Selling 2000: CRM & SFA -- Tim McMahon

8/14/2019 Selling 2000: CRM & SFA -- Tim McMahon

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SELLING 2000: The Vision and the Promise of Customer Relationship Management

1995, 1998,2000, Timothy McMahon & Co./Worldwide All Rights Reserved

TIMOTHY MCMAHON & CO. WORLDWIDETel: 603.424.3387 Email: [email protected] WEB : www.mcmahonworldwide.com

1

The New & Updated Versionof the Bestseller

SELLING 2000The Vision & Promise of Customer

Relationship Management!

By Timothy McMahon oneof t he w orlds t op t hree expert s

in sales and market ing!


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Timothy McMahon is one of todays leading

management consultants, and a bestselling

author. In addition to keynoting major Sales,

Management, Corpprate Sales Meetings, and IT

conferences, he consults and trains for client

companies worldwide U.S., Canada, Europe,

Middle East, and Far East -- on strategic

planning, CRM strategy and implementation, and

21st

Century business.

At the national Sales Management Conference

,

McMahon was recognized as one of the worlds

top three gurus in sales and marketing (Timothy

McMahon, Tom Peters, and Al Reis).

A veteran sales representative and sales manager,

Tim McMahon spent over twenty years with IBM,

Digital Equipment, and Dun+Bradstreet

corporations in senior management positions.

McMahon is the author of three books, Selling

2000

, Solving the Sales Manager Equation

, and

the new Dear God! I Never Wanted to Be aSalesman!. He writes the syndicated column

McMahon On Management and he recently

completed a television special for The Computer

Channel on Selling & Technology in the 21st

Century Sales Organization

For more information, contact:

TIMOTHY MCMAHON WORLDWIDEMerrimack, NH

(603) 424-3387

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.mcmahonworldwide.com


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

* * * * *

INTRODUCTION

PART I: THE 5 TRUTHS OF AUTOMATION

PART II: SELLING 2000: A WORLD OF

CHANGE

PART III: SALES MANAGERS -- THE

MISSING LINK

PART IV: THE COMPLEAT SALES REP

PART V: INFORMATTON, PROCESS &

TECHNOLOGY

Part VI. DEVELOPING THE STRATEGIC

PLAN FOR CRM SUCCESS

Part VII. SPECIAL REPORTS: (NEW!)

Death of a Salesman? Technology

& Selling

CRM An Opportunity for

Competitive Advantage in the 21

st

Century Marketplace?

The Seven Secrets of Customer

Relationship Management

The Quest for Market Dominance

The Value Principle (special excerpt for

Timothy McMahons upcoming book)


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INTRODUCTION

What will it take to achieve real sales success in themarketplace today? One thing we do know for sure: is

that selling will be about much more than a salesperson

applying sales skills to close deals. Success, in fact,

will come from a new synergy of strategies and tactics

coming together among corporate functions, field

management, and field sales operations -a synergy that

creates a new and powerful competitive advantage to

close quality, high-profit business. In one sense there's

nothing new in this idea; however, the capability tofully realize it is very new -- the enabling technology of

sales automation.

Everyone directly, or even indirectly, in the business of

selling has heard a great deal about Customer

Relationship Management (CRM) and sales force

automation, (SFA) in the last few years -- with more

coming every day in magazines, industry conferences,or "how to" seminars. Salespeople, managers, and

those in sales support, marketing or corporate

management are beginning to suspect and appreciate

the changes this new technology will bring to the

business of selling and servicing customers. Many are

recognizing that realizing the full potential of CRM will

require far more than providing salespeople with

computers and software. The task will require new

sales and management processes enabled by powerful

sales automation technologies and focused upon real

business issues. How that may be accomplished and a

new company-wide sales synergy created is the vision

and the promise of SFA/CRM.

SELLING 2000 is a new and exciting vision of what

sales automation can be - it's real potential to create a

company-wide information highway that positions the

corporation to establish maximum competitiveadvantage in the marketplace. More than just a vision

of the future, SELLING 2000 is about how to

successfully realize the promise of CRM.

As far back as 1992, a Harris Poll identified that the

number one information systems project of the

Fortune 1000 was sales force automation -- a

sophisticated combination of sales productivitysoftware, computer systems, and communications

networks designed to improve sales productivity, help

identify higher probability opportunities, and create

competitive advantage in the marketplace. Today, in

the first decade of the new millennium, hundreds of


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SFA/CRM vendors compete for a potentially multi-

billion dollar business

What portion of Customer Relationship Management

or Sales Automation systems implemented can be

considered a full success? If we define success as

meeting initial expectations the results are probably

not good. But where CRM has met expectations, the

results have been phenomenal. The question, of

course, is What did they do right?. Thats what

SELLING 2000 is about.

On a personal note When I first wrote SELLING

2000 we called this new sales application Sales Force

Automation or SFA. For reasons still somewhat

unclear to me, the term Customer Relationship

Management or CRM has replaced SFA. I suppose

salespeople really didnt want to be automated. In

updating the book I suppose that I could have done a

global search and replace for CRM and SalesAutomation, but I decided to generally leave the initial

references intact and use the terms interchangeably.

After all, who knows what well decide to call it next !

Since I first wrote SELLING 2000 in 1995, much has

changed and much has not. Widespread customer

success has still not become the norm,; many

companies find themselves on their 3rd

or even 4th

try. The principles of SELLING 2000, however, are

proving themselves to be absolutely true if only

everyone would take them to heart!

This digital version of SELLING 2000 contains all the

original text of the published edition including

worksheets and a completely new section of special

reports on CRM and selling strategies.

.

n Timothy McMahon

July, 2000


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Part I

CRM and Sales Automation: The

Five Truths

Let's begin with a set of five basic CRM/sales

automation "truths," each of which is fundamental to

achieving tangible and measurable success with CRM:

One, to significantly produce more sales, drive greaterproductivity, and enhance sales effectiveness, the

processes established behind CRM will be as or even

more important than the system itself ...

Two, the benefits of sales automation are as great for

the company as a whole -- by providing solutions to

corporate-wide business issues -- and for sales

managers, as they are for the salespeople ...

Three, keeping a database history file of customers,

prospects, and accounts is only a start. Creating

planning and performance systems that utilize this

"knowledge base" are the real payoff...

Four, existing corporate structures and cultures will

change...

Five, salespeople and managers will need to develop

new business skills to take maximum advantage of

CRM technology .

