Commence CRM Smart Practices That Pay Ebook

Commence Corporation
Smart Practices That Pay

Leveraging Information to Achieve Selling Results
2011 Commence Corporation
Table of Contents
Introduction.3 Section One: Marketing Strategy ...........5
1.1 Focus on Defined Market Segments6 1.2 Communicate Value Consistently..9 1.3 Organize Sales by Accounts14 Section Two: Sales Management..18
2.1 Implement a Consistent Sales Process.19 2.2 Hire Salespeople to Stay in the Office.26 2.3 Assure Salespeople are Tightly Accountable30 2.4 Coordinate Planning Efforts with Channel Partners.35 Section Three: Sales Optimization through Technology..38
3.1 Take Small Steps to Drive User Adoption...39 3.2 CRM is a Tool, Not a Solution 43 3.3 Coach Your Coaches on the System..46 Conclusion..49 Footnotes.50
Introduction
Todays sales environment is characterized by intense competition, strategic sourcing contracts, online auctions, customer pressure for self-service, and the ongoing debate over fee-based services. To thrive in this environment, your business needs more than leading technology to achieve long-term growth. Leading organizations are looking outside their four walls to their customers for growth ideas. By leveraging the voice of the customer, these organizations achieve a competitive advantage in redefining sales and marketing, the all-important customer-facing portion of their operations. In an effort to help businesses sell more, more effectively, Commence Corporation has developed this compendium of more than 40 smart practices in selling, culled from interviews with leading executives within high-growth companies, and building on a comprehensive review of published perspectives on smart selling. Entitled Smart Practices That Pay: Leveraging Information to Achieve Greater Selling Results, this compendium focuses on the three key elements of a successful sales effort: marketing strategy, sales management, and sales optimization through technology. Commence Corporation knows that the information technology investments of sales departments are often wasted due to failed implementations. This study focuses on the keys to successful selling, all of which can be enhanced with proper application of technology. Based on extensive experience, Commence Corporation believes that the only path to success is to first develop consistent marketing and sales processes, then utilize these processes in a disciplined manner reinforced by dynamic training and carried forward through effective coaching. The right technology can help accomplish each of these steps. Many companies today are contemplating adding a centralized sales and marketing database system, sometimes called Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Force Automation (SFA), Contact Management (CM), or a variety of other confusing names and acronyms. The purpose of this document is to ensure that these initiatives, by whatever name, succeed for sellers and deliver the results promised.
Methodology
This compendium of smart practices is rooted in a variety of sources. For more than a year, Commence Corporation has interviewed dozens of leading executives in high-growth industrial manufacturing and distribution firms, banking, health care, education and service industries. Commence has also hosted several Executive Roundtables to obtain additional input and feedback from key executives building on their dialog on the topic of selling with one another. The following Smart Practices are a summary from the variety of these sources, combined with Commences more than 20 years of experience and complemented with contemporary commentaries from more than 50 magazines, presentations, web sites and books. Each of the major sections - Marketing Strategy, Sales Management, and Sales Optimization through Technology include an Executive Summary, a set of Smart Practices derived from the research, and techniques to Leverage Information for results. Finally, the bibliography contains numerous reference materials that you may use for additional learning.
Section One: Marketing Strategy

Experienced executives know that all good marketing starts with good strategy. Success in marketing is not about expensive advertising, big trade show booths, or slick brochures. Smart marketing begins with a strategic examination of your customer base: Market Segment: than anyone else? Competition: alternatives? What customers do we serve better
What are these customers competing
Value Proposition: What value do we provide to these target customers better than any competing alternative in the world? Branding: How will we profitably communicate and deliver all of the above to our target customers? Sales: How will we convert all of this into new customers?
Throughout this compendium, these strategic questions will be examined in depth and from multiple angles. This first section focuses on three aspects of marketing strategy most often raised by our interviewees: 1. Focus on Defined Market Segments 2. Communicate Your Value Proposition Consistently 3. Organize Sales by Accounts, Not Territories
1.1 Focus on Defined Market Segments

Executive Summary
One of the consistent themes that arose from our interviews involved a focus on defined industry segments. Rather than trying to be a generalist that can out-service or under-sell any competitor, the pattern among these smart companies was to choose a few specialty areas in which to become true experts. The key to success, over and over again, was to build upon existing successes that best matched the companys products, employees, and interests. With this narrow focus, companies can acquire or build internal competencies that are most highly valued and sought after by customers. These smart practices stress segmented focus and differentiation. No longer is it reasonable for management to simply expect higher sales each year without a strategic focus. The specialization in a few defined segments gives the sales force some added expertise that is welcomed by tough-to-reach prospects, leading to improved sales over time. A market segment discipline leads to goals for sales activities and sales results that can be reviewed segment by segment. Training for each segment can address the language, buying processes, common objections, and competing alternatives of those with buying influence. The focus on market segments yielded higher profit margins for many of our interviewees. We also consistently heard that customers were much more interested in seeing a salesperson who had the knowledge and reputation of being a specialist. As the segmentation strategy gains momentum in a sales organization, the company accumulates more and more knowledge and insight from the shared experiences and successes. This growing body of expertise becomes a true differentiator that isnt easily matched by competition. This leads to quicker sales cycles, since customers arent simply comparison shopping for price.
Smart Practices
Assign salespeople to defined market segments instead of geographic territories, so the salesperson is perceived as an expert to that segment. We made the transition by taking our product-centered salespeople and having them focus on market segments This approach has totally changed the way we operate it is so much better for the customer because now we are experts. The customers tell us that they want a person they can talk to, if that person is an expert specialist in the field. The Internet is great, but When assigning salespeople to a market segment, match the passion and experience of the salesperson with the needs of the market. These segments use the products that the salespeople love, and now they become a champion of the market. It is better to create segments based on what [the salespeople] love to sell. This will be better for the customers. An expert salesperson assigned to a segment can more readily focus on customer needs and spot valuable turnkey solutions, instead of just pushing the product. Our biggest challenge is educating salespeople to know the difference between selling a commodity product and a turnkey solution. We need to get them out of the mode of focusing on the product and instead listening to the customers needs. I was called into a meeting with a customer because of one line we carried. As the meeting progressed, it was apparent that the customer had a lot of frustration with the current process of buying components for their system from so many suppliers, and then having to deal with varying results. Instead of just talking about my component, I offered to help put the entire system
together. That is what the customer wanted, and thats the big picture we now get our salespeople to focus on. Like any good strategy, a market segment strategy should begin by leveraging the voice of the customer. The big thing for us was to survey the customer and really understand the different channels and segments...Then you can further drill down into different segments and find ways to service and grow those various segments. A segmented strategy makes good sense, but it is not easy; it requires discipline and ongoing effort. Segmentation is a big buzzword, but it is very difficult to do. You can do a big effort with a big survey, and then two years have gone by and you havent done anything with it yet. You need to develop an ongoing process for gathering feedback and further segmenting markets.
Leveraging Information
The simple coding of accounts to the appropriate market segment gives users and managers the ability to sort and view everything that is in the CRM system by market. The appointments, history, and opportunities related to a market can be easily tracked to be sure sales resources are being properly utilized relative to the strategic direction of the company. For example, if a company wants a sales engineer to allocate at least 25% of his time on the chemical processing market, the CRM system will help visually display what portion of time, activities and proposals are being generated for chemical processing prospects. Another powerful CRM tool is a marketing campaign aimed at specific markets. If the accounts are coded properly (see above), a good CRM system will make it easy to send out personalized letters, faxes or e-mails to the contacts that work in the chosen market segment. Pre-approved and even customizable marketing materials can be stored in the CRM system so that a consistent message is delivered, and so salespeople dont waste time recreating documents that are available in the document library. Inside sales people benefit from stored marketing dialog scripts which help probe the callers specific needs by using the language of the target market to improve effectiveness of the call.
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1.2 Communicate Value Consistently

