Best Practices

for Igniting a

World-Class

Sales Culture

Leveraging the

Power of CRM

SPARK!

11

Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to CHANGE could be…- John Wooden

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INTRODUCTION

BEST PRACTICES

❶ Gain Executive Leadership and Sponsorship With KPIs

❷ Map and Enable Your Customers’ Buying Processes

❸ Include Users in the Design and Deployment of the System

❹ Integrate Sales and Marketing

❺ Manage the Forward Pipeline

❻ Separate the Prospecting Cycle from the Sales Cycle

❼ Enable Collaboration and Support Tools

❽ Focus on Sales Management

❾ Deliver Effective Strategic and Tactical Training

❿ Include Non-Sales-Facing Functions

⓫ Automate Reports and Alerts

CALL TO ACTIONCO

NTE

NTS

INTRODUCTION… the Sales 2.0 Revolution

Cloud-based applications are transforming how sales andmarketing organizations can and must collaborate, interactwith customers, track information, implement solutions andmanage sales teams. But go to any Sales 2.0 conference, orread most Sales 2.0 books, and what you will find isinformation about technology and its promise to improveproductivity.

Even though the Sales 2.0 movement is certainly enabled bytechnology, selling is still a people business. Selling 2.0 is notabout technology. It is fundamentally about changes in sellingbehavior enabled by new technology, not the other wayaround. The more tools you force upon your sales makers, themore resistance and lack of adoption you will get in return.

The Sales 2.0 revolution is partially driven by the reality thatcustomers now use the power of the cloud and itssophisticated interactive features to control the buying processand customize solutions to fit their needs. Buyer behavior hasdrastically changed. In response, your selling behavior needs tochange, not just your tools.

How many sales professionals have you met that are alsoaccountants? Few, if any. The DNA of an accountant is vastlydifferent from the DNA of a sales professional. Unfortunately,most CRM systems are used primarily as “sales accounting”systems. At best, most CRM deployments result in a repositoryof forecast data. At worst, they become an overpowered andunderused contact management system.

Your business is not investing in a CRM system for “salesaccounting.” You are investing in a CRM system to changeselling behavior, drastically accelerate sales cycles, increasecollaboration, integrate customer information silos, leverageactionable analytics, and better predict the future to adjustquickly to rapidly changing market conditions. The CRMsystem can and should be viewed as your corporate nervoussystem, instantly providing and reacting to intelligence andenabling greater productivity, agility and visibility.

Even though CRM systems are deployed in nearly all industriesand segments, adoption issues are fairly universal. It doesn’tmatter if a company is large or small, in technology orhealthcare, in the U.S. or abroad. There is a common patternand formula—a recipe, if you will—for CRM success. Thisformula has eleven ingredients that will boost revenue andensure CRM adoption. You see, the problem with CRMadoption is not the CRM at all; it is the context within which itis used and presented.

This practical guide outlines eleven best practicescritical for the success of any CRM enablement effort.This is NOT a technical guide. CRM enablement is nota technology problem; it is a behavioral problem.Technology solutions, by themselves, do not changebehavior.

BEST PRACTICES Gain Excecutive Leadership and Sponsorship with KPI’s

Competition is accelerating from unexpected sources, bothdomestically and internationally, forcing nearly every industryand company into some type of transformation. For someindustries, such as music, publishing, print, and manufacturing,these transformation efforts are a matter of survival.

Selecting and deploying a CRM system is one of the mostimportant activities you can undertake to enable a world-classsales culture. While most organizations use CRM as a salesaccounting system, it should really be used as a corporatenervous system that interdependently connects all of thefunctions in a company, with the explicit goals of increasingrevenue and customer satisfaction, and improving product andservice offerings. Without a central corporate nervous system,organizations will no longer be able to anticipate or react fastenough to changing market conditions that can spellopportunity or disaster.

For executives, the key to CRM value is using it to manage theperformance of their company, with rapid access to Key

Performance Indicators (KPIs) that influence strategy and

tactics.

