CRM Software Information and Recommendations

by Alan Rigg

I thought I’d share some thoughts concerning the second-most-frequent question I receive from our website visitors. It’s not actually one question; rather, it’s a series of questions that pertain to CRM software. Common examples include:

• “Which software do you recommend?” and
  
  
• “What are some strategies that will motivate my salespeople to use the software effectively?”

Let’s begin by reviewing some common flaws that negatively impact CRM system adoption.

Flaw #1: Too Much Data

Let me give you a real-life example of how this flaw creeps into CRM system implementations. I used to work for a large computer distributor that decided to make a multi-million dollar investment in CRM software. After they chose which software they were going to use, they went to every department and asked them to define the information they would like to be able to extract from the system. They then designed the system to capture all of these data elements.

There were just two problems. First, no one took into account the fact that the company’s salespeople would have to enter most of this data into the system. Second, when the reports were designed, there were lots of reports for various layers of management…but there were no reports for individual salespeople. Salespeople were being asked to enter lots of data into the system, but they received no direct benefit from doing all that work! As you might expect the system was a colossal failure.

I was asked to help redesign the system from the ground up. The “fix” consisted primarily of the following four components:

1. Asking each group to identify which of the data elements they had previously requested were truly critical
   
   
2. Stripping out all non-critical data elements
   
   
3. Designing reports that would help individual salespeople manage their sales opportunity pipelines effectively
   
   
4. Teaching salespeople how to use these reports

When the system was re-launched, the compliance from the sales team was MUCH better than it had been the first time around.

Keep this story in mind when you think about your own company’s CRM system. Do you really need ALL of the fields that appear on each system screen?

If you want to motivate your salespeople to use the CRM system, don't ADD additional fields to the original (“canned”) version of the software. Instead, REMOVE fields from the screens they access. You don’t need to remove these fields from the database; just don’t display them on the screens your salespeople use!

If you remove clutter and focus everyone’s attention on the data elements that REALLY matter, you will have fewer problems getting users to update the system in a timely and accurate fashion.

Flaw #2: Most Salespeople HATE Administration

Even though we were able to salvage the computer distributor’s multi-million dollar investment, the situation still wasn’t optimal. Why? Because it still relied on salespeople to do most of the data entry.

One of the characteristics measured by my company’s sales assessment tests is the individual’s interest in process, procedure, administration and financial tasks. I have assessed thousands of salespeople over the years and my experience has been that approximately 80% of top sales performers have very low scores for this particular characteristic.

(I can feel your head nodding; if you have worked with salespeople for any period of time I’m sure this comes as no surprise to you.)

Isn’t it interesting that CRM systems rely primarily on salespeople to do the data entry, yet most salespeople have very little interest in doing this kind of work? Is it any surprise that many companies struggle with getting their salespeople to enter data into their CRM systems in a timely and accurate manner?

Sure, you can hold your salespeople accountable for entering data into your company’s CRM system, and you can inspect to make sure it happens. But, is this really the best use of expensive salesperson time? Wouldn't you agree that it would make more sense to offload the bulk of CRM system data entry to $8 to $10 administrative people and let your salespeople focus on SELLING?

Flaw #3: Lack of Pipeline Data Quality Inspection

If I may speak plainly, there is a whole bunch of crap in most companies’ sales opportunity pipelines. The crap is the opportunities that have been stuck at the same step of the sales cycle for weeks...or months.

I teach my clients to grill their salespeople to find out what the salespeople know about their pipeline opportunities. Far too often the unavoidable conclusion is that most of the opportunities have never been properly qualified. If an opportunity has not been thoroughly qualified, how on earth can the salesperson predict with any accuracy when (or if) it will close?

I don’t care what process you use to track your company’s sales opportunity pipeline. Do yourself a favor and sit down with every salesperson once a week. Pick specific opportunities from their pipelines and ask them questions as if you were the salesperson and they were the prospect. This simple process will help you determine whether the opportunities in the salesperson’s pipeline have been properly qualified and whether they have any realistic chance of closing in the foreseeable future.

For poorly qualified opportunities, send the salesperson back to the prospect to ask specific questions. The goal should be to re-activate these opportunities or remove them from the salesperson's pipeline.

After completing this work, your salespeople's pipelines will probably look pretty lean. They will no longer have the false sense of confidence that can result from having a large number of (poor quality) opportunities in their pipelines. Instead, they will have a starkly clear picture of the amount of prospecting they need to do to achieve their sales targets.