Executive Summary
A Value Proposition is not a mission statement or an advertising slogan or a clever branding message. A Value Proposition specifically answers the question: What value do we provide to our target market better than any competing alternative in the world? The Value Proposition must be laser-focused on a discrete and definable set of potential customers. These potential customers must see themselves reflected in that Value Proposition, so it must be stated in their language. To demonstrate value, there must be some element of quantifiable return on investment, usually in terms of increased revenue or reduced expenses for your customer. Smart companies are in touch with their customers needs and are only pursuing opportunities where they can truly add superior value to the customer. Many of the smart practices in this section revolve around relentless internal emphasis on this Value Proposition and the importance of repeating it to the marketplace in a regular fashion. Companies must have a system to assure that every customer-facing employee can explain the Value Proposition message consistently. It is also imperative that management have a way to monitor that every activity, every investment of time, and every budget line item is aligned with the Value Proposition. Many companies we interviewed admitted to the fact that they were still struggling with clearly defining what it is that makes them unique or even superior to their customers. Too many companies pursue multiple approaches to the market, often copying what others have done and hoping that they will realize similar results. The Value Proposition needs to be specific, compelling, and something truly superior that the targeted customers care about. 1 The Value Proposition also needs to be quantifiable. The term Value Proposition is widely overused and often valueless because it has no money associated with it. A simple template, if
followed closely, will make sure that your Value Proposition will meet all of these criteria: Companies like yours [define target market] will be able to [improve what?] by [how much?] through the ability to [do what?] as a result of [what enabler, technology, service, etc.?] for an investment of [what relative cost?].2 For example: Companies like yours, making high-end ball bearings for the U.S. just-in-time market, will be able to produce 20% more each day by changing your tooling and adjusting the angle of metal feeding as a result of using our cutting tools and process expertise, for an investment of $100,000. Without such a clear and consistent Value Proposition, sales reps will deliver a myriad of messages to your target markets, thus wasting precious time and perhaps even confusing and alienating legitimate prospects. Many companies have examples of lost sales or lost profit due to a salespersons inability to differentiate the value that was being offered. Without a discipline of focusing on value, sales calls decline into commodity-style negotiations over terms and price. Having a strong Value Proposition driving every sales activity will reduce the cost of sales. The key is to primarily allocate sales and marketing resources to only those opportunities that are likely to quickly recognize and value what it is that you have to offer. Taking the time to qualify opportunities against your Value Proposition leads to fewer wasted sales and marketing expenses and a shorter sales cycle. The result is: Less sales expense per sales dollar, Less marketing expense per sales dollar, Higher gross margin sales, and Shorter sales cycle.
If you stay focused on those companies that truly value what you are best at providing, you will need fewer salespeople to generate the same (or even higher!) gross margin.
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Smart Practices
To begin formulating a Value Proposition, you should start by talking to customers. First of all, we developed a very simple strategy statement based on customer input about why they chose us. Were using voice of the customer surveys to drive innovation. We also do a lot of plant tours at customer plants. Thats our version of customer surveys. Our corporate communications department has been working on this and has talked to a lot of different customers to figure it out. In-depth discovery about customers is important to uncover ways to create value. This customer research will have the greatest impact if the executives of the company have an active role in talking directly with the customers. Our senior management gathered the input, so they were in touch directly with the problems and priorities faced by our customers. Senior managers need to go out and talk directly to customers salespeople always have an agenda. I think by putting senior people in front of customers to discover and create a strategy that is sharp enough to clearly drive salespeople, anybody can sell for your company. Consistency is key: every person throughout the entire organization must know and understand the basic Value Proposition. We had to have everyone discuss the same thing, no matter who they were talking to. So we created a simple strategy document 5 or 6 bullet points that made very clear what were all about
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Its all about having everybody on the same page. Everybody in the company can immediately tell you what the strategy statement is and how their daily work fits into that company strategy. Our strategy, Value Proposition and overall story can be repeated in identical words by any 10 people you randomly pick out of the company. Once the Value Proposition is defined, it must be trained hard on a consistent basis.
With a little training, everyone could learn it and they better. We trained it very hard We really train on what we find through these customer interviews. Once we create a Value Proposition, it is important to have adequate training we teach sales people how to talk about money, percentages, profits, etc. After everyone understands the Value Proposition, it needs to be used consistently, every day.
The first slide of every presentation, the first page of every proposal is the strategy, and they all need to be able to explain it and talk about it.
Several high-growth distributors told us that they might use a slightly different version of the Value Proposition for each market segment, but noted that the overall Value Proposition does not change. You can segment the Value Proposition to fit different market segments, but at the core it still needs to be the same. A Value Proposition is application by application. You have one for the whole company, for a particular market segment, and for an individual customer. One of our best practices is creating Value Propositions for individual products and customers and training our people
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to do that. And we need to quantify it to understand the value of the solution for our customers. Many smart companies use a Value Calculator to quantify the monetary worth of the Value Proposition. The use of a Value Calculator can help speak to customers in their own value terms. If the customers input their own assumptions and numbers into the calculator, they own the resulting calculation. When you enter an opportunity, there is a place [in our CRM system] to calculate the value. We make sure the customer knows and appreciates the value. We show it to the customer, and we love it when our numbers are wrong. The customer then inputs their own numbers. We actually then have a better point of how valuable our solution is.
The use of a centralized system for Customer Relationship Management will help achieve companywide focus on a specific, customer-focused, consistent Value Proposition. First of all, every form of marketing communications, from presentations to PDF files to templates for letters, can be standardized to reinforce the Value Proposition and stored in the CRM system for easy retrieval. To better track effectiveness, management can even monitor how often key documents are sent to qualified prospects. Another way to use a CRM system to reinforce the Value Proposition is to have a profile of each opportunity, with a field that includes how you will provide value to the prospect. Having this field prompts the salespeople to think about this question before making a sales call and encourages them to document the conversation after the sales call. For example, one distributor in our study used a simple report to show each Value Proposition that had been delivered to each customer, along with the results of the sales call so that everyone could see at a glance the power of the Value Proposition consistently applied.
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1.3 Organize the Sales Department by Accounts