#1. Process - the CRM Cornerstone

It is unique to automation that simply using it

consistently will not necessarily produce quality

results. Automating sales is unlike automating the"traditional" business applications, such as

accounting, manufacturing, order entry and

distribution, where substantial increases in productivity

and efficiency are routine. Traditional business

applications respond so successfully to

computerization because they are already based on

firmly defined and consistently applied process, such

as standard accounting practices or manufacturingmethods. Not so in sales. It is the inherent nature of

computer systems that they do an outstanding job of

automating process; but they are only a reflection of

that process, not the creator of it! A sales automation

system, then, can only be as effective as the underlying


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sales and management processes that it reflects and

supports.

It is not that Sales does not have process ...

unfortunately it usually has too much of it, or

conversely too little -- and it is often inconsistent

across the organization. Sales, including both field

salespeople and sales managers, seems to be in a

perennial tug-of-war with itself. Is sales an art? Is sales

a science? Is sales some combination of the two? Is

there one, consistently most effective way (or process)

to go about selling and managing? Are there manyequally efficient ways to reach the same objective?

There are salespeople and managers who track their

success to their planning and analytical skills and

unrelenting use of a favorite sales methodology or

process. Others, however, swear by their ability to "fly

by the seat of the pants" and choose to rely more on

strong selling and interpersonal skills to make sales.To work for every salesperson, then, a CRM system

would theoretically have to mirror and support every

individual salesperson's personal selling method,

whatever that might be. Despite the overwhelming

difficulties of doing this, what if there is no clearly

defined -- or successful -- method or process to

support? The only result of automating a "mess" is

speeding up the mess.

CRM's broader task is to enhance the activities of

entire organizations who support products (pre- and

post sale) as well as sell them. Like salespeople, other

individuals equally essential to helping find and keep

satisfied customers (marketing, support, and service)

may have little in common in how they work, plan or

manage their businesses. So here again in the real

world of selling and supporting customers there are

too few fundamental common processes ormethodologies. Instead we have plenty of good

people, each doing their own jobs in pretty much the

best way they know how -- or at least in the way their

particular organization has decided. Instead of using

mostly objective "hard" facts and figures, however, to

make decisions, they must often deal with spotty and

incomplete information and subjective "what ifs" and

best guesses, depend upon interpersonal relationships,and navigate political structures. With the trend

towards remote field people, or virtual offices, their

efforts to work together more effectively are often

limited to occasional meetings, electronic mail

messages, telephone calls, and voice mail.


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In our vision of sales automation, customer and

prospect information and process are tools to be

shared among those who "touch the customer" to help

each individual more reliably determine the "best next"

course of action at any point in time that will advance

the customer relationship. Sales automation works

beautifully when people use it to apply effective

processes to better information to support and really

improve what they already do. It works far less well

when it becomes another corporate system -- a data

collector.

In short, a common layer of well-defined, successful

process absolutely must be in place and used

throughout the organization for automation to have

maximum value.

What are the basics of sales process? In selling there

are three: Planning Performance, and Evaluation. Every

sales person, formally or informally, decides on themost effective course of action (plans), carries out

those actions using sales skills (performance), and

critiques the results (evaluation) to determine the next

step (planning again), and so forth. Progress can

usually then be measured against some set of sales

"milestones" or fundamental events in the overall sales

cycle.

Sales Automation can support and enhance sales

processes by providing information to enable creation

of better plans and strategies, through productivity

tools that sharpen performance, and with analytical

tools to facilitate evaluation of sales progress and

effectiveness. These processes, however, need to be

basically consistent across the salesforce for CRM to

have any real impact.

The optimal architecture of a successful sales

automation system would first be based on a clear

definition and implementation of planning,

performance, and evaluation processes. Secondly, by

identification of the or data that specifically supports

these processes, and lastly by the integration of both

into appropriate technology -hardware, networks, and

CRM software.

#2. Corporate & Management Benefits

The second "truth" is that the greatest benefits of

CRM will be found not only with the salespeople but

also within the company as a whole and with the sales


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managers. As much as automation can do for

salespeople, it has proven to have an equal or even

greater long-term potential to benefit sales

management, service, customer support, marketing,

and corporate management -- and even such diverse

areas as manufacturing, distribution and

administration.

Consider that the sales and customer data generated

by sales representatives is actually "root information."

The progress of customers and prospects through the

sales pipeline or funnel provides a base of data fromwhich ultimately all other corporate functions develop

plans and strategies -- and ultimately make

*What is the forecast? How much should we make?

*Should we hire or layoff? In what area?

*Do we expand or contract the business?

*Are our products competitive? What features do we

need?*What is the best market/pricing for our products

*How can we manage leads & the pipeline more

efficiently?

*Where should we invest our resources next year?

*What are our customer's expectations?

*How can we improve customer satiCRMction? 'What

is the competition doing?

*Who is most likely to need our product today?

The most successful CRM systems, in fact, tend to be

those focused on solutions from a set of seven key

business issues which automation can address:

To provide business solutions on this scale will require

a new foundation of accurate and real-time sales

information -- sales data with three characteristics: it

must (1) be readily accessible to any part of thecompany that requires it or can benefit from it (not just

the sales person); (2) be complete and accurate, and

(3) be consistent, i.e., reflect some level of common

process across the sales organization.

An automation system, then, will not only reside on

salespeople's PC's in the field; it must also provide

networking to a master company database and otherremote PC's (such as managers, account team

members, etc.) to provide common access and two-

way data exchange across the company. The

completeness and accuracy of data must be mandated

by a cross-functional management team that


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recognizes the importance of the "root information" to

the company's future.

One manager introduced the critical nature of CRM

for the entire company in this way to the sales

organization:

"At corporate, there are three questions which we

cannot effectively answer which are critical to the

success - and euen survival -- of our company. Those

questions are (1) 'Who are our customers?'; (2) 'Why

do they buy from us?'; and most importantly (3) 'Whydo they quit buying?"'

"You in the field know the answers. At corporate we

have lots of sales and product information, but not

these. "

"Let me ask you this: 'How can we consistently

provide you, the salespeople, with the right products,with the right features, at the right time, for the right

market and at the right price to give you competitive

advantage if we can't answer these three questions?"'

To address the global issue of Corporate Disconnect

will mean creating a new Corporate Information

Highway in which CRM will play a pivotal role. This

highway will provide a common communication link

between corporate management, field management,

and field personnel (sales, service, and support)

transporting information among all three from CRM,

corporate information systems, and external data

sources (e.g., Dun & Bradstreet market data, product

information, etc.). Sales plans, sales activity, and

results data will be shared among sales, sales

management, corporate marketing, account teams, and

other functions that can benefit.

