sales force automation system, for example, sales managers categorically rejected the new system with comments like, "Whoever dreamed up these processes doesn't know how we really work." As the ratio of sales managers to sales reps is about 1 to 8, you can see that you don't need more than a handful of sales managers to send an implicit or explicit message of noncooperation to their teams, effectively stalling the project.
So how can we get buy-in from these all-important sales managers? The basic prerequisite is an operational pilot program with full participation of a sales manager and his team. After a successful pilot (which should, by definition, yield at least one enthusiastic sales manager), the rollout for the rest of the project should include the following key activities and milestones:
1. A one-day off-site workshop for all sales managers. The goal is to sell the system and the benefits of the new or changed processes. This workshop is run by the CRM project team, with the full blessing and participation of the sales director. This group will demonstrate the pilot system, emphasizing the lessons learned and quantifying (wherever possible) the benefits. This should be followed by a hands-on session so that they can get a feel for the new tool. Open debate about the pros and cons should be encouraged to get all the issues on the table for an informed decision. At the end of the workshop, there should be a vote on how to proceed, based on real benefits and concerns.
2. The feedback from this workshop should determine whether there will be a full-scale rollout. If the sales managers aren't sold on the benefits, for whatever reason, why turn the project into a crapshoot and proceed with a rollout to sales reps who'll take their cue from their sales managers?
3. Sales managers must be present at the training sessions for their teams of sales reps. The fact that they already attended the workshop must under no circumstances be an excuse to skip the training session. They're there to anticipate objections, placate Luddites and ensure buy-in to the new processes. They have to make it abundantly clear that from the very next day, the new system will be the only channel of communication for sales reporting.
4. Since sales managers are laying their credibility on the line, the resulting system must be reliable, with high-quality data and very extensive support during the first few weeks. Otherwise, even the most well-intentioned sales managers might defect and fall back to their old ways. You won't get a second chance.
Major battles are won by choosing your allies wisely, and sales managers are the best allies for a CRM project. If you don't have this buy-in—not just "signed-off" buy-in, but actual enthusiastic and palpable buy-in—you might as well put the project on hold. Sales managers can stop any CRM initiative dead in its tracks simply by saying (rightly or wrongly) that it will hurt sales. And there won't be much the sales director can do about it.
This article was excerpted from The CRM Project Management Handbook (Kogan Page Ltd., 2002). Gentle is an international CRM consultant based in Paris.
TOP FIVE REASONS SALES AUTOMATION PROJECTS FAIL 1. Project initiated with unclear goals, metrics and expectations
2. Poorly defined or flawed sales processes
3. Lack of commitment from senior executives, sales management and channel partners
4. Lack of strong buy-in from salespeople
5. Too much emphasis on management needs; not enough emphasis on salespeople and customers
Source: Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn.
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