One of the questions we are often asked is how can a manger

improve the performance of their sales team. Well, the truth

is that like most other things in business, selling is a numbers

game. Most sales organizations keep track of their numbers in

some way. But not all numbers are created equal. Some tell

you the score, and others can help you impact the score you

will get. That is the difference between Lagging and Leading

Indicator. They are both important but have completely

different purposes.

Lagging Indicators tell you how you are doing. These include

things like:

• TOTAL SALES

• TOTAL MARGIN

• TOTAL CUSTOMERS

Sales organizations are tasked with building, maturing and closing pipeline. In the current economic climate, these are not e asymissions. Everyone is working harder just to stay even. The facts are daunting:

• Less than 55% of reps are currently making quota• Customers say “no” 6 times before they say “yes

• 65% of sales professionals stop at the 2nd “no”• 75% of new leads never receive a sales call

#1

They are the outputs and results that are measured “after thefact.” In most companies, this category gets a lot of attentionbecause they tend to be in reports to executives andshareholders. They basically tell you the score of a gamewithout telling you how you got there.

Other numbers, however, show you the likelihood of achievingyour goals. These are called Leading Indicators. Thesenumbers help managers coach and develop their teams. Theseare the numbers that can actually help change the future. Theyprovide visibility into the current activities that will impactfuture results. They allow you to identify and close gaps as thegame unfolds. They provide insight into how each member ofthe team – as well as the whole team - is actually playing, andgives managers a coaching blueprint to follow. LeadingIndicators are the activities and actions that directly link toultimate success and include things like:

When you focus on Leading Indicators you receive two mainbenefits:

1. They set expectations and improve communication byhighlighting the activities that produce results, and providea blueprint for coaching conversations. Once the teamunderstands the activities they are supposed toconcentrate on, they will devote more time and energy tothem. This takes the guess work out of evaluation andcoaching. Without them, it is difficult to have any objectivebasis for evaluating performance.

2. They keep the execution of high impact activitiesconsistent. When teams understand what you are going toreview every week, they are much more likely to executeconsistently on what matters most.

Each company needs to determine its own most importantLeading Indicators, but there are three fundamental principlesyou should follow:

1. Focus on Leading Indicators in two separate categories:

• The Prospecting Cycle: this is what happens beforea qualified opportunity is identified

• The Sales Cycle: this is what happens from the timean opportunity is qualified until it is won or lost

2. Don’t focus on too many. Teams that are given too manygoals tend to achieve only a few. Focus on the few thatmatter most to your business and hyper-focus on them.

3. Make them visible and review them in team, one-on-one,and executive settings.

• Opportunity Age

• Opportunity Stage

• Number of Customer Visits

• Number of Proposals Submitted

• Number of Demos Completed

• Number of Presentations Delivered

• Number and Value of Opportunities

The bottom line is that identifying, measuring and coachingfrom Leading Indicators leads directly to improved execution.Leading Indicators help you guide your team and make betterdecisions. They eliminate guess work and provide insight sothat you can make decisions and take action to change thefuture. Leading a sales team without these types of indicatorsis like driving a car at night without any lights. You may or maynot get there, and who knows what you will hit along the way.

KEY ACTION #1:

• Identify Key Performance Indicators thatare important to the executive team.

• Eliminate as many manually produced executivereports as possible and replace them with KPIdashboards and reports sent programmaticallyon a pre-set schedule.

• Clearly communicate the KPIs to the team sothat they understand what they are, why theyare important, and how to use them in guidingtheir own success.

• Use KPI data in every coaching session and teammeeting. Use KPIs to make better decisions,adjust strategy, inspire and enable.

Generally, sales makers will resist any extra drag on theirschedules, including anything that requires a change to theirprocess that they think is working just fine. They will not maketime to learn something new unless it is clear to them that itwill help them more quickly reach their goals. Devotingprecious time to learning to use a CRM system is not high ontheir priority list.

Eliminating choke points and reducing sales cycle drag is a veryfast way to gain widespread CRM adoption. If a CRM systemcan simplify, and in some cases automate, selling cycleactivities, then users will leverage the system in an effort toreach quota and simplify their lives.