The potential company-wide impact of a corporate

information highway can be more significant than it

might first appear. Traditionally management creates

an annual corporate strategic business plan based on

historical performance data, market research, and a

large supply of "best guesses." The corporate plan

then is implemented downward through the

organization to divisions, regions, sales units, andfinally to salespeople. No plan of course is perfect;

there are always inaccuracies -- the competition does

the unexpected, the economy goes down instead of

up, and so forth. The "problem" is really not that

corporate plans are imperfect; the problem is that

corporations find it difficult if not impossible to


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quickly recognize errors or market changes and

adjust/reimplement the corporate plan rapidly enough

to make a difference. Why? ... because corporations

have never before had a source of real-time field sales

information (paper systems just can't do it)! or a way

to effectively communicate new plans and strategies

instantaneously to the entire organization.

Imagine the potential for competitive advantage of a

corporation that can virtually turn on a dime to

accurately and effectively respond to real-world

market events!

To quote Jeremy Davis, President of Sales

Technologies, "If you're going to fail, fail fast, fix it,

and get on with business." In short, successful

planning is not being right all the time ... no one ever

is. Success is measured by how quickly you know

you were wrong, the ability to identify exactly what

was wrong, and how fast you can do something aboutit.

The Measure of Success in Planning is NOT if you are

right all the time....no oone ever is. Being "right" is at

best an informed guess...

Success is how quickly you find out you were wrong,

can determine what was wrong, and how fast you can

do something about it!

There is no question that the technical capability to

create the corporate information highway exists. The

question is who are the companies who will most

aggressively move to seize this source of advantage by

implementing the technology and addressing the

cultural and organizational challenges of this level of

reengineering (more about this in "Organization

Change").

Finally, field sales management takes on a new role in

this information highway as a central link or node with

expanded opportunities for coaching sales

performance and generally managing a more

productive and efficient sales operation with a new

wealth of more complete information and consistent

process. The impact of CRM on sales managementwill be covered in detail in Part III.

#3. More Than A BUD (Big Ugly Database

The third "truth" is that a single "orientation" of

tracking and keeping a history file of account or


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prospect activity will not be enough to achieve

maximum results. Salespeople, managers, and account

teams need three "views" if they are to use CRM data

to most effectively leverage sales: the Past, the

Present, and the Future.

Past and Present are nothing new -- traditional CRM

systems almost always contain detailed account

history information as well as some current status of

sales progress. Integrating the Future, however,

represents an entirely new generation of CRM

systems. The past, or account history, tells us wherewe have been and is a base for decision making. The

present tells us where we are today through forecasts,

call reports, and performance tools to analyze sales

progress against the measurable milestones of the sales

cycle. The future, however, is the true CRM payoff:

integral Account & Sales Planning.

With planning, sales automation finally pulls togetherall the elements of the logical sales process as sales

takes what they have learned, applies it to where they

are today, and plans the best course of action that

represents the highest probability of achieving the goal.

Plans and strategies will then be electronically shared

and refined between the salesperson and manager and

with other members of a sales team (support, service,

etc.) to produce a better, more consistent overall

customer strategy. Marketing and corporate

management can build upon this base of history and

plans to develop more on target strategic and tactical

plans that better reflect the real world.

The intent then of integrating past, present, and future

customer views is to develop greater customer

satisfaction through enabling everyone who "touches

the customer" to "sing from the same songbook."

#4. Organizational Change

For many companies existing structures and cultures

may change over time with CRM. There are often

strong barriers -- cultural, political, and organizational -

to establishing consistent process, sharing information

and strategies across departmental and organizational

lines, mandating accurate and complete reporting ofcustomer data, and developing team-oriented planning.

Many organizational structures are unprepared to take

advantage of the potential real-world knowledge of the

business CRM represents. Departments, from sales to

service to manufacturing, have never actually needed

(or particularly wanted) to work together as a single


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enterprise, and may even perceive their missions as

mutually exclusive; that is, they think of themselves as

almost separate "companies" within a larger one. This

is Cultural Barbed Wire...

A necessary task will be to bring down the Cultural

Barbed Wire between cross-functional teams and

management and establish a new shared goal of

providing common value to the customer. Providing

shared customer or prospect information (history,

current status, plans and strategies) across the

business using CRM technology is an essential firststep. To fully address these issues, however,

corporations will need to think about reengineering, at

least culturally if not organizationally, to create Sales

Enterprise Zones that refocus each function and

eliminate barriers -- a re-engineering effort made

possible through sales automation technology.

As in the illustration, developing a company-wide salesenterprise begins by first enhancing the business

enterprise of the salesperson -- providing him or her

with new tools and capabilities to improve productivity

and sales effectiveness. Creating the salesperson's

sales enterprise is more, however, than account files

and "To Do" lists. It includes recognition of the sales

territory as a functional microbusiness within the larger

corporate business ... a business which needs to be

funded, supported, and enabled by the "parent"

company and which is responsible for providing a

sufficient return on in investment.

Esquire Magazine tongue-in-cheek (hopefully) recently

listed some of the job requirements for Account

Executives: "Duties generally involve concentrated,

single actions done at the direct command of others ...

contemplative and analytical powers are not mandatory

and may even be considered a liability ... "

The Sales Enterprise model for salespeople is exactly

180 degrees away. Salespeople, in a sense, become

empowered as the executives of their own

microbusinesses with a new balance of both

independence and accountability. Why this approach

now? Look at the trend to the home or virtual office.

Much of the traditional management control exercisedupon salespeople who came daily to the local branch

office has evaporated. Remote sales forces (and

remote sales management) make strong economic

sense but create a whole new set of problems

("What's going on out there?") Not surprisingly then,

the fastest-growing trend in sales compensation is


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commission based on profit. In short, we are putting

our salespeople slowly but surely in the role of

business managers. We run the risk of a wealth of

microbusiness failures unless recognize the enterprise

nature of their work and can give them the information,

guidance, and business tools they will need to succeed

-- many of which can be provided through CRM.

This same microbusiness or sales enterprise concept

can be applied to sales units and regions, as illustrated,

including their cross-functional counterparts in support

and service, as well as to large account teams, andultimately to the corporation as a whole. The enterprise

reengineering task is to create an internal matrix of

interconnected and fully functional business

enterprises, focused on common goals and linked by

common data and process.

The point is this: the team or enterprise concept is

certainly not new to the world of business. The abilityto realize its full potential is. The difference is the

enabling technology of CRM to provide the linkages

that will successfully integrate process, information,

and technology across corporate, divisional, and

departmental boundaries. Strong market forces are

driving the need for organizational reengineering;

technology is the bridge that will make it possible.

#5. Sales & Management

The fifth "truth," with CRM, the way salespeople and

sales managers view and carry out their jobs will be

fundamentally changed, builds upon the organizational

changes many companies will experience. In fact, no

group within the company will see greater and more

challenging changes; and it is here that in many

respects the deciding battle for CRM success willreally be fought.

The terms "sales representative" and "independence"

were once almost synonymous:

*"As long as I'm making the numbers, no one cares

where I am or what I do."