Executive Summary
Our research repeatedly underscored the need to have salespeople responsible for deeply serving a reasonable number of accounts, including a realistic set of target accounts that arent yet customers. All reporting, planning and accountability is centered on these accounts. In some cases, compensation was tied to profitable growth in select accounts. Management had easy visibility into the status of these accounts through the use of tailored reports and software systems. Many organizations are moving toward assigned accounts for their salespeople. Under the classic 80/20 rule, these companies know that the majority of their profits and growth will continue to come from their existing top accounts. In addition, there are a usually a few key target accounts that are not yet customers, but warrant a focused sales effort because they fit the profile defined in the firms Value Proposition. There is less of a focus on cold prospecting, much less reliance on sales leads, and little or no concept of paying commission for sales based solely on geography. The successful, profitable business relationship if it is based on value and not just price takes a committed effort to get started. This effort involves persistent attention to detail, follow-through and timeliness that is almost impossible to accomplish for more than a few accounts at a time. Once the relationship begins, there is another demanding set of responsibilities that the salesperson must fulfill in order to maintain and grow the business. Growth is achieved by smarter deployment of sales resources and the improved success rate that comes from a focused sales effort. This approach to sales team structure works because it focuses the efforts of the most expensive part of the sales budget (the outside sales force) on the most productive and profitable activities. By only measuring and evaluating the success rate in a small number of accounts, the sales management can help the sales staff develop deep strategies for meeting the unique
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requirements of these target accounts. Likewise, the resources involved in fulfillment of orders and delivery of services can be prioritized on those selected accounts. Otherwise, too many hours and dollars are wasted reacting to the requests of small, high-maintenance accounts with no framework for directing the choices of how the sales reps manage their time.
Smart Practices
To improve focus and reduce wasted efforts, assign a limited number of accounts, not a broad geography. It is unrealistic to expect a salesperson to service 500 accounts in a geographic territory. We assign 100 accounts, no more and we expect a focus only on the top 25 of those accounts. The salespeople have to extract what we call the Active 5 and they work those five major companies for 100 days. They have to make five sales calls on five companies in 100 days and then they report on that. Weve put complete focus on it. Now, 43% of all our opportunities are Active 5, and they comprise 70% of all the sales dollars. Our success depends on getting more and more of our key product lines into our top 25 accounts. The average salesperson makes 3.5 sales calls per day, for 3-4 days per week. Much more time is spent on research and understanding the needs of the top accounts. Thats the problem with salespeople. They visit a customer in July, and then dont go back until next August. And they wonder why they dont get the business! Then when you go to do your forecast at the beginning of the year, the same companies keep appearing, and its ludicrous. We make people 100% accountable for fewer accounts. Once you limit the number of accounts, the sales team should be encouraged to spend more time with each account and to be creative problem-solvers. We know that when the focus is on quantity, the sales call ends up being a quick drop off of literature, a reactive response, and no insight or knowledge about what the customer is doing; what our customers want is someone
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who can ask the right questions, to help get to the solution to a problem they cant even articulate. We dont want our salespeople to react, but instead, to create. Our customer base is shrinking, not growing. A few years back, this thing bothered the hell out of me. Wed give out leads and nothing would happen. I saw a statistical inference that 48% of salespeople make one call and dont go back. 25% go back twice. 12% go back three times. 5% go back four times. But 80% of all orders are gotten after the fifth call. So we make sure to do at least five calls to each account. You cant do that with a thousand accounts. These target accounts need to be treated with a particular emphasis and a focused energy. Due to this focus, our salespeople are able to develop very thorough profiles of their accounts how they buy, when they develop budgets, what projects are in development, changes in personnel, and the overall goals of the company. Discovering and capturing these insights allows a highly-tailored recommendation of products and services that is much more likely to win. We create special marketing and incentive programs [aimed at our target accounts]. We do whatever we can to let everyone in the company know what accounts we are targeting. Even with something as simple as a black dot on the invoice as it goes through the company, everyone will know that its someone we want to especially impress. Many organizations use sports analogies to help the sales team understand the concept of targeted accounts. I was watching the 49ers in the 1980s when they won all of those Super Bowls. I really studied why they could do that, and I found out they were the only football team at the time that scripted their first 15 plays. So we put a playbook together. It has 72 plays, and we write up on a flip chart the plan for each account and script them for the next 100 days. So when you take all of your sales people and see where the opportunities fall, we see which ones are in the red
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zone. We dont waste a time until an opportunity is in the red zone.
The database tools and reporting capabilities of a strong CRM system can be helpful in executing a successful target account approach to selling. First of all, sales management can use a simple dashboard to quickly review the completed and planned activities at each account by salesperson. Inside salespeople, customer service and even engineering and accounts receivable can easily identify contacts from assigned accounts, and treat them accordingly. For the individual sales professional, the account profile record allows for easy capturing and review of detailed information about the account and individual opportunities. According to experienced executives, the most powerful aspect of a sales automation system is the wealth of data accumulated after only a few short months of use. To mine this data, smart companies have followed these steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. Identify the business problem. Mine data to transform data into actionable information. Act on the information. Measure the results.3
For example, a sales manager at an electrical distributor instinctively knew that some customers were getting too much service based on their volume of annual sales. To verify his gut feeling, he mined data in his CRM database to see the number of quotes, calls, and service tickets for each customer and compared it to the total volume of sales in the previous 12 months. It became obvious that about 25 customers in particular were taking up a lot of the sales teams effort, but delivering comparably little revenue. The sales manager then worked with each sales rep to come up with a plan to either increase the revenue from these customers or reduce the time spent servicing them. After three months of their efforts, he reviewed the data, and found that significant profitability improvements had been achieved.
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Section Two: Sales Management