The first step in reducing sales cycle drag is to understand howyour customers like to buy your product or service. If youhaven’t revisited your sales process in the last 18 months, thenyou may be out of step with how your customers currently buy.All organizations are undergoing transformation, which meansthat buying patterns are changing. If your sales organization isnot selling the way customers and prospects want to buy, thensales cycles

will elongate and closing rates will decline. Once youunderstand your customers’ buying process, you can design aneffective sales process that is in step with how your customerswant to buy. Rather than design processes with your internalneeds in mind, start with the customer and engineer yoursales and marketing processes with a customer-centricorientation.

Once you have an understanding of your customers’ buyingprocess and a map of your corresponding sales process, thenext step is to enable that process in the CRM system. Doingso provides the necessary foundation to build a high-performance, highly responsive sales culture. It will provide acommon standard by which the company can truly assess andimprove the size and speed of the pipeline. It provides themaster framework needed to automate repetitive tasks,eliminate choke points, create performance accountability andprovide sales and management a much more accurate view ofthe business.

KEY ACTION #2

Revisit how your customers and prospects are buying. Re-map your sales process to align with your customers’buying process. Map the new process into CRM.

BEST PRACTICES Map and Enable Your Customers’ Buying Processes#2

CRM systems can provide powerful, multi-faceted solutions.They can significantly improve an organization’s ability to trackand store information, improve the flow of timely salesintelligence to executives, enhance the sales manager’s abilityto monitor and coach sales maker performance, and providesales makers with highly effective tools to target and managetheir customer relationships. The net result, flowing through allof these channels, is the ability to drive more revenue.

The fulcrum of this leverage is centered squarely on the salesmakers and sales managers who interface directly withcustomers. If, for any reason, the sales makers or theirmanagers are resistant to the idea of taking full advantage ofall of the benefits of the CRM system, adoption rates will below, results will be spotty, and the benefits of the system willlargely remain unrealized. For that reason, the organizationmust invest time and energy in making sure sales makers fullyunderstand that, above all, the system is intended to solvetheir problems and deliver real value to them.

Adoption problems often arise because of the fundamentaldivide between sales accounting needs and sales team needsduring the CRM design and implementation stage. Too often,CRM projects are launched by executives and businessanalysts, who are looking for better ways to measureperformance and collect data for planning purposes.

• They are going to be asked to dedicate precioustime and effort to logging information into theCRM system, which offers no measurable benefitto them but makes other people’s jobs easier.

• The CRM system will be used to track theirperformance in minute detail, which will beevaluated by “higher-ups” out of context.

• The info from the CRM system could be usedagainst them during future performance reviews.

Most of the time, sales teams are not included when the CRM strategy is being developed. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that, having been left in a vacuum with little or no information, they often conclude the worst:

BEST PRACTICES Include Users in the Design and Development of the System#3

It must be said that these fears are often well founded.

Unfortunately, CRM systems are frequently conceived and

implemented with little or no consideration given to how the

sales professionals will actually use them, much less how they

could be configured to deliver the kind of value that would

encourage ubiquitous use.

If you want to increase the chances that your sales makers will

use your expensive new CRM system, involve them early in the

development stage. When sales is not consulted to determine

what tools or capabilities they would like to see, the message

they get is very clear: “This system was created to make

someone else’s job easier by giving you one more task to

perform that doesn’t help you make more calls or close more

business.” If the primary intended users—sales professionals—

are not consulted or involved in the creation and rollout, they

will not be enthusiastic about using it.

When it comes to deploying a new CRM system, sales teams

are internal customers. They will be hesitant to “buy” any

solution that doesn’t meet a need or make their job easier.Therefore, instead of forcing a pre-configured solution onthem, it only makes sense to ask them a few questions, inorder to better align the tools to address their needs.

Ask them what frustrates them now about their ability tocollect, store, track and access various types of customerintelligence. Find out what capabilities they wish they had, orhad more of, to analyze customer data and improve