*"How I sell is my own business, as long as it works

and I make quota."*"lt's a great life. That's why I like to sell..."

The above statements just are not true anymore. As

we've already said, making quota or "the numbers" is

quickly being replaced with a focus on sales

profitability, product mix, and individual return on


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investment dollars. How and what a salesperson sells

will soon be considered equally or even more

important than how much is sold. Management will

want to know whether established process guidelines

were followed, was value added in the mind of the

customer, was each sale profitable, supportable, and

capable of building a loyal, referenceable customer?

Furthermore, the customer relationship (and

associated information) becomes a tangible, usable

asset of the company, no longer residing only in the

mind or private files of salespeople. It is perceived as

vital to the very survival of the company (CorporateDisconnect).

Sales managers (and indeed all managers) will face

new challenges in planning and performance

management as they move away *from "gut feel"

decisions to a more "fact-based" management. The

availability and useability of real-time sales progress

and planning data will require managers to hone or

develop new skills in strategic planning, resource

allocation, and sales coaching. Sales managers will

also face tasks that will determine the bottom-line

success of CRM and the benefits it creates. They will

be responsible for managing change at the field sales

level as well as forging practical cross organizational

working links that will lead to the formation of the

sales enterprise zones.

In the big picture, the task represented by sales force

automation is great, but so are the rewards. In the next

ten years, CRM, in some form, will be a requirement

just to stay even -- not an option. Competitive

advantage, however, will be gained by those who can

overcome the obstacles to do it right.

On Teamwork--

"Individual commitment to a group effort -- that iswhat makes a team, a company work, a society

work, a civilization work."

-Vince Lombardi


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Part II - A World of Change

The slow-growth economy of- the last ten years has

created a highly competitive business marketplace

characterized by significant changes in four primary

business areas: the Marketplace, the Company, the

Customer, and Sales Management. Much of the

eventual measure of a company's success in the next

decade will be its ability to successfully recognize and

address the challenges each of these present.

The solutions will require the successful integration of

information into process with state-of-the-art

technology as we redefine the purposes and functions

of planning, performance management, and sales

management.

THE FOUR CHANGES IN BUSINESS

Change In The Marketplace

In the 90's market, the simple truth is that there is not

enough new business to go around. Not every vendor

in any given market will be successful. Marketshare

growth, will then be measured primarily by a sales

organization's ability to take away competitors' existing

marketshare, to protect, grow, and leverage its own

customer base, and, at the same time, aggressively

compete and win the majority of the limited number of

"new" business opportunities available. The task will

be in doing these three simultaneously. The primary

asset of the business then becomes not product or

property or people or even intellectual, but rather its

customer base.

There is a "Catch-22" in this scenario -- a company

which focuses its efforts on an "offensive" strategy,

actively marketing for new business and pursuing its

competitor's install base, can find itself suddenly

fighting strong competitive intrusion in its own

customer base and spending more time "firefighting"

than actually selling. Unfortunately taking the opposite,

a primarily defensive marketing posture, to protect the

base results, at best, in a "no growth" scenario, and

signals a declining revenue and market curve. The

challenge then will be "competitor proofing" the

customer base to limit or repel competitive intrusion,

and to turn the customer base into a powerful

marketing tool which directly assists sales in selling


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new business and attacking the competitor's

marketshare.

The 90's also offer, however, for many industries and

companies a unique period of opportunity to achieve

growth. In many industries, many of the "giants" who

once controlled the marketplace have faltered after

years of virtually absolute dominance. During those

years, successful "smaller" companies strove to

identify and dominate niche markets from which they

hoped to eventually base further expansion. Upstarts

who challenged the industry giants too often died onthe marketing battlefield. Will the giants recover and

reassert their dominance or will "leaner and meaner"

upstarts press through the gap and create a new

industry aristocracy? What will it take then, to either

remain or become an industry giant?

Change In The Company

Corporate executives are concerned today with the

dual issues of increased costs/shrinking margins and

their customer's requirements to provide "added

value." Many organizations will restructure their selling

models and adopt either a feature-based market

strategy or a value based market strategy.

In the "feature selling" model we can drive margin and

profits by providing our customers feature-rich and

aggressively priced products and services and by

keeping the cost of sales low.

In an "added-value" model we may maintain (or even

increase) prices and cost of sales to establish a unique

value-added competitive niche. Our competitive

advantage (and profit margin) comes more from

providing an added value to the customer which has

equal or greater value than the product which thecustomer purchases; such as quality, safety,

consulting or expertise, and so forth. In this model, the

salesperson is a value-provider, not just a product-

provider, or order taker.

Many companies are slowly moving towards selecting

one or the other of these strategies. Both are viable but

mutually exclusive. That is to say you really can't do

both well at the same time. Attempting to do so, taking

the middle ground, I call The Corporate Mousetrap.

More about mousetraps and feature us. value selling

later ... but the point is that strategic choices are being

made.


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The second change in companies, briefly mentioned in

Part I, is the identifying of "Corporate Disconnect,"

the corporate lack of good answers to three critical

questions:

Who are our customers? Why do they buy from us?

Why do they quit buying?

forth. In this model, the salesperson is a value-

provider, not just a product-provider, or order taker.

Many companies are slowly moving towards selectingone or the other of these strategies. Both are viable but

mutually exclusive. That is to say you really can't do

both well at the same time. Attempting to do so, taking

the middle ground, I call The Corporate Mousetrap.

More about mousetraps and feature us. value selling

later ... but the point is that strategic choices are being

made.

The second change in companies, briefly mentioned in

Part I, is the identifying of "Corporate Disconnect,"

the corporate lack of good answers to three critical

questions:

Who are our customers? Why do they buy from us?

Why do they quit buying?

Who does have the answers? The salespeople -- who

in most cases literally "own" that knowledge. For

example, when salespeople leave, are promoted, or

move within an organization, critical customer

information is often lost (if it was ever available to the

company in the first place) -- information about the

business relationship, the needs, hopes, promises, and

expectations of the customer; the vital information that

made the vendor/customer relationship work. Thedoor swings open for the competition. In fact, if a

salesperson leaves and then goes to work for the

competition, the relationship (and revenues) that one

company paid to establish passes directly into the

hands of another.

The point is that the full spectrum of customer

information -- from relationship to service data to

order history -- must become the most valued

corporate resource. Only in this way can a company

most effectively develop and target products and

services and respond effectively to competitive

pressures. Alone this may represent an organization's

most significant technical and organizational challenge.


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Change In The Customer

Recently at a sales executives' conference held in

London, sixty-five CEO's and Sales VP's of large US

and European corporations were asked what were the

two most critical business issues they face in the 90's.

The answers not surprisingly were shrinking margins

and increased costs. The executives were then asked

what they expected of vendors. The answer: "We want

vendors who offer solutions to the problems of costs

and margins by providing value to their customer'scustomer."

