David Ramos
One of the initial questions I field with every newly retained client engagement is which CRM we at Strategy Development recommend? Typically they are asking this question due to the fact that their current system is not being utilized by their sales force. My first question in response to theirs is always, “What do you plan on using the CRM for?” The response is usually along the lines of, “So that we can track reps call levels (activity) and opportunities (pipelines) and track our wins/losses (results and close ratios) and see if our people are working (again, activity)!” Activity, pipeline, results, close ratios and back to activity…sales metrics!
Ah yes, sales metrics, those pesky sales and activity numbers—hated and loathed by salespeople, and often for good reason.
In many companies, the small bit of metrics data the sales manager and dealer principals get on their sales team members is used only for the purpose of harassing, browbeating, and threatening the salespeople. Alright, I am exaggerating (a little but not by much).
Activity reports turn into demands for the salesperson to make more calls. Pipeline reports are used to demonstrate a lack of activity and to demand more calls. Commission reports are used to highlight weak sales and demand more calls. Do we really believe the only answer to increased sales is to make more calls? Seriously, that’s our answer?
So what happens to the activity and pipeline reports? They get padded! Salespeople have learned that if you’re just going to use it as a baseball bat to beat them with, they’re not going to cut the tree down for you to make the bat.
With the metrics available to sales managers and dealer principals from the traditional call, pipeline, customer status, and commission reports it is very difficult to isolate the root issues a salesperson has. It can be done. It takes study, practice and well developed analytical skills and real knowledge of the salesperson involved.
Unfortunately, that is a lot of work. So, many sales managers and dealer principals take the easy way out—take a quick look, determine the root cause is not enough calls and demand more. It makes no difference if call quantity is an issue or not. It makes little difference if the salesperson has been properly trained in prospecting and your marketing strategies. It makes no difference if the real issue is their interpersonal skills, their communication skills, their presentation skills, or their selling skills and ability to probe, identify and solve prospect issues. The answers are usually the same—make more calls.
Since the salesperson sees no benefit from developing accurate reports—but certainly sees a very real determent, is it any wonder the reports are fanciful?
Now, what happens when the company institutes a new CRM and demands compliance to faithfully use the system? Typically it is resistance, pushback and a revolution from the sales people. From the salesperson’s point of view, all the automated system is going to do is give the manager and the company a bigger bat to beat them with.
Yet, salespeople can be taught to see sales metrics as a developmental tool. Certainly not by using the data the way it’s been used in the past, but by using it to proactively help the salesperson make more money.
The information gathered by a CRM—in fact, even that puff of information generated by traditional reports—can literally change a salesperson’s career if used properly. Even a reasonable handful of accurate data can pinpoint real issues and real root problems that hinder a salesperson’s performance. The data in the hands of someone who has been properly trained to analyze the information can be used to create an individualized training and coaching program for each team member.
We recommend this analysis of the reports with metrics and coaching take place in a monthly review and planning session. The objective of this RAP process is to provide your team with feedback on the areas that they are doing well—as well as the areas where they need to focus for improvement.
If salespeople understand the information makes them money through pinpoint training and coaching, improving their skills, getting them to comply with using the system and producing accurate data—even a handwritten or very basic spreadsheet system—isn’t an issue. Most salespeople want to sell more. They want to earn more. They want to excel. But those same salespeople have no desire to be consistently beaten over the head.
What skill sets do you typically analyze when working with your sales people to improve their skills? We recommend when doing the pinpoint training and coaching, you focus on 6 areas for skill set improvement.
- Business Acumen
- Sales Communications
- Time and Territory Management
- Selling Skills
- Products & Services
- Sales Process
If you want to implement a new CRM or maximize your current situation to produce accurate reports from your salespeople, please consider seriously about why you want them and exactly what you’re going to do with them. If you can’t or won’t use them to help your salespeople become better salespeople, don’t even bother to ask for them because what you get will be designed to keep you off their back as long as possible.
On the other hand, if you’re goal is to help your team become the best salespeople they can be and to grow your team’s sales, communicate to your team in no uncertain terms what the purpose of the reports is and then stick to it—use them as training and mentoring tools, not bats to be beaten down and ridiculed. It will take some time to implement and get the response you desire because salespeople have been taught—either through experience at your company or by a previous manager—that metrics aren’t to be trusted.
If you or your sales managers need help in learning which CRM to select or how to thoroughly analyze and use CRM reports as training and coaching tools, hire a company such as Strategy Development. But whether you need outside help or not, you can have salespeople who welcome sales metrics—and the side benefit is the reports you have in your hand will actually have some relationship to reality.
About the author: David Ramos is sales operations consultant for Strategy Development, an industry management consulting and advance sales training firm providing sales, service & MPS information, including workshops for the BTA as well as a MPS Sales eLearning program with InfoTrends. He also instructs a selling skills workshop called “Sell With Success”. You can reach him at www.strategydevelopment.com or ramos@strategydevelopment.com.
