- Software comes with the vendors version of best practices. This may not be your company's view of best practices. Converting to their best practice could hurt your results.
- For CRM in particular, attempting to get information on what your best salespeople do is a problem. If you ask them what they do, so that you can copy it, then watch them, you will find that they don't practice what they say. This is true of other professions, but it may not have the same impact. Most of what people do is done subconsciously. That's why what they say and what they do is different.
- Many IT projects fail because they try to do too many things for too many people. This increases complexity and increases opportunity for failure.
- Because of the defined complexity, the application becomes difficult to navigate and decreases productivity and sales. It's better to make it simple.
- There is too much emphasis on training vs. education. Training tells you how to do it. Education helps you understand why you should do it and how that will help to improve performance. There was another question related to how much training should be provided vs. making the software intuitive. Would anybody play games if they required you to attend a full day training session?
Those were my key takeaways. You can check for more on Twitter at #ITfail.
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2 comments:
Hey Marc,
I particularly agree with point # 2. It can be difficult enough to capture all of the minutiae of a process that is fixed, let alone capture and convey all of the 'on the fly' dynamic activities that surround a sales situation. I find that the next steps that come from a sales meeting can vary greatly even in the same industry and client demographic, depending on the personalities involved. I have found that some prospects prefer to simmer and think about their options, while others want to move forward right now. Some sales people are aggressive, some are laid back. Obviously there are some client/prospect personality matches that are better fits than others, and the next steps in the process will vary depending on this.
I find that it can be challenging to capture the best way to process out these situations into workflows as they are very dynamic by nature.
Having a framework in place that is rigid enough to ensure that the right steps in the sales process are taken, while flexible enough to give room for the personalities involved (salesperson and prospect) to 'dance' to their own tune is the key.
Then again, I am a just technician in salesperson's clothes!
Cheers!
Dan Holstein
WW Works Inc.
It's true that there are many variables in the sales process. The key issue is that the CRM process needs to understand what sales people are doing and not force the salesperson to capture data that is not going to help them do their job. If it makes their job easier, they will likely do it. If they are capturing data for someone else to check up on them, they won't.
Mapping the sales process helps us to understand what the best salespeople are doing, what works well, and determining how CRM can help institutionalize (make it easier to be consistent) it through automation.
It's purpose is not to bring everybody down to the lowest common denominator.
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