In short, to maintain their margins, some companies

will select vendors based on price -- the best price

may represent a real value which can be passed on to

the customer. Others, however, see price advantage as

far less of an issue (or perhaps even a non-issue) and

look for other sources of unique value (again -quality,

security, consulting expertise, etc.) which directly or

indirectly benefit the customer. So this brings up a

fundamental question for vendors:

What is Value to our customers and how do we make

sure that we provide it?

It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to define what

"value" might be to any customer in any given situation

or for any specific company; however, we can

understand how value is either created or destroyed in

the mind of the customer. Value is in the customer's

perception.

What is Value & How Do We Provide It?

VALUE is created by the combination of...

Information, to make the right decisions and ...Process, to carry them out effectively ...

Customer Perceived Value is created when we

effectively combine Information and Process, to

produce Capacity and Capability. With the correct

information available when and where it is needed, we

have the capacity to make better quality decisions that

will benefit both the customer and the our own

company. Process is the decision-making tools,

methodologies, and possible sets of actions which can

be applied to information to make and carry out

quality decisions, i.e., the capability.


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Another way to look at value, however, is to explore

Value Breakdown!. In short, how does value

perception erode or break down between vendor and

customer? There are three elements of value

breakdown. Perceived Value is lost:

(1) when faulty or inadequate information results in

decisions which benefit neither or only vendor or

customer,

(2) when decisions are made which result in taking the

"wrong' actions, at the wrong time, to the wrongpeople, and so forth, (i.e., wrong process) and ...

(3) by anyone who touches the customer!

This third element -- anyone who touches the

customer -- is the most important and underlies the

fundamental problem in consistently providing high

value to the customer. A surprisingly high number and

variety of people in any company do, in fact, directly

touch the customer at any point in time -- from sales

and marketing to customer service, support, finance,

administration, and so on. Others "touch" the

customer more indirectly such as manufacturing and

product engineering, and yet they too have a

responsibility for assuring customer satisfaction. Any

one of these has the dual potential to build or to

inadvertently reduce the customer's perception of

value through making less than the best decisions

through lack or misinterpretation of information and

poor process. This is especially so since often only a

few people really "know" the customer (usually sales

or service/support).

The strategy for preventing value breakdown will be to

assure that anyone who interacts with the customer

always has the right information and process toolsnecessary to make the best possible decisions and

carry them out in the best possible way for the good

of the company and the customer.

Change In Sales Management

Ultimately the responsibility for responding to many of

the changes in the market, the company, and the

customer's expectations will fall on sales management

and through them on the entire sales organization. In

the very near future the role of the sales manager may

little resemble its traditional job description.


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Criteria for Sales Managers

Has a Vision

Defines the Mission

Measures Progress

Has a 20/80 Perspective

Uses "Master-Think"

Builds Teams

Displays Creativity

Moves out of the "Comfort Zone"

Based on surveys of CEO's and Sales & MarketingVP's in the Fortune 1000 companies, the sales

manager of the 90's and the future will be less

concerned with "making the numbers" and become

focused more upon returning profit and productivity

to the corporation. In short, the sales manager will

become an "investment manager"; but in the words of

one Sales Vice President, "Our sales managers are

going to need a lot more information and analytical

tools to achieve that!" Once again, the need for

Information and Process.

Over two years we asked over 500 sales and marketing

managers, "What skills and abilities would you expect

to find in a top performing sales manager?"

Vision & Missiontop sales managers have and can

communicate a clear vision of goals and objectives.

Measures Progress -- "measuring" progress is

different than "tracking" progress. Measuring means

a manager has a clear understanding of strategic

milestones and objectives which need to be achieved

in the sales process to advance to closed business.

The 20/80 Perspective -- top managers can

specifically identify the 20% of the sales effort whichresults in 80% of the business ... and direct

salespeople appropriately.

Master-Think -- top managers are sponges; that is,

make use of every possible resource to improve their

planning and execution. These managers move away

from isolation on "ego islands" that prevent them

from accessing and utilizing the ideas and expertise

of subordinates, peers, and senior management.

Team Builders -- great managers are team builders,

creating personal teams between themselves and

their salespeople, sales unit teams, account teams,

and cross-functional enterprise teams. Their skill is in


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their ability to bring these teams together, facilitate

their effective working together, and leverage them to

build customer satisfaction.

Creative -- a "creative" manager was defined as one

who's motto might be "Find A Way!"... who

tenaciously searches for opportunities and strategies,

using all possible resources.

The Comfort Zone -- A top manager creates and

manages change. He or she is an expert at moving

himself or herself and others out of their "comfort zones," challenging them to seek new solutions,

ideas, and methods (such as CRM) to achieve

greater success.

So management methods and style will need to

undergo much change if sales managers are to measure

up to these criteria as well as become investment

managers with expected ROI.. Many of today's sales

managers rose from the ranks because they were top

performing sales people, and continue to manage their

people in much the same way they were managed, that

is chartered to focus on achieving revenue numbers

with minimal concern for profit or return. The sales

manager now must become more of a mentor or

coach to the sales organization, responsible for not

only guiding and directing sales activities but also

assuring the most efficient and effective use of sales

resources to achieve a broader -- and frankly more

difficult -- set of goals. In summary, the "new" sales

manager will have to become a true businessperson,

running a sales operation like a small business -- as will

the salespeople they manage!

A Vision of CRM--

"...to become knowledgeable with every aspect of the profession, to distinguish between gain and

loss, to develop accurate judgment and

understanding, to perceive that which cannot be

readily seen ... " --The Book of Five Rings


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Part IIISales Managers: The Missing

Link in CRM

Here's the question: "If we could-pick one thing that

makes the d difference between real success in sales

automation and just "ho-hum " results, what would it

be?"

The answer surprisingly is not What but Who. When

all the databases have been defined and loaded, when

all the laptops have been rolled out to the salesforce,

there is still one critical and overriding success factor

left: the first-line Sales Managers. The final success or

failure of a CRM effort rests solidly upon their

shoulders and ultimately they will determine just how

effectively sales automation is used by the sales force.Missing the sales managers is the surest way to "miss

the boat" in sales automation, and yet their role is too

often overlooked. Here is a new "bottom-line" for

sales force automation from a management perspective

-- first, the essential role of sales managers in a CRM

rollout; and second, the tasks before them to assure

success.

The question of whether sales automation is really

worth doing or can significantly improve sales

efficiency and productivity (read that revenues and

profits) has already been asked and debated, and the

answer is pretty much in:

"Well, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't."

