WIIFM? – It could increase your CRM usage and adoption
As sales leaders we always coach our front line reps to
distinguish themselves and our products, to understand the clients decision
making criteria and to customize a solution that aligns with their corporate and
personal goals. These personal goals are often referred to as “What’s In It For Me” or WIIFM, and when
addressed properly will lead to shorter sales cycles, usually with higher
margins.
It is this simple concept that sales leaders often miss or
disregard completely when selecting tools like Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) software, believing that tracking activities and documenting
opportunities is what will make sales people more successful. This is
completely backwards.
Any good CRM (and CRM implementation) will need to take in
to account not just the reporting needs of management and executive leadership
but also the Sales Force Automation (SFA) and usability for the front line
sales people. A seasoned sales veteran once asked me “If I put all of this in to our
CRM what is it going to give me back?”
It was refreshing to see the WIIFM in action coming from a
sales rep, and highlighted the need to understand behavior and decision making
drivers. With regards to the question though, in some instances CRM usage is so
inadequate the unfortunate answer is “nothing at all”.
What would a sales person want from a CRM? The biggest
request I have heard over the years is for a tool that actually helps them sell
more, not for a tool that only allows management to review/inspect what they
are doing.
Too many CRM’s are selected by sales leadership to enable
“greater visibility and reporting” which may allow for analytics that can be
used to sharpen marketing efforts to increase sales, but how many marketers at
small to mid-sized businesses are actually using CRM analytics today? I would
be interested to see some data on that. (Comments below are welcome)
Some of the SFA features that sales people would like
include automatic follow-up appointment scheduling, lead creation based on past
opportunities (lease term, product life or warranty driven time frames), email
campaigns by themes, mobile access (iOS, Android and BB) and have real time visibility to their person
performance and commissions calculations.
If you want your sales teams to be able to sell more they
will need the tools you provide them to help them do just that. When selecting
a CRM solution for your business did you consult your sales team?