One of the keys to profitable growth is knowing how to make the best use of sales personnel and supporting resources. Thus, efficient sales management is a prerequisite for better, faster, and more predictable growth in sales. The interviewees had significant input on this section, since every company had methods and systems to direct and monitor their sales effort. Building upon the themes seen in the previous section on Marketing Strategy, the following smart practices have to do with both eliminating wasteful efforts (those not providing value to the customer) and improving the effectiveness of the sales activities (those that do add appreciated value to the customer). We also identified specific ideas about how to execute sales initiatives with an emphasis on clearly identifying expectations and monitoring results.
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2.1
Implement a Standard Sales Process
Executive Summary
Any high-growth strategy must begin with a consistent and disciplined sales process that is easily understood by everyone in the organization. All salespeople must use the same vocabulary, and view all opportunities as having sequential stages that must be completed before a suspect becomes a prospect, and a prospect becomes a customer. Following a consistent process reduces the anxiety and uncertainty common among both salespeople and sales managers, because everyone knows what is expected and needed for every sales pursuit. Having defined requirements and policies on when and how to give a demonstration, prepare a proposal, or send a sample helps the sales force control the sales process and avoid simply reacting to requests from unqualified prospects. Better preparation, deeper research, and clearer goals for each stage result in a more effective sales team. This concept is a natural extension of the earlier practices aimed at delivering a consistent Value Proposition, improving market specialization, and making better use of sales resources. Having a standard approach to pursuing and tracking opportunities is a smart way to assure that all sales activities are aligned with the overall direction of sales management. Having consistency also reduces the amount of non-value-added sales activities, such as drafting letters, writing reports, and having lengthy phone calls to determine what stage is next in a sales opportunity. Standard terminology simply saves time and minimizes confusion. Sales managers benefit from a standard process because it is easier to view how each salesperson is doing. Opportunities that are stalled in one stage are easy to spot and troubleshoot. Salespeople benefit because they waste less time determining what information is missing and what the next step should be. Sales appointments become more productive because they are only conducted as part of a planned sequence of events. Perhaps the most universal theme in this research had to do with the value of a standardized approach to selling. Some companies had adopted branded systems such as Sandler, Solution Selling, Dale Carnegie or others. Many others had developed their own system with its own terminology, perhaps a hybrid of popular
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systems or a mix of the techniques used by the companys most successful sales performers. But the repeated emphasis on having a common system was clear. A standard sales process allows companies to more easily analyze events and make sense of trends. The only way to discover whats working and whats not is to measure the individual steps of the sales process. If you know the percentages of prospects that proceed through each stage of the process, you can accurately predict how many sales will close in the future, based upon the current pipeline. You can also compare the performance of team members and take appropriate action, like additional coaching, in order to ensure that the team remains productive.4 Manufacturers for example are no strangers to processes, systems, and re-engineering. Plants and warehouses couldnt operate profitably without them. And no business manager would let accounting and purchasing departments improvise. In fact, the more important and complex the task, the more likely that the effective principles and processes for successfully completing that task have been defined and codified.5 In other words, much of the industrial world is already highly processdriven, systematized, and automated. Yet, few have systematized and automated their sales departments. Seventy percent of respondents to a recent study indicated that they do not have a documented, formal sales process.6 Given that sales is the fundamental purpose of most organizations and represents the single largest expense item, it is quite surprising that written sales processes are non-existent for the majority of the study participants. Without such a document to provide a consistent road map, executives have no choice but to depend on the creativity, work ethic and luck of individual sales reps and their managers.7 Organizations without a sales process often exhibit the following symptoms: Disconnected and manual approach to selling, slowing down the sales cycle. Lengthy cycle time to find prospects, get quotes out the door, and close orders. Irritated prospects, who want what they want when they want it, not when your salespeople can get to it. Annoyed top sales employees. They want to sell, not figure out the best way to get prospects in the pipeline, quotes created, orders entered, and shipments delivered.
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Abundant and costly errors, evidenced by expedited orders and high volumes of returns. Inadequate margin on too many quotes, resulting in deflated profitability. Stagnant sales from the most important customers. Engineering and other departments are pulled into disarray when your sales team gets a request for proposal or learns about a bid opportunity.8
If this sounds familiar, youre not alone. Many executives voice issues similar to these, yet the remedy seems to be incredibly difficult. Sales teams are often extremely autonomous, and management struggles to avoid big brother accusations and micromanaging. Despite these legitimate concerns, it is possible for these organizations to successfully implement a standard sales process. The high level steps to implement a sales process culled from industry experts are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Document your sales process, Design your implementation, Train your sales team, Support the implementation.
When reviewing the various sales methodologies and processes available, make sure your final selection is repeatable, predictable, and scalable.9 What you want is a sales process that is simple enough that, over time, it will become second nature to the sales staff.10 Also, make sure that it isnt too complicated, or your sales team will not use it. But, at the same time, avoid a sales method that is overly simplified, unless you are in a simple sales market (which few organizations enjoy).11 The elements of a sales process typically include: A common vocabulary for describing the activities involved in selling, Clearly defined stages of selling, An agreed upon checklist of what it takes to move from one stage to the next, Consistent guidelines for information to be gathered and given at each stage, Clear expectations for how long each sales stage should take, and Concise definition of suggested next actions.
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When smart organizations are designing a sales process implementation, they focus on change management, not sales training. By implementing a formalized sales process, the company is fundamentally changing the way people do their jobs on a daily basis. There will be natural resistance. To develop a change management plan, make sure you can answer the following questions: What motivation do sales people have to use the new system? What potential barriers are there to implementation? How can I overcome those barriers? How will I know if the implementation is successful? What do I expect during the transition? Who can people go to if they have questions?
One of the best ways that organizations have found to make sure implementations stick is to have the management involved. One recent study found that when sales training is reinforced by management, the sales skills taught during training produced a 15% permanent increase in productivity.12 Management needs to be involved in more than a cosmetic fashion. A senior member of the management team needs to attend the training, and this same manager should inspect the sales activities for a period of time to make sure they continuously are consistent with the new sales skills introduced during the training.
Smart Practices
The need to have a consistent, well-defined sales process cannot be overstated. Having a formal selling process is very important. Weve been following the same system for over eight years. It is ingrained in us now, although we could always use refresher training.
We needed to change our approach of walking over broken glass to do whatever the customer wants even if it is a small customer and if the activity is preventing us from serving a large customer. Once we got the discipline of a common approach, we started making smarter choices about how to spend our sales time.
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What happened was that one of our senior management team saw that there was a void we all were selling differently.... Some people questioned the need, since we were having a good sales year. But we knew it was important. Our company cant grow consistently unless the sales process is repeatable, not arbitrary. For us, it is a condition of employment you have to use the system. Process is ultra important. A defined set of terms, used by everyone in the organization, is key to adopting and sustaining the process.
Without a common language, you have individual sales people, not a sales team. Companies with individual sales people are the ones that fail. The value of speaking the same language when reviewing an opportunity or planning a sales call is very powerful. We taught them through role playing to ask questions with the new vocabulary, so that as we reviewed the activities of a salesperson, we were reinforcing the language and the stages of our process. This was critical, since if the sales management didnt use the language, it wouldnt have been adopted as part of our culture. Now every form, every account planning tool, is using the language of the common process. Center your process around the outwardly-focused buy cycle of your customer base, as opposed to your internally-focused sell cycle.
It is more important to know where the buyer is in his decision-making process than to try and force our sales methodology on the customer. We focus on the buying process as well as the selling process. Have your top salespeople actively participate in the design of your sales process.
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As you evaluate sales processes, bring top sales people as part of the team to gain buy-in it will help to sell to other guys. Sometimes, a sales process includes what NOT to do, such as when a function previously done by the sales team is removed from the process.
The pricing function and quoting function has been totally removed from our salespeople we want them selling, not quoting. They dont even have price lists. Because of this change we now pay them on top line growth, since they cant control pricing and profitability. Once a sales system is selected, the sales manager needs to become experts in the process before the rest of the team is trained.
Once [the senior executive] found a system he liked, he first had all of the managers brought in for professional training. Many times we are remiss to not train managers to use same language; this leads to a disconnect. We also need to train the trainers. The other thing we did was train the supervisors to be trainers in an on-the-job setting. One of the primary elements of any sales process is a clear definition at every step of what the next step will be.
And the next step, in our common language, is the impending event. Every sales call needs to have a clear next step, an impending event that they can state will happen next. If they dont have that, then they just went in and made a sales call. There is no excuse for just making a sales call for the sake of making a sales call. Guess what happens when you have a [clear next step] that is two weeks away? You actually have time to plan and prepare, which greatly increases your chances of success. They need to clearly say at the end of each meeting what the impending event is and when it will happen. Then they have to send a confirmation to the prospect or customer in an e-mail or letter. When we talk about an impending
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event, it must be established and they have to prove it to us. We really ride them.
The challenge with adopting a new sales process is getting everyone to follow it. We were told in multiple interviews about the need for a method to reinforce the new, disciplined approach to selling. Sales management must use the vocabulary in sales meetings and on sales calls. An automated workflow as part of a CRM database can quickly prompt a salesperson to enter required information before moving to the next sales stage. Reports and online views of the Sales Pipeline and Pipeline Velocity can help monitor the progress of opportunities over time both the salesperson and the sales manager can spot when an opportunity is stalled.
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2.2 Hire Salespeople to Stay in the Office

