Do you have the CRM Blues? Are you a frustrated sales manager failing to drive adoption of your system? Are you an equally frustrated sales person bogged down in “admin” when you just want to be out selling? Both are common symptoms of a poorly executed CRM strategy.
There are many potential interpretations when people refer to CRM – Customer Relationship Management. In this case we are referring to CRM as a software system that manages sales contacts, contains business knowledge relating to those customers and prospects and is used to record and encourage sales activity to drive sales results.
What’s the Problem?
The sophistication of CRM systems these days means that they have multiple uses, such as:
- Recording all contact data
- Managing forecast reporting
- Recording inbound and outbound sales activity
- Delivering marketing campaigns
- Acting as chat and collaboration tools between teams
- Interfacing front end sales activity with back office systems
- Storing pricing and product information
- Operating as document repositories
- Monitoring performance KPIs
- Connecting with Social Media
- Providing data analytics
- Promoting e-Commerce
- Delivering service management
- Scheduling meetings
- Generating leads
The list is seemingly endless… A far cry from a Rolodex and a telephone…
The problem is that this can involve too many stakeholders in the design of any given CRM and its application within a business. Consequently, this can impact the Sales team, often negatively, causing unnecessary complexity and confusion within the Sales process. Incredibly, it is very common that those designing the CRM are not involved in Sales themselves, the core department that most CRM systems are supposed to benefit! Therefore, it is no wonder sales people the world over have the CRM Blues!
The Sales Manager’s Blues
It is fairly typical that sales managers spend time in the reporting functionality of a CRM. They may be making regular weekly, monthly or quarterly forecasts. They may be looking at sales activity, pipeline growth, sales results, over and under performing sales people, performance KPIs, etc.
Frustration normally comes when data is inaccurate and reporting becomes difficult. As a result, the managers can end up policing accuracy because adoption of the system is not where it should be.
The Salesperson’s Blues
Salespeople on the other hand tend to be frustrated by the level of admin required to keep the CRM up to date to meet the manager’s standards, especially when, in their eyes, it takes time away from customer facing contact or is just plain laborious. This is made worse where the system design has been driven by “too many cooks” so that the information being requested is seemingly irrelevant for the Sales process.
How To Avoid the CRM Blues…
First, why on earth is the manager spending all their time in reporting suites? A sales manager’s role is to be a decent situational coach, a leading example to the sales team. They should be spending time coaching, inspiring, out with customers and their team, leading by example, educating and helping. Sure, some time for reporting is needed but only at key points in a business reporting cycle.
Second, why would a salesperson not want to embrace a CRM? They are fantastic places to record knowledge, challenge yourself, keep personal track of progression towards target, ensure you are keeping in touch with customers in a way that suits you. An amazing engine which, if used correctly, can help you achieve better results.
The problem with modern CRMs is they have so much functionality that managers can literally get addicted to the plethora of ways that reports can be run! All essentially looking at the same data! This over-management of the system can lead salespeople to believe that it is more important to manage a database accurately than to be out talking with prospects. The CRM becomes an object of loathing rather than love.
Both perspectives are wrong, and a different approach can solve the issue, improve morale as a result and re-focus everyone on the important business of selling.
…Design it Together
The solution, simple as it may seem, is to sit down as a leader and team and map out all the things that are important to you both. Capture both perspectives and design your use of the system together. No-one should feel imposed upon.
For example, a sales person is focussed on selling. They will usually be working with the company’s Sales process or have one similar of their own. So ensure that this process is reflected in the system design. If the knowledge being deposited against an opportunity in the CRM is relevant to the progression of the sales cycle then it will be in the salesperson’s interests to record it. The ability to brain-dump meaningful information will help them when reflecting on their strategy or understanding of requirements and planning next steps.
So what about forecasting? The best approach would be for the system to request the forecasting data within the helpful opportunity detail that the sales person works with every day. This is because the more useful the system becomes to their planning and sales activity, the more resident they will be within it. This means that the need to chase down forecast data or request separate reports will diminish. Everyone will have less overall work and the real forecast data will be readily available and more accurate.
Managers and salespeople should collaboratively agree the reporting set to ensure it is aligned to their objectives. Some salespeople may actually want more useful reporting to help with understanding and improving their performance. This is all to the good.
Remember Your Objectives
Whatever your shared objectives, ensure the CRM supports them and does not take leaders or practitioners away from the business goals. Then please resist the temptation to add and build. Ideally, leave it alone. Just use it every day for useful opportunity management and do challenge any action regarding the CRM that crops up which is unrelated to selling and growth.
If you are working with a more sophisticated system that acts like a magnet to other departments or stakeholders, be careful. Allow them their integrations if truly useful, but keep at heart the core objectives that Sales mapped out and hold them sacrosanct. Do not allow dilution in any way. If you do, those CRM Blues will only be a small system tweak away…
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
