Is Sales CRM really help in sales productivity
Do you remember what’s special on November 8th, don’t think too much, it’s not international women’s day or International beer day (Yes One for that too!) it’s the day the demonetization was announced in India.
Stop for a moment, rewind, and go past backward,
On November 8th the day the demonetization announced, we don’t know what it’s all about, the next day we understood a little, after few days we started understanding what’s happening around us, yet we did not know the impact. After few days we started sensing the pain standing in front of the dry ATMS, but despite all the pains, one thing we unanimously appreciated the initiative, a bold decision …. We believed for all the pain and sweat some good things will happen in this country
Snap your eyes …just recollecting the old memories …come to the present real-world ….
INTENT IS FINE BUT RESULTS MATTER
I am not an economist to analyze demonetization … That’s not my subject, I am a Sales performance consultant, When I meet most of the business owners share their ambitious plan of implementing a Sales CRM, which may boost the productivity of salespeople as promised by most CRM companies, does it really help, this week story is why some Sales CRM implementation fails to deliver results and what we should do to make it a successful adoption.
Let’s dive in ….
My resume reads CRM Tools used: Zoho, Salesforce, Freshworks, Hubspot …. If I continued working the list may go endless, My Interviewers thought it’s an advantage and I too. But no one questioned me did you used any tool Success — fully.
If you ask me the answer, it is a NO
Yes, I have not successfully used one tool successfully… as a salesperson I was notorious, not handling the CRM updates, I felt it was not helping me, but when I was made a sales Manager, I was chasing my team. The golden phrase worked “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you “either role it was a pain, I analyzed what are all the reason why the sales CRM adoption was not successful. Here are my findings, from three different angle
1. The Salespeople
2. The Sales Management
3. The CRM itself
The Salespeople
1. Salespeople are well known for their lack of discipline and losing their focus too early.
2. Someone good in Field will not be good in academics (remember Sachin 10th failed) same wise salespeople.
3. In one of my Statistics exam, I gave a blank paper, I have not done my homework so what else you can expect, many salespeople when they have not done their fieldwork, what else you can expect … blank
The Sales Management;
1. Most sales managers or the business owners fail to take the discussion threads from the CRM updates, regardless of the CRM updates they will question what is in the top of mind and the priority cases, this creates a de -motivation for the salespeople to update the CRM
2. Regardless of the CRM, most managers and business leaders convenient tool is still Excel sheets, for the review finally it ends up in excel sheet, then the question, why to fill too(two ) many things… it's not a good practice either
3. Sales Managers and Leaders themselves don’t lead by example in updating the CRM when they are supposed to.
While there are undoubtedly several factors at play here, a significant factor in this problem is in the CRM itself
1. A case for example, when your sales guy receives a call from a purchase manager asking for a proposal, he painstakingly prepares and sends it … after sending it obediently updates the CRM which will move the sales stage to 50 %. Appreciating our social service the same purchase manager calls again and negotiates for the best price, our sales guy demands the best price from the management and sends it again, he then updates the CRM stage to negotiation which will show as 90 % success in most CRM tools. Is this a true Sales stage…So what happens behind the scene, the Purchase manager using our proposal negotiates with the preferred vendor, close the deal with them? Finally, he will send a thank mail for our social service with a promise we will use your social service in the future too. This is just an example, the point is mostly the data entered is not accurate.
Garbage in Garbage Out…So what’s the use in, seeing the CRM reports how glossy it maybe?
2. Most standardized CRM is made for common business in mind if your business is unique the CRM won’t suit, it’s a wasted attempt.
Intent is fine but Results Matter
We discussed the problem ….so what’s the solution
Please do check our next blog for successful CRM adoption
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