Executive Summary
The ability of salespeople to provide superior service, followthrough and responsiveness to customers without visiting in person is key to increased efficiency. Small and medium accounts that might rarely see a salesperson in person can get frequent contact from a properly trained and equipped salesperson working from a desk. These customers appreciate the increased attention. As the information about the needs and preferences of the customer grows, the sales relationship gets deeper than would have been possible using traditional outside sales staff. Cross-selling and up-selling are more likely to occur, since more frequent dialogue leads to a better mutual understanding and more opportunities to introduce new products and services. Any business in any industry can use this approach to service and grow their customer base. Using outward bound, telephone-based salespeople, the companies can become more proactive and likely discover or create new opportunities for growth. The rising cost of a traditional outside sales call is well understood. Windshield time is marginally productive, at best. In addition to the limited quantity of calls that can be achieved per day, the quality can also be limited, causing a precious sales call to be wasted when a prospect doesnt bring promised information or suddenly gets interrupted before the goal of the visit is accomplished. A well-trained salesperson working on the phone and the computer can reach many more people than would be possible if a personal visit were required, greatly reducing the cost of obtaining increased sales and better margin from these accounts. By increasing the number of times smaller accounts are contacted, a company can profitably grow the incremental sales that come from being aware of evolving needs.
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Smart Practices
Small and medium accounts can often be handled better by salespeople who never leave the office and work on the phone and the computer. We renamed our Inside Territory Managers to Territory Managers. The term inside was too limiting, and it was confusing to our customers. They are really salespeople without cars. They are a multi-million segment of our business, and they grew it 18% last year. Thats a higher growth rate than our key account managers. They have 75-150 accounts they manage. Often, the switch to using inside salespeople for smaller accounts will coincide with the move to assigning a limited number of target accounts instead of territories. Like most companies, we started with geographic territories. We then graduated to a smaller number of assigned accounts for each rep. This created a huge group of small customers that we didnt know how to handle. We tried mailers, and naively thought we could rely on our good guy reputation. Then I took one guy from customer service, and assigned him to call the small accounts. He sat outside my office. We worked through his calling techniques, and I answered his questions as they came up. At the outset, it may prove useful to run a pilot program or to otherwise test the use of salespeople without cars. I didnt get the buy-in from everyone. My boss thought it might just be an account base that we would keep even if we didnt have a dedicated person calling them. So we did a double-blind experiment. All of the accounts that were assigned to an inside salesperson grew. Those that were unassigned didnt just stagnate they were down 30%. Our conclusion: ignoring customers is not a smart business practice. These salespeople without cars should be treated with the same respect as the traditional outside sales team; they are true salespeople, not just customer service reps. I believe that the biggest event in selling thats occurred in the last decade is the change in outside sales and inside
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sales roles. In the 1970s and 80s, the outside salesperson was like a PGA golf pro, but the inside salesperson was a customer service person, a secondary citizen, like a caddy. That, in my opinion, was the root cause of the lack of data entry and dialogue, because they didnt have a common goal. We now have inside salespeople that are full-time PGA Pros, comparable to the outside salespeople. Sometimes, inside salespeople can be focused on specific products in addition to specific accounts. One tactic weve done for the inside sales team, is working on low-volume D items. 10% of our business is D items. These items are typically bought by people once a year who arent shopping around, but they want to just get it off their desk. Unfortunately, the inside salespeople were doing the same thing and just getting the order off their desk. They looked in the computer and saw what the discount was last year and just automatically did the same thing. If instead you can raise the prices of your D items 10% annually, you can increase your gross profit exponentially. Our inside sales people are now incented and measured on this. They realize that it is so simple.
The salesperson without a car can make tremendous use of information technology. The needs, budget timetables and buying processes of each account can gradually be uncovered and captured in a CRM database. For example, each phone call might be aimed at getting just one key piece of information. Over time, the full buying puzzle can be pieced together. This would, of course, be too expensive to do in multiple in-person sales calls, especially for smaller accounts. Data entry is in real-time, because the inside salespeople are typing while they talk, unlike outside salespeople. Automated reminders can help the salesperson keep in touch with accounts on a regularly scheduled basis, including automated e-mails or faxes. Specific interests can be coded to allow for specialized campaigns aimed at subsets of the account list. Short notes about each contact can be captured quickly, building an enviable memory about past conversations that usually impresses the customer or prospect. Inside salespeople are greatly aided by a CRM database because they are always in front of a computer. Prior to every phone call,
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the history of previous contacts can be quickly reviewed, as well as any promised next actions. Follow-up activities can be efficiently entered and even assigned to other employees as appropriate. Reminders showing those accounts who havent been contacted in a predetermined period of time help make sure no customer is forgotten. Finally, automated creation and tracking of regular campaign communications, such as e-mail newsletters or Tech Tips on fax can be quickly set up.
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2.3 Assure Salespeople are Tightly Accountable

Executive Summary
A major theme heard over and over in this research was how difficult it is to get salespeople to properly plan and then report on their sales activity. Call reports, itineraries and forecasts are important, but too often inconsistent in quality. Yet several organizations had successful methods for getting regular communications from field sales about what is being done and what is planned. The time involved in creating these reports was clearly defined as part of the job, with no exceptions. Salespeople learned that the process actually helped them be better prepared on the sales calls they scheduled. Every sales manager has to ask his or her team to complete various activities or make necessary changes to make progress towards a particular goal. Yet, all too often, a portion of the sales team blatantly rebels and just doesnt do what was asked of them. There are numerous reasons why this happens: highly-paid salespeople, entrenched salespeople who have been with your organization for a long time, a cultural norm that emphasizes the salespeoples autonomy, or 100% commission compensation plans.13 This situation needs to be remedied. A company cannot afford to have sales people undermining its strategic initiatives. If you let this continue, training, a sales process, or any of the other smart practices outlined in this study will become a waste of time. And that isnt an option in the world of reverse auctions, strategic sourcing, and increasing margin pressure. If you dont do something differently, people will continue to do things the same old way, because that is what is comfortable.14 After expectations are written and communicated, sales leaders must focus on developing their sales teams and holding them accountable for the newly clarified guidelines. The best way to do this, according to numerous industry experts, is through coaching. Here are some smart coaching practices from a selection of sales experts:
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At least a portion of the coaching needs to be in the field, where you can observe your sales team in action. When you go on calls with your team, whatever you do, dont take over the call and control the conversation. Your salesperson development is more important than one sale. Explain the benefits of coaching to your team. Help them to understand this is for everyone even the best athletes need a coach. It isnt a criticism or punishment for bad results. Make sure you budget more time to spend with rookies theyll need it and will be the most willing. Make sure you are consistent in how you ask and answer questions. The easiest way to be consistent is to follow your sales process use the same language, measurements, and tools for the whole team. Include some practice sessions in your coaching where your sales team can safely try out new skills. Make sure coaching is done on a weekly basis. If you cant commit to that schedule, consider hiring professional coaches for your sales team. There are numerous sales experts that can help your team to continually improve their selling efforts.15
A key component of your coaching sessions needs to be based on forecasting. The easiest way to forecast is to base it on your sales process. Remember: your sales process should be auditable. You should be able to see concrete proof that a salesperson has successfully reached a milestone. Once you start to gather that data, ideally through your coaching sessions so you can also give advice regarding the quality of the proof and ensure the data is accurate, you will be able to predict your sales with almost boring accuracy.16 For example, if a salesperson has successfully completed the first step of the sales process, you should be able to calculate how likely it is that the prospect will advance to the next stage of the sales cycle. After several months of gathering this data, your forecast will become increasingly accurate, helping every department of your organization to better serve customers.17 It is not hard to explain or justify accountability it is more difficult to execute. Any initiative aimed at reducing wasted time and missed opportunities must have a method for tracking what is actually being done. This constant measuring and evaluating of what is working and not working leads to continuous improvement of the sales function. Just as in the operations side of the business, consistent measurement helps uncover possibilities for reducing costs (by eliminating activities that are
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unproductive) and increasing revenues (by sharing successful techniques between peers). Visibility on what has been done and what is planned gives the sales manager an opportunity to coach salespeople in areas for improved effectiveness. Once again, the cost of sales needs to be carefully controlled; this practice helps turn the sales expense into a more productive resource.
Smart Practices
The first step towards greater accountability is often to analyze the current state of the sales team (how they are spending their time, what they are doing well, what they need help with, etc.). The first thing we did was figure out what they were doing all week. All salespeople logged their time for one week. We saw that only 45% of the time was spent actually selling, and only 15% with actual end users. A key component of accountability is being clear about expectations, with an emphasis on quality, not quantity. We expect salespeople to only be selling for 3.5 days per week so that they can spend the rest of the time getting fully organized and prepared for their calls. We want them to plan their calls. We plan a lot not just go sell. We dont do call reports because they show only activity without necessarily results. I want to look at the Opportunity Manager in our CRM system; all we focus on is opportunities. Greater accountability often leads to better relationships between salespeople and upper management. Every two months, each salesperson must spend three days at the headquarters office. Part of this time is spent one-on-one with top management reviewing completed activities that were discussed at the previous meeting and creating plans and commitments for the next two months. Much of the time is spent with unplanned conversations with customer service that lead to improved communications and collaboration. To be effective, sales planning should be a person-byperson initiative, with individual accountability for individual goals.
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We used to have the same sales plan for all of our people. Weve changed that so we have very specific sales plans for each person. It is also directly tied to their bonus plan. The key is to hold each person accountable to his or her own goals. In order to drive accountability, accurate reports and documentation are required.
If it isnt documented, it didnt happen. I make it clear that Im reading every report by e-mailing frequent comments, questions, and - very effectively compliments for a job well done. People are depending on history information, and [CRM] documents our conversations with our customers. One of our customers tried to charge us for a missed delivery date, but everything in our CRM system is time stamped. That was the end of the story, since we had a record of the buyers call to change the date.
In a CRM system, easily-monitored reports will show activities that are planned, completed and late. Extra visibility can be given to opportunities that have stalled in a sales cycle stage. Reminders can be set to make sure key milestones and deadlines dont get missed. Managers can quickly create reports for each product line to communicate completed and upcoming activities to senior management. Some companies have used their CRM system to assure that a portion of the sales time is being spent on prospecting. This is accomplished by establishing a special classification for prospects and then creating a report that shows only the activities related to these accounts. Likewise, if sending Thank You notes is an activity your emphasizing, it is easy enough to create a special menu item in the software that is used whenever a salesperson sends a Thank You note. The same applies when focusing on specific market segments (see section 1.1) or tracking the top target accounts (see section 1.3). Likewise, for any other specific activities that are part of a companys sales or customer service process, selections to a database record can then be captured in a report or online dashboard display.
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2.4 Coordinate Planning Efforts with Business Partners

