Selling CRM to Your Sales Force

Salespeople as a breed are resistant to change, especially when the change affects how they do their jobs. They don’t get very far in their field without knowing how to work a prospect, stay in touch until closing the sale (or getting a definite “no”), and track their numbers against projections. Over time, they develop their own ways of doing things that fit best with their individual personalities and goals. Whatever else it may be, it’s effective–if it weren’t, the salesperson would wash out.CRM and other integrated business tools often represent a new way of selling, and therein lies the problem. Salespeople–especially commissioned ones–feed themselves on their ability to translate their way of doing things into revenue for their employers and themselves. How do you ask people to change something so central not just to their livelihoods, but to their lives?

Salespeople also know a sales pitch when they hear one–while the old saw “You can’t con a con man” may not be fair in the context of hard-working professionals, the concept does apply. They know what a hard sell looks, feels, and smells like. Going at them with random product stats, a few testimonials, and some feeds ‘n’ speeds will alert them that you’re trying to sell them something they might not want. So how do you make salespeople want to incorporate CRM into their work style?
The sad fact is that, despite the tremendous value CRM tools can bring, most research pins market penetration at around
50 percent–and it’s been hovering there for some time, with some variations depending on how the analysts choose to sort the data. Why hasn’t there been more headway? Too often, the reasons are the same old ones CRM has been telling readers about for years: Executives foolishly believe the technology will magically solve organizational problems, or salespeople mistakenly see the tools as primarily benefiting executive-level micromanagement.

View complete article at destinationCRM.com.