Sales Laundry

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of.  If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  What is the single greatest obstacle that would prevent a new CRM implementation from being successfully adopted by the users (sales team)?

A:  The biggest adoption challenge to achieving successful CRM adoption is getting the willing support of the sales team and their commitment to use the CRM tool as intended.

There are a few underlying issues that perpetuate this problem.

1. CRM deployments are often designed and customized to serve the group paying for the CRM solution (management) vs. the people who actually use the CRM tool day to day (sales)

2. In many cases, few attempts are made to legitimately get the sales team on board by showing them how using the CRM package is going to help them do their jobs better/make their lives easier thus inspiring them to increase the depth and quality of data input.

3. Failing to get the sales team to willingly use the CRM package, use of the CRM package is typically mandated leaving the front line sales team feeling the CRM tool has been forced down their throats, taking up their time while not doing anything appreciable to help them close more sales.

4. Real, or perceived, there is a concern by a segment of the sales professional population that keying all of the information they know about an account and contacts diminishes their value as an individual to the company and makes them more expendable.

5. There is also an undercurrent of concern that the (Management mandated) data that a sales person puts in the CRM package under the pretense of helping close more business will actually be turned against them and used as a tool to micro manage their sales efforts or bring about their own elimination.

The end result is, when forced, that the sales team provides the minimum amount of data entry necessary to stay in compliance and will continue to use or develop their own tools outside of company purview as needed to assist them in doing their job, only further eroding the likelihood of successful adoption of the CRM implementation.

To avoid all of this, a CRM deployment needs to be developed with the front line sales team engaged from day one so they have input in the process and more importantly, a stake in making sure the implementation is successful.