Executive Summary
In the spirit of reduction of wasted efforts, needless duplication, and other LEAN philosophies, a number of companies explained a formalized system for establishing and executing coordinated sales efforts with their channel partners. Similar to focusing on a small number of accounts (see previous section 1.3), this section involves focusing on a small number of business partners. This selected group is then part of a two-way planning process where specific goals, action steps, and timelines are established. The results of a dedicated effort to accomplish mutual goals with a small number of partners is much greater than attempting to be all things to all people, which usually results in a reactive approach to opportunities. Specific discussions to clarify expectations regarding communications, logistics, and support will help avoid misunderstandings. Many companies use the mutual planning process to differentiate between tiers of channel partners. Only the most committed and loyal partners are invited to engage in the planning, which ends up determining where the company will invest manpower and budget. Only those partners that develop and then execute these plans are then supported with co-op funds, special discounts, and other valuable programs. The key to successful planning between companies and business partners is making the process truly mutual. First of all, both sides must be absolutely clear about their goals and focus for the time period being discussed. If there is no strategic fit between the two, then it is better to agree not to develop a work plan. This was probably one of the most emotionally charged topics in our study. Both companies and channel partners complained about the lack of emphasis and coordination from the other partner. Joint selling plans create good communications and directed activities. Several companies stressed this approach when launching a new product or service to the market. Systematic review of completed and planned tasks, with clear
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agreement on who is responsible for what activity, is what turns these plans into results.
Smart Practices
The first step is often to determine if there is truly a strategic fit and mutual commitment to joint success. We only create joint plans for the top tier of our distribution network, and even then, only those who choose to go through the whole process. Good planning takes significant resources from both parties and shouldnt be done if there is not a strong two-way commitment. Participation in this planning is a privilege, reserved for partners who will execute it. Extra support, discounts, and programs can be provided only to those who participate. If the mutual commitment is present, then the company and channel partner should put in place a process to define and review goals on a regular basis. If the fit exists, then we agree on which accounts will become targets, what support programs will be utilized, and how we will review progress toward the goals. We created a mutual review process and meet at least quarterly. The partners must have mutual respect and loyalty, and must follow up with each other on all target accounts. We view leads like a loose football. If you dont fall on it, shame on you. Then the company should never give you another one. We are 100% loyal to the company that provides us the lead. I will lose the business before going to the competition. Come up with a creative way to get the top management of key partners to pay special attention to the relationship. We send a monthly rebate check directly to the owner or president of the channel partner. The rebate only gets sent if certain targets are hit and if the monthly planning sessions take place. If one month he doesnt get the
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check, you can be sure his people hear about it and correct the problem. Beyond discounts and rebates, some companies provide consulting and training to which the partner might otherwise not have access. We offer Six Sigma consulting to our key partners, just as if they were part of our internal management team. Lean is an important part of our culture, so we let the partners in our program participate in our Lean training.
After the mutual planning process is understood and agreement has been reached on action steps and assignments, the problem remains How do we monitor results? The use of a CRM database allows important information to be captured with upcoming appointments and tasks easily viewed. Completed tasks and appointments are saved with notes about what happened so that everyone is up to date on the status of the plan. Using the standard project and task functions, joint sales plans can be entered and the status (complete, in progress, not started) can be monitored. Special reports or dashboards can show the current status of each project along with completed and planned activities. Integration to the accounting system allows for up to date monitoring of orders and shipments for each partner as well. Documented meeting notes keep track of commitments, accomplishments, and setbacks. Recurring appointments can be made to make sure agreed-upon communications, either by phone, e-mail, or in person, are scheduled.
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Section Three: Sales Optimization through Technology

Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software packages have been purchased by many companies in hope that the sales team would become more productive, as is often seen when investments in technology are made in the operations side of a business. Unfortunately, the fact remains that while technology may improve the effectiveness of an undisciplined or unfocused sales force, true optimal results require a well-managed process of implementation, training, and ongoing coaching and monitoring. This section addresses Smart Practices related to getting the most output from a sales staff once a commitment has been made to invest in SFA or CRM technology. The successful implementation of such a system depends on selection of the best system based on functional requirements, followed by process-centered training, ongoing coaching, and a philosophy of continuous improvement as opposed to attempting to change everything on the first day of usage.
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3.1
Take Small Steps to Drive User Adoption
Executive Summary
Our research found that successful implementations often started by selecting a small group of respected individuals to serve as your pilot group. This group will help determine the processes, policies, and expectations before the implementation and then during their initial experience with the new processes and the new tool. Modifications may be made based on this groups lessons learned; when the pilot is complete and the next group is going to be trained, the new students will know that this system has been fine-tuned by these respected leaders and that these leaders have been using the system and benefiting from it. Developing a multi-step training plan that introduces processes and functions in stages is a second ingredient of successful implementations. This allows users to get comfortable with new habits gradually, learning to use e-mail and their calendars first, for example, followed by opportunity tracking and eventually entering history and following up on quotes. Each company will determine the sequence of training based on priorities Finally, success depends on the selection of an internal champion to support and drive the implementation of the new processes and the new system. A focused project manager is also essential to success since everyone will be distracted with the pressures and interruptions of daily activities. This person can be a sales administrative person, an information technology person, or an outside consultant. The key is having a detailed person identifying and communicating all assignments and addressing any obstacles that threaten to delay the implementation. Getting users to properly and regularly adopt a new approach to their work is the hardest part of improving sales results. Having a pilot group field test the new procedures and the new software tool gives credibility to the value of the effort when these individuals can share stories of how the system worked for them. Fine-tuning the internal processes with a pilot group also reduces the frustration of midcourse corrections when the full implementation begins. The goal of a phased-in approach is to have no surprises during the initial training.
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Smart businesses using CRM systems encourage users to actively use the sales and marketing software. If you dont have this in place, they will look for and find excuses to stop using the software, whether it is a lack of time, bugs in the software, inaccurate data, or claims that this is just another management fad. To combat these excuses, the smartest practices include the following: Align incentives with the sales automation tools. Sales people are goal-oriented and highly motivated. They are keenly aware of paid vs. unpaid activities. Though they will complete as many unpaid activities as are necessary (for example, expense reports), they are less likely to give their best effort to activities they dont directly benefit from. Giving an additional commission or cash bonus for entering data may seem like you are compensating people for completing the basic requirements of their job, yet it is the best way to guarantee data will be entered in a timely and accurate fashion. Find the opinion leaders in each sales team. Persuade them that the system will help them while improving the overall customer experience. Start with a pilot group. The results will help you to convince other users of the benefits. Gain management support. If the president doesnt think its worth his time, then your salespeople will feel justified in ignoring the system. Provide avenues for employee feedback. They will legitimately have questions and suggestions; you need to listen to them and react appropriately as needed. Make sure all management, trainers, and support staff are on the same page regarding the implementation. The message should be consistent no matter who the sales team talks to. Communicate whats in it for me? to all of the users. Have them explain it to you. If the team doesnt understand the benefits of the system both to themselves and to the entire organization they will not give it their best efforts. Over-communicate about the status of the implementation. You can never give people enough information. The more you communicate, the less likely they will be to start questioning why things arent happening that they thought would happen.18
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Smart Practices
Develop a roadmap for training based on what is most valuable to the users. You need to start with reports that give the salesmen what they need [e.g., Any crisis? Any credit issues? Any complaints?]. The whole goal is improving sales productivity, not feeding management reports. The reports must be accurate, or the system will lose credibility. Data quality and integrity is job #1. It is imperative to have a driver an internal champion, and an external project manager if needed. The timetable for implementation must be constantly communicated and meet the milestones, or people get frustrated. Create a simplified database focusing on a few key functions. We tried not to digest everything at once. We first focused on a few things, such as quote automation and cleaning up the contacts and accounts. Then we expanded to more daily functions, such as entering appointments and sending e-mails. Our users appreciated the fact that they could learn in stages. Separate the nice to haves from the need to haves. We really dumbed down the database at the beginning, simplifying the fields and the screens. Dont let the trainer show all the bells and whistles. Focus on what to call things, what to do. Take screen shots and create cheat sheets the objective isnt to create a manual. Create a pilot team to work with the new system and processes; they help sell the rest of the users. We knew we would have resistance. So we took a crosssection of our well-respected inside and outside salespeople and had them use the system for a while. Once they got hooked on its value, they helped the rest of the company buy in to the idea.
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At the end of the day, if the only answer to why we use CRM is they tell us to, then we have failed.
A key to successful adoption of new technology is to develop new habits and behavior. A good system will allow the administrator to simplify the screens and menus that the user sees until basic habits are formed. Most CRM systems will allow functions to be totally hidden from view. This approach allows a very simple experience at the beginning so users are comfortable. Following a clearly communicated sequence and schedule, users will be notified and trained periodically before the next level of functions is turned on. Having accurate, clean data (e.g., contact and company names) in the system before training begins is essential. Good CRM systems have import utilities, merge and purge functions, and professional services support with initial data clean-up and import. Simple modifications of the CRM database to include the labels, processes and language that are familiar to the users increases comfort levels and utilization. The CRM administrator should be able to make these changes without incurring extra outside costs.
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3.2
CRM is a Tool, Not a Solution
Executive Summary
In our research, successful companies repeatedly told us that the key to upgrading the sales effort was to first implement a standard sales process (see section 2.1), and only then implement a CRM software tool to facilitate that process. Many organizations favored the creation of a task force to create the sales process. The functions and tasks performed as part of the process became the criteria used in selecting a software system. This approach to implementing CRM recognizes that the real objective is to discover the optimum processes to follow in the daily activities of inside sales, outside sales, and customer service. The disciplined habits of how to sell, what to sell, which customers to target, and how to communicate internally are identified first.
Smart companies realize that implementing CRM is mostly about getting sales team members to adopt a disciplined approach to selling, forecasting, and customer service. Once the sales process is defined with specific work flow and expectations for each job function, the task is to train people on the new process, including what to enter into the CRM software tool and when to enter it. This approach avoids the common failure where users are taught every aspect of a software system in one session, and then, overwhelmed, they return to their jobs and implement bits and pieces of the tool depending on what they remember and care about. A CRM software system can only be effective if the company that adopts it has a clear understanding of each step in the sales process and a definition of each job function. Defining the essential processes assures that whatever software system is selected will be strong in the most important areas. A long-term view of where the sales methodology is headed will help in the selection of software that will allow continued enhancement of the sales process. Finally, knowing what users will be doing on a daily basis helps shape the training, including which features to emphasize and which features to avoid.
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Smart Practices
The first step to any successful CRM project is the initial needs assessment based on the standard sales process. This step was important in order to get everyone to see the need for change. The information from the user surveys and interviews was funneled into the training for the pilot group. Any CRM software implementation is doomed from the start if it is touted as the answer to systemic problems; rather, it should be viewed as a way to better track and document a solid process. If the CRM system is seen as a solution, it will fail. The software is simply a tool to help us quickly and consistently follow our agreed upon techniques. The development of these techniques is really the solution to improving our sales effectiveness. Once the pilot succeeds, every salesperson must be required to use the new CRM system, regardless of how long they have been employed or how much they sell; it is not optional. Our challenge was to get the sales guys to use the tool so we first focused on the items they cared about most. But eventually, all parts of the process were mandatory. The initial enthusiasm among some of the users gradually faded as they saw that half of the company wasnt using the system, making the information that was entered incomplete and of little value. Top management must also buy into the system from the outset and utilize it consistently on an ongoing basis. Where the project fell apart was when top management did not attend training, did not use the system, and provided no support for using the system or consequences for not using it. The problem was that management thought buying the software was going to solve everything, as opposed to realizing it was simply a tool.