Still, most companies, especially larger ones, eitherhave some level of sales automation or are well down

the path of seriously looking at it. Some say, "It's the

best thing we ever did!"; and others, "Well, it didn't do

as much as we hoped". Nonetheless, just about

everybody in business agrees it's probably a good idea

with tremendous potential ... if it's done right. And

there's the rub, what is "right" -- and is there even a

single answer? If so, who's got it?

To look for answers let's just ignore all the technology

for a moment and stop thinking of sales force

automation (CRM) as a computer application. Sure,

there's a wealth of hardware and software here, but

CRM is very unlike any traditional computer


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application or system ever created. Sales Automation

is people-driven not technology-driven.

It would seem at first glance then that it's really thesalespeople who are going to determine if CRM is a

success or failure. Will they perceive it as a powerful

tool to enhance their work, to help them make more

money ... or will they stick with the comfortable "tried

and true" methods of selling? How are we to create an

automated salesforce who not only uses CRM but

pushes it to its maximum potential?

"Sounds like we need to do a real selling job on our

salespeople if we want sales automation to work!"

Well, that's one idea. But what do you do if not

everyone agrees (and they won't!)? Is it still worth

automating if some use it and some don't?

The 100% Solution

Some companies' solution has been, "Don't automate

the sales managers. Avoid the Big Brother mentality.

Give automation to the salespeople first. Let them get

comfortable." One such company reported, after the

first year, that over 60% of their salespeople were still

actively using the sales automation system -- and

counted this a success story. But was it?

Let's assume that the automated 60% of the sales repsexperienced in the first year an improvement in their

personal sales productivity and revenues. That's

certainly good; but unfortunately the company missed

the real CRM payoff: The 100% Solution -- or, as we

discussed earlier, the ability to utilize comprehensive

field sales data to fine tune the corporate sales and

marketing effort for better competitive advantage. We

know that automation's greatest benefits and bestreturn on investment happen when CRM not only

helps salespeople sell day-to-day, but also when it

provides solutions to an organization's business

issues. These "large-scale" benefits, are only possible

when CRM creates a corporate sales knowledge base

of accurate, reliable, and complete field sales activity

data, rolled up and collected in a single master

database. To create that "knowledge-base" -- and

"The Big Payoff" -will simply require 100% use of

CRM by the salesforce.

The problem, then with the "Let the reps try it; they'll

like it!" approach is that the "Big Payoff'' may never

be achieved. Even though the number of salespeople


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26

The 1st Law: The direct benefits to sales managers,

which have been too often overlooked,, are as great or

greater than CRM's benefits to the salespeople.

The 2nd Law: Salespeople will invariably use

automation as much and as well as they perceive their

direct manager uses and depends on it.

So, what are the benefits to managers and how do

management users create sales rep users?

The 1st Law: Management Rewards:

Think about the job of a sales manager. When some

years ago I was first promoted to branch sales

manager I finally thought I had made it -- until I

discovered how little control I really had of what was

going on in the field ... and discovered "midnight

madness."

"Midnight Madness" -- "It's 12:00 AM and I'm wide

awake. The end of the month (quarter, year) is coming

up and I'm having a midnight attack of the FUDS

(fears, uncertainties, & doubts). Will we make the

numbers? How reliable is the forecast? Is there enough

business in the pipeline? How confident do I feel?"

This was when I realized how little control I really had

as a manager to impact sales -- certainly not like when

I was a sales rep! I didn't really have a lot ofinformation about what's going on in the field and I

worried a lot about that.

"I'll call all my reps first thing in the morning and we'll

go over each deal ... again. " (They'll appreciate that!)

Midnight Madness or "It's 12:00 AM; You're Wide

Awake!"

There are sales management questions that just have

no good answers -- the kind that wake you in the

middle of the night ... and keep you that way. Over

two years, with more than 500 sales managers, we

asked "The 12:00 AM Question" to learn what are the

key questions that

managers need answers to and aren't getting -- and that

sales automation can provide through the 100%

Solution. Here are a few

"What's going on out there?"


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Perhaps because most sales managers were first

successful salespeople, they're used to being in

control of events and staying on top of each sales

situation. All that changes as a manager when yourealize that the salespeople don't relish writing activity

reports, educating you on each opportunity (especially

daily), and answering "Did you..." questions ("Did you

qualify that deal? Did you ask for the order?...). You

want to find a way to know what's going on without

"micromanaging" ... and driving the sales people (and

yourself) crazy.

"Where did all the leads go/"

Remember the 500 leads from that trade show? When

you looked through the cards there were some great

"Call me ASAP!" opportunities. You know (er...think)

marketing sent the leads to your sales reps. Now its

been three months and it seems like nothing's

happened. How? Didn't the reps follow up? (You told

them to at your team meeting./) Nobody seems to be

able to give you a real specific answer...black hole!

"What are the Reps up to?"

If the sales reps are in the office you know what

they're doing, it just isn't selling. On the other hand

when you haven't seen them for six weeks ... well, you

get a little nervous!

"Are we going to make the numbers?"

The big question. Will we make it? How accurate is

the forecast? You're trying to remember every deal that

should close. Even though the rep said "Not to worry

" how confident do you really feel? The pressure's on

from upstairs too!

"My best sales rep just quit!"

If you're really lucky he or she just retired to the

Bahamas. If you're really unlucky, that rep now works

for the competition and is coming after his or her old

customers. To make it worse, the new salesperson

you assigned says that she can't find any files to speak

of and nobody seems to know what "Best Rep" was

working on. Oh boy...

"How can I help?"


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And here's the bottom-line, every manager's real

question. You were probably a pretty good sales rep,

even great! You love to sell, to make calls, to

brainstorm and set strategies. Trouble is there's notime, the sales reps don't invite you on calls as much

as you'd like, and when you do go you find its hard to

really help "make it happen" because you're not as

close to the account as the salesrep. (Another

"schmooze" call). Rats...

Every manager tries to walk the line -- between driving

the salespeople crazy with reporting, business reviews,and "How's it going?" calls, and having enough

information to do the real job of sales management:

coaching, planning and helping close business

Managers who have access to up-to-date sales

progress data, as provided through CRM, spend less

time asking "What's going on out there?" and more

time doing their real job. They can now stay in direct

touch with every account and every opportunity

progressing through the sales pipeline and have the

answers at hand to spell the end of "midnight

madness" once and for all. Again, the First Law of

Sales Automation Success: The direct benefits to sales

management are as great or greater than to the

salespeople.

The 2nd Law: Salespeople will invariably use

automation as much and as well as they perceive

their direct manager uses and depends on it.

So how and why does a sales manager who is a strong

user of CRM bring about 100% use and quality by the

salesforce? The answer is through a new management

style: Fact-based Management.

Fact-based management represents perhaps the most

significant change in management technique of the lastfifty years. At its best, it represents a total rethinking of

manager's roles; at the minimum it is at least a

significant change in the corporate and management

culture.

