Let’s start with a list of things sales people do not like doing:

  • Writing monthly/quarterly reports
  • Looking for marketing collateral, product descriptions
  • Entering data
  • Processing documents

This is evidently not an exclusive list but one which relates to CRM systems.  When new CRM Systems are put in place, too little attention is paid to the real requirements of sales people. They are regarded as a source of information and are often left with little more than an automated address book with contact history and opportunity management. Even the opportunity management is more often oriented towards management information requiremens and not to the need of sales people.

The remedy is not tricky. When a new sales support system is to be introduced, ensure that exisiting information is imported for each sales person, provide interfaces to back end systems with sales and product data and ensure that reports and forms exist to relieve the sales force of routine tasks.