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Throughout the process, keep in mind that the end goals are increased sales and higher margin, not more data in the CRM system; thus, participation needs to be mandatory, but it also must make sense. You have to keep the priority on getting knee to knee and eye to eye with the customer. The quicksand that could mire the CRM system is overkill on data entry if the IT guy gets involved, you may as well cut off your knees. Its about excellence, not perfection. Instead of using the software out of the box, make sure it is tailored to your sales system, and customize your training materials accordingly. We have a pretty extensive users manual of how we do it how to enter a contact or an appointment the way we want it done, not the generic training materials from the software provider. Our book is a quick reference tool that is right on the desk.
A proper CRM software system should match the standard sales process exactly. It must also include the common language of the organization. Each step of the sales process must be completed before the next step is begun, so certain information can be made mandatory before the next work step is accessible in the system. Pipeline reports should include a velocity calculator to help determine when and where deals are stalling. Customized fields and drop-down menus can help capture target account information in a fast, consistent method. In short, all of the previous sections of this compendium can be facilitated through the use of a CRM system. CRM training should be conducted with a fully active database, not a generic training database. Special reports and/or screens that display how each user is complying with the new process are important and should be shown to all users, even if only management will have access. A comprehensive training reference manual showing actual screen shots of proper data entry is much more effective than generic user guides and online training modules. Easy to use job aids to reinforce key skills, combined with supervised practice using the actual database, will shorten the learning curve and reduce errors.
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3.3
Coach Your Coaches on the System
Executive Summary
One of the most powerful, yet underutilized ways to enhance a CRM system is to ensure that the sales managers fully understand and are completely comfortable using the new system before it is mandated to the rest of the sales team. The sales leaders must be coached to become coaches. Once they become CRM advocates, they can help drive user adoption downward. Sales managers need to learn how to ask questions and give advice using the new process vocabulary. Using the system themselves will encourage use by their direct reports. For example, managers will love the system if they have screens to show them at a glance whether a particular salesperson is properly following the sales process and documenting plans and activities. The salespeople in turn will quickly learn to use the system, knowing that the manager is monitoring it closely. Conversely, they will reflect the content frustration at incomplete or incorrect information impacting their decision making. Management needs to be involved in more than a cosmetic fashion. A senior member of the sales management team needs to attend the training, and this same manager should inspect the sales activities for a period of time to make sure they continuously are consistent with the new sales skills introduced during the training. After implementing the new sales process, you should plan to reinforce the process by coaching managers on how to sustain the new processes in the field. This may involve sales management training and the introduction of automated tools or CRM software, as required. Finally, you should measure the impact of the project, using the metrics originally identified during the management alignment phase.19 A CRM system, properly implemented, can be part of a sales culture that encourages high performance and challenges each salesperson. Top sales professionals arent just in sales for the money. They work in sales because its a vehicle to uncover the hidden potential that is inside them as individuals. Good sales leaders are coaches who can help people discover their talents. Great sales leaders know how to coach each individual so that unique strengths emerge. Outstanding sales leaders go beyond
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this and create meaningful experiences that help professionals connect with their basic goals and needs.20
sales
Change management is the hardest part of implementing a CRM system. It is never easy to undo old habits and create new ones, but it can be done with appropriate coaching. The best coaching is not just about the system, it is about speeding up the sales cycle - which usually motivates everyone.
Smart Practices
Sometimes, good coaching can be nothing more than recognizing success by e-mailing good news to all members of the sales force. We constantly coach and combine coaching with success stories. We forward success stories to other salespeople on the team as motivation and recognition. I monitor the system first thing every morning. If I see a good success, I let him know right away. This makes him realize Im using the system, too. Reps will do what they think will make them successful. Simply making sure to use the information in the system during sales calls and meetings quickly reinforces the value. We developed coaching tools for the managers you can simply download discussion points from the system before going on a joint sales call our salespeople saw how easy it was to be well prepared If you dont push it from above, and get the managers supporting it, the CRM system wont work We have quarterly territory reviews where the sales rep walks top management through his activities and plans, using the CRM system as a resource. It becomes obvious very quickly who is and isnt using it properly, so we give help where it is needed
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A good CRM system lets a sales manager view the calendars, history, opportunities, and quotes of each individual salesperson, as well as team level activity by account, territory, region, product line, and numerous other variables. Having constantly up to date information about what salespeople are working on without the need for time-wasting meetings and call reports is one of the biggest benefits of a CRM system. Opportunity management is a powerful part of any true CRM system. Smart sales managers keep an eye on the balance of opportunities at various stages in the sales process. A salesperson with too few opportunities about to close may be having problems with qualification or needs analysis. A rep with virtually no opportunities in the early stages may need help with prospecting or developing target account lists. Balanced selling also can be monitored by product line or market segment. If a company is launching a new product, a flexible CRM system allows all planned and completed activities that are related to that product to be displayed in a report or dashboard.
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Conclusion
This compendium of smart practices will never stop growing, as long as successful sales and marketing leaders are willing to try new methods and to share their stories with their peers. We are constantly impressed with the number of innovative ideas being developed. We hope that the readers of this document will send us their new discoveries as they embark on the sales improvement journey. The highlights of the research clearly point to proven ways to succeed in the adoption of CRM systems in the selling environment. The stories of failed implementations can surely be traced to a lack of understanding of a few or all of the core principles outlined in the preceding pages. Smart companies that are clear about their market direction and focus, that are intentional about what they expect from the sales force, and that are deliberate in the step-by-step introduction of technology as a support tool these companies can and are clearly using CRM as a strategic advantage. Commence Corporation is committed to the continuing success of the sales and marketing efforts of our customers. Please feel free to take advantage of our experience go to www.commence.com, or speak with one of our experts at 732380-9100.
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Footnotes
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Caxton Growth Partners, 2006; Gager, Bill. How Low Can You Go? Construction Equipment Distribution. October 2005. Available online at: www.cedmag.com/article-detail.cfm?id=1136.
Eades, Keith M. The New Solution Selling. McGraw-Hill. USA: 2004. Berry, Michael J.A. and Linoff, Gordon S. Data Mining Techniques. Wiley Publishing. USA: 2004. James, 2006. Kahle, Do you have a selling system? 2005. Study reveals 12 steps to improve sales. Progressive Distributor. May/June 2005. Page 10. Study reveals 12 steps to improve sales. 2005. Besier, Klaus. Learning from the Supply Chain. destinationCRM.com. June 17, 2002. Available online: www.destinationcrm.com/articles/default.asp?articleid=2280. Eades, 2004. James, 2006. Eades, 2004. Cargill, Gil. Coaching: The Number One Success Strategy For Sales Management. 2005. Available online at: www.salesleadershipforum.com. Kahle, Dave. Transforming Your Sales Force. Progressive Distributor. ISCON 2005. page 12-14. Emerson, Mike and Marks, Mike. Case Study: Missing Sales Management. Modern Distribution Management. 2004. Available online at www.mdm.com/stories/marks3505.html. Blades, 2003;
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Cargill, Gil. Compensation Doesnt Manage Very Well. 2005. Available online at: www.salesleadershipforum.com. Eades, 2004. Beasty, Colin. CRM Initiatives Are Not Meeting Predefined Goals. destinationCRM.com. April 14, 2005. Available online at: www.destinationcrm.com/print/defualt.asp?ArticleID=5020. Caxton Growth Partners, 2006; DAntonio, 2003; Peppers, Don and Rogers, Martha. The Adoption Problem. 1to1. March 27, 2003. Available online at: www.1to1.com; Peppers, Don and Rogers, Martha. How Do We Overcome Employee Resistance to Our Customer Initiative?. 1to1. May 22, 2003. Available online at: www.1to1.com. Symens, 2003. Eades, 2004. James, 2006.
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Smart Practices That Pay

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Section One: Marketing Strategy

What are these customers competing

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1.1 Focus on Defined Market Segments

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1.2 Communicate Value Consistently

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1.3 Organize the Sales Department by Accounts

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zone. We dont waste a time until an opportunity is in the red zone.

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Section Two: Sales Management

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Implement a Standard Sales Process

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2.2 Hire Salespeople to Stay in the Office

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2.3 Assure Salespeople are Tightly Accountable

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2.4 Coordinate Planning Efforts with Business Partners

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Section Three: Sales Optimization through Technology

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Take Small Steps to Drive User Adoption

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CRM is a Tool, Not a Solution

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Coach Your Coaches on the System

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