Traditionally, sales managers have managed by "feel."

Managers have never had much in the way of direct

information on accounts, sales progress, or the buying

relationships established. What information that has

been available has come from written call reports or

manager/salesperson conversations -- data often

incomplete or inconsistent and difficult to consolidate

or to analyze to any great depth. Again, the manager is

walking the line between getting enough information to


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manage well and using up rep's valuable selling time

asking for written and oral reports. So a sales manager

strives to get enough information to feel good about a

deal or that the right things are being done in the fieldthat will result in business -- call this traditional "Feel-

Based Management. "

In Fact-Based Management, however, sales managers

have direct access to all the "facts" about the progress

of an account or sales opportunity combined with

potentially an additional wealth of information from

Corporate Information Systems and market data (frominternal marketing, Dun & Bradstreet market data,

etc.). They are now able to essentially view these

opportunities three ways:

1. Past History -- we can see what has already

happened, good and bad, and understand how we got

to where we are today.

2. Present Status -- in the eyes of the salesperson,

where do we stand today with this account or sales

opportunity?

3. Future Plans -- what does this salesperson plan to

do next in order to advance this account towards the

sale or goal?

These come together in a typical fact-based coaching

session:

Fact-Based Coaching Scenario

Anne S., a sales representative for ABC Co. and her

manager "meet" every Tuesday afternoon from 1:30

PM to 2:00 PM to review Anne's accounts andcurrent sales opportunities. Anne works from her

home office in St. Louis, phoning in to her manager,

in New Hampshire. Both Anne and her manager '

share the sales automation database on their laptops

and have her accounts displayed on the screen. They

have both prepared for today's session by reviewing

the top five accounts Anne has forecast to close this

month.

Before ABC Co. introduced sales automation this

was the typical conversation:

Manager: "Bring me up to date, Anne, on each of the

deals you plan to close this month..."


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Anne: "Okay. Well first there's XYZ Co. and I feel

good about this one. Remember how last week I was

trying to get in to see the purchasing agent, well ... "Anne begins the tedious process of educating her

manager on the progress she has made.

Manager: "Why did you do that? Did you think

about...? What are you going to do next?" And then

on to the next deal ...

Much of their half hour was spent bringing themanager up-to-date on what's happened during the last

week -focusing on the past. Not only were her

manager's "coaching" suggestions spur of the

moment, Anne, like most salespeople, approached

these sessions with a "Gotcha!" mentality -- her

manager was reviewing her performance looking for a

"Gotcha!", i.e., correcting Anne for what she could

have done better.

Today, with automation, that conversation -- and

results - -have changed ...

Manager: "Okay, Anne, let's look first at the account

you have as the highest probability of closing for this

month, XYZ Co. I can see here that your plan to get

in and see the purchasing agent was successful and

is says here that he sees no problems with cutting a

P. O. by next week. Anything more you want toadd...?"

Anne: "It was a good call. As I indicated, he does not

meet with most vendors personally so I felt this was a

good sign." "

Manager: "Based on that, Anne, I tend to agree with

you that this deal is an "A" account on the forecast.I'ue reviewed that you plan to meet this week with

XYZ's president to wrap the deal and I think you

have some good ideas. Let me give you some

suggestions on how you may want to approach him

... "

This was a true "Fact-Based" Coaching session, the

intent to find ways to move the sale ahead, and

focused on facts, not making management "feel" good

about the progress of this sale. Anne and her manager

have moved away from "Gotcha!" to "Mentor"

management.


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Glue your computer to your hipWell, not literally;

but in the 2nd Law we said that salespeople would use

CRM as well as they perceived it was used by

management. In short, it's not enough for a manager touse CRM for tracking, analysis, and planning behind

closed doors (in the office, at home, etc.). The

manager's lap,top computer must become the "bible"

of sales activity. It travels visibly with the manager at

all times. Whenever an account is discussed, the

manager refers to the system. During coaching

sessions (especially face-to-face) the system is the

primary discussion tool.

Create the Sales "Team" -- Through the enabling

technology of CRM and the sharing of sales progress

data, successful strategies and tactics can be shared

among members of a sales unit -- competitive

intelligence, industry data, common large account

information, etc.. The "mentor" relationship is not just

between manager and salesperson but extends

throughout the entire sales unit or organization.

. Visibly increase your personal "Q" Factor -- "Q" is

for "Quality." In a survey of salespeople regarding

their opinion of their direct manager's quality, many

responded that they felt managers were out of touch,

didn't really know what was going on in the field,

returned little value to the salesperson from the

information and reports sent in, and that "times have

changed since he or she was selling". In short, it's notenough for managers to simply have better information

at hand; it has to be visibly and effectively used.

. Develop "Plans for Success" supported by facts -

Salespeople want to feel that management has a plan

for success; still many are skeptical of the "sales

strategy of the week" that comes from "Corporate

Disconnect," i.e., "Management doesn't really knowwhat they're doing." Mentor managers are more

successful and find greater sales acceptance with the

plans they develop simply because they are known to

be based on comprehensive field data provided by the

salespeople themselves.

. Complement & CounselA simple technique that is

an essential tool of mentor managers. In the process of

CRM coaching, it's all too easy to quickly find fault

("You should have done this or that!") and create an

instantaneous "Big Brother" reaction. In the coaching

process, find 2 or 3 things to "complement" a person

on before "counseling" what might have been done

better. For example: "Bob, this looks like an excellent


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Certainly this kind of mandate will not produce the.

level of quality users needed -and at this point that'

okay -- but it does create the starting point for developin' a more complete corporate sales database and from

which] the sales automation system can be further

tuned and refined.

STEP II. The Sales Team Strategy Session

At the same time as we are mandating automation, we

would like to begin developing some sense of systemownership by the salesforce -- especially because we

want our tuning and refining efforts to reflect the needs

and wants of sales as much as possible. The Sales

Team Strategy Session begins this process plus

requires a visible commitment by salespeople to make

the CRM project successful.

The Sales Team Strategy Session may be conducted

at any time but is perhaps most effective in

conjunction with initial roll out or user training. Led by

the unit sales manager, the session is attended by

direct report salespeople and other cross-functional

personnel who may have an interest or eventual role in

the project, with the exception of senior management

who should not attend at this point.

The steps of elements of the session are as follows:

1.) Company Values: Setting the StageRestatement

by manager of the corporate mandate and reasons why

the CRM project is critical to the success of the entire

company. "CRM is not an option. Our purpose today

is, a a team, determine how to make this new system

work for us! The company is committed to the

success of this project and I have personallycommitted us to its success!"