Your first one or two meetings with each salesperson are likely to be pretty lengthy. However, after you have done the “catch-up work” of clarifying the status of each of their opportunities, all you will need to address in future meetings are the brand new opportunities that were added to the pipeline during the previous week and changes to the status of previously identified opportunities. Dissecting this information should require no more than one hour per salesperson per week.

My CRM Software Recommendation

I used to talk a lot about a software application called M-Power™. What I like about M-Power is it focuses on capturing just the information you need to track your salespeople’s prospecting effectiveness and the rate at which opportunities are progressing through the sales cycle. As a result, data entry is limited to two to five minutes per day per salesperson (rather than the twenty minutes to one hour per day per salesperson that is required by most CRM systems.)

Unfortunately, M-Power does not capture a lot of valuable historical information such as multiple contact names, addresses, phone numbers, conversation notes, etc. I found this makes many companies reluctant to use it. They are equally reluctant to use two software applications in combination: M-Power to track sales activity, and something else to capture historical data.

So, how do we find a happy middle ground where detailed historical data is collected (which enables smooth transitions when salespeople leave your company), but we don’t waste a lot of (expensive) salesperson time on data entry? Until a few months ago the only answer I could recommend was for you to pick the CRM system of your choice and try to have enough administrative staff available to do most of the data entry.

Then I was contacted by a company called Landslide™ Technologies. Like Salesforce.com, Landslide provides an ASP (application service provider) software application, which means users access the software via the internet.

What really blew me away about Landslide’s approach is each "seat" gives the user unlimited access to a live, dedicated assistant! This means your salespeople can call their Landslide assistant, do a "data dump" (on the telephone, via voice mail, or by sending information via e-mail), and get on with their selling activities. The Landslide assistant takes care of creating and editing account and opportunity records. The assistant will even perform research for your salespeople to gather information about prospects, customers and industries!

Landslide is not just a one-trick pony. Their software enables you to define the specific sales process(es) you want your salespeople to follow. You can build these predictable, repeatable sales processes into the software and also embed sales resources such as brochures, checklists, presentations, white papers, etc., for your salespeople to reference at appropriate times during the sales process.

Landslide also enables your salespeople to share documents with prospects (and other sales team members) via dedicated websites (portals). It even alerts your salespeople when prospects have downloaded documents so they can follow up!

Get a FREE Book When You Complete an Online Demonstration

The folks at Landslide are pretty clever marketers. They recognize that people like me are likely to be asked for CRM software recommendations with some frequency. So, they have created an “Authors Program” where qualified individuals who attend an online demonstration can receive a FREE book that Landslide purchases from the (sales expert/trainer) author. The demonstration participant receives a free book, the author gets to sell a book (to Landslide), and Landslide gets to show people how good their CRM system is. It's a classic win-win-win situation!

Of course, I would be willing to share the Landslide story with you regardless of whether it gave me an opportunity to sell a book. To me the fact that Landslide's CRM system includes administrative help from a live assistant is just BRILLIANT. This approach solves the single biggest problem that causes CRM systems to fail. What a great way to dramatically increase the chances of getting timely and accurate data from your CRM system!

Do You Qualify to Use Landslide?

If you would like to learn more about Landslide, in just a moment I will provide a couple of website links. However, before I do I would like to alert you to one important condition that will help determine whether you qualify to use Landslide's service.

This condition is the minimum number of users Landslide is willing to include in a licensing agreement is SIX (including both salespeople and sales managers.) If you don’t have six people (including managers) on your sales team right now, but you have plans to grow to six within a reasonable period of time, and you are willing to commit to PAY for a minimum of six users as of a specific date (which will be agreed upon by you and Landslide), then it makes sense for you to investigate Landslide.

If you have a minimum of six potential Landslide users (or you are planning to grow to six relatively soon) and you would like to receive a FREE copy of my sales management book, How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Sales Team Performance, you can request an online Landslide demonstration here.

Click the following link if you would like to visit the Landslide website. A link to the Landslide website is also provided at the bottom of the demonstration request page.

FREE Sales Pipeline Management Special Report

If you would like more information on the topic of sales pipeline management, click the following link to download a FREE special report.

If you have any questions concerning CRM software or how to implement it successfully, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to schedule a no-obligation telephone conversation for the purpose of chatting about your specific situation. Perhaps I can offer some useful suggestions?

I will look forward to speaking with you soon. Best wishes for sales success!

Sincerely,

Alan Rigg
President

 

80/20 Sales Performance
10559 East Tierra Buena Lane
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
Toll Free: (866) 531-3917