Sunday, May 2, 2010

CRM Master or Servant?

The company that I work for will be starting working with a CRM tomorrow morning. I have worked with CRMs before and I always find the sales forces reaction to them very interesting. They seem to drop in to several differnet groups.
GROUP 1: These folks are the ones that see the CRM as the servant that they will use to improve their sales. The CRM will allow them to organize their business, organize their presentations and all their interactions. These folks will take this and use it constantky to improve themselves. They will understand that the time they put in is an investment, and they will quietly go to work.
GROUP2: This group will look at the CRM as a huge waste of time, they have their own system that they've always used and they don't want to put any time or effort in, what they have works, and they always feel that this too shall pass. They complain about the system at every opportunity and they only use the system to the minimum, they don't want to say they aren't using it, they are passive agressive.
GROUP 3: This group sees the CRM as a big brother intrusion on their freedom as a salesman, they will ignore the system and refuse to engage and hope it'll go away. They are active in their reaction, they hate it, they don't care who knows how they feel.
Part of what will cause these reactions is the way in which management uses the CRM. Some managers are like the third group, they don't believe in the CRM and they think upper management will stop using it. They pretty much ignore the program and the way sales uses it.
Oter managers use it as a micromanagement tool, they aren't really interested in what you put in to the system, only how often you log in, how many open contacts, how often you move things along. They are looking at the system and not the activity.
The third group, looks to see that you are using the system, how you are improving by using it, and where they can help you. These folks use the system as a contact oppotunity and a coaching aid.
Obviously, a CRM is a tool that can be used, abused or igonored,it all depends on the person. Be the person that you want to be.

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