Re:Think: Aligning CRM systems with Sales teams

To cater to the requirements of sales team is one of the biggest challenges for IT. One of the key inhibitors is sales is based both on quantitative data that IT readily understands, but also includes qualitative data and personal comfort of the seller-buyer. These two are difficult to quantify.

To avoid the challenge of qualitative data, IT teams usually provide checklists or dropdown boxes that are usually provided by management teams for ease of reporting.

To successfully implement a sales system, we need to think out of the box. The best way would be to request our requirements analysts to shadow the sales team for extended periods of time to understand the sales process, the challenges of the sales person, and identify ways and means of identifying the sales enhancers. Above all, we need to look at providing information to the sales person in a format that is easy for the sales person. The requirements teams also need to understand the qualitative data that a sales person needs or uses, including the personal rapport being developed. Though some of them will defy the urge to quantify or properly fit into a proper scale for representation or reporting.

Management reporting, requirements of other departments should be by-products of this process, but should not lead or define the requirements of sales teams. The inherent attitude to concur with finance or other departments should be avoided based on our comfort and disdain for sales.

To achieve this, we need requirements analysts who will think out of the box, have no pre-conceived notions about the sales teams, and who can develop an empathy for the way sales people work. Also, we need to identify sales people and requirements analysts who have not been conditioned by organizational obedience.

A CRM system should be able to integrate data from

-         Internal sources – the current and previous opportunity information of both successful and failed opportunities

-         Third-party sources – industry analysts etc.,

-         Online big data

If all these information can be integrated to provide insights to a sales person working on an new account or an opportunity for both his organization and competition that can facilitate the sales person in avoiding a pitfall and improves the chances of successful sale.

Also, the IT departments and Data Analysts should not rush to identify individual parameters that would facilitate sales. They need to develop a multi-variate analysis of sales that is based on both quantitative and qualitative data to provide reporting and forecasting would be useful.

If the IT Department can change the mix of requirements gathering from other departments, and ensure that 60 to 80% of the requirements come from sales people, with the balance coming from Sales and marketing management, that itself will completely change the scope and focus of CRM.

As Robert Frost put it beautifully:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

(note: This is the third of three part series as we explore it in more depth)