Support, Don't Obstruct

Spent an engaging session with a newly appointed sales manager called Mark at a London prospect, who amongst many things, bemoaned why at his last place they mysteriously ripped out a bespoke system (despite it having universal rep approval) and replaced it with a Siebel one (which all the reps proceeded to completely ignore).  He had some delicious insights, including:

• reps won’t use any crm if they don’t think they need one
• the secret to successful crm deployment is in making the rep unable to operate without one – and that does not mean a “no click no commission” approach
• a successful crm is truly supportive, rather than obstructive, to the daily routines/tasks conducted