2.) Identify the Sales Unit's Challenges in the

Marketplace -- Identify the major challenges this

specific sales team faces in its marketplace, e.g.,

competition, leads, demographics, customer

satisfaction ...

3.) Identify Hi-Value Automation Solutions -- identify

and apply the characteristics and functions of the

CRM system which will be valuable in providing

solutions to the identified unit challenges.


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4.) Identify Sales Manager's Needs & Challenges -For

example, need to improve forecast accuracy, obtain

and apply needed resources, strategic planning, etc.

Identify CRM characteristics which address these aswell. "As a team (manager and salespeople) we have

both unique and common goals to address working

together and towards which sales automation can be

of value."

5.) Establish Team Rules & Tasks -- As a team,

establish and agree upon the functional rules and tasks

to make CRM successful in the unit, e.g., everyonewill use CRM, weekly coaching session times and data

requirements established, incentives and/or

consequences defined.

6.) Statement of Positionthe most important element

of the team strategy session, the sales unit creates a

unit statement of position which details how the team

has committed to make CRM successful. The team

makes a formal presentation to senior management or

creates a document for submission.

The fundamental results of the Sales Team Strategy

Session are that team interdependencies are already

being formed, management's requirements are clearly

understood, team members have had a role

determining how to best utilize CRM, and, most

importantly, the team has delivered a public

commitment to success. At this point, we haveprovided a sales manager a foundation from which to

work.

The Sales Team Strategy Session can be even more

effective when multiple sales units conduct their

sessions simultaneously such as at a regional or

national sales meeting. As each sales unit makes their

final presentation to senior management before theentire group, all sales teams are exposed to a variety of

creative strategies and ideas for maximizing CRM

efficiency.

STEP III: The Manager-Dependent System

Once a 100% user base has been initially established

and the team strategy session completed, the job of

building quality begins, specifically improving the

quantity and quality of data being entered by the sales

representatives. This task falls to the first-line sales

managers and will be the direct result of managers

utilizing fact-based management techniques.


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. A Management Team Strategy Session precedes the

Sales Team Strategy Sessions with much the same

agenda and conducted by senior sales management.

.Senior Management-Dependent Systems Upper

sales management levels utilize CRM as a fact-based

tool to manage their manager-level reports.

.Peer-Managed Management Systemsdevelopment

of interdependent management teams sharing common

market, strategy, and competitive information.

.Specialized Management Education one of the

most fundamental and large-scale tasks will be

educating managers not only how to operate an CRM

system but how to apply it as a management analysis

and coaching tool.

A sure recipe for failure will be to expect managers to

do a job for which we have given them the tools butnot training in how to use and apply them. One

company preparing to conduct CRM user training for

its salespeople said "Oh, the managers don't need to

attend training. They're smart guys; they'll figure it out

... "

Traditional management skill training, when available,

has always focused on developing coaching,

leadership, motivational, and planning skills; but thiskind of training never envisioned sales automation.

Moreover, most managers quickly found after training

that they rarely had the time or information necessary

to do very much with any of their newly-acquired

techniques Detailed business analysis skills training -

such as for using analytical software to determine

where the highest potential for new business may be

found in a sales territory -- has been virtuallynonexistent.

This new management training needs to focus on

applying the "traditional" management skills but with a

technology "kicker". Coaching skills, for example,

must focus on how to conduct a detailed opportunity

analysis, decide the best plans and tactics from a new

wealth of account and market data, as well as

developing one-on-one techniques with salespeople.

Salespeople will also need a similar level of business

analysis and skill training, specifically how to apply

CRM to effectively managing a sales territory. Who's

going to train them? Probably the sales managers --


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and this is the one area where managers' expertise will

be little greater than their salespeople's.

Where will this specialized training come from todevelop new management skills -- and what should it

cover? The training available today is still somewhat

limited because the necessity is only just being

recognized -- primarily because the leaps in technology

to create this new level of capacity are still fairly

recent.

An example of management training focusedspecifically on developing these new skills is one of

my seminar programs which has been conducted with

leading sales organizations around the world

A Sample Management Training Curriculum

Management Development Seminar

Why Sales Automation? To Advance the Sale!

* CRM - why it works ... and why it doesn't

* Applying CRM to the sales and managing process

The Fundamental Changes impacting Selling in the

'90's

* Sales Management - managing for corporate Sales

ROI

* The Marketplace - the competitive battle for

marketshare

* The Company - creating value-added sellingstrategies

* The Customers - what they're really looking for in

today's market

.Information, Process, and Technology

* A Strategy for Sales Effectiveness and Productivity

* Creating "market knowledge" thru information and

process

* The role of technology: integrating Information andSales Process

Creating Added-Value and Developing Customer

Advocates


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* Value-Breakdown - how companies win then lose

loyal customers

* Customer Advocates - a new level of customer

partnership* Breaking down "Corporate Barbwire" to create

Advocates

* Creating the Sales Enterprise -- Team Selling

redefined

* The role of Sales Automation Technology

.A New Look at Sales Planning (with CRM/Sales

Automation)* Creating "living" sales plans instead of "dust

collectors"

* Integrating planning - from corporate to field for

results

* New Planning Methodologies and "The Strategic

Assessment Model"

* Planning - making it the most powerful coaching tool

Managing Performance (with CRM/Sales Automation)* Fact-Based Management - taking the guesswork out

of Coaching

* Using Organizational and Analytical tools for better

decisions

* Sales Process -- what it is, how to get it, and how to

use it

The Technology Solution* Applying Real CRM Solutions for Real Business

Issues

* Using Sales Automation to put "Midnight Madness"

finally to rest.

Sales Unit Leadership

* Mentor Management - what it is, how to develop it,

& how to use it* Strategies for building "The 100% Solution"

* Making automation a permanent part of the sales

culture


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41

Putting It All TogetherIntegrating CRM

Capacity

and Capability

In corporate's quest to design and implement

customer relationship management and sales force

automation, and with the increasing capabilities of

computer hardware and software, we have entered a

new world of sales and marketing in which the level of

what is theoretically possible has reached undreamed

of heights. Unfortunately the level of business skilldevelopment to enable managers and salespeople to

achieve these results has lagged far behind the ability

of corporate information systems to provide

technology.

The message then is this. In the world of CRM, there

is today the capacity, provided by technology, to

create automation systems which positively impact

productivity and effectiveness throughout the

corporation. It is often ignored, however, that this

technology is people-driven, that is, it relies upon the

user's capability to apply it in order to achieve

optimum results. Small wonder, then, that CRM

sometimes meets with user resistance, i.e., users who

feel more confident in their capability to apply older,

though less efficient manual systems.

We need then to view the investment in sales forceautomation as two discreet elements. First, the costs

of Capacity -- purchasing hard

Documents

Selling 2000: CRM & SFA -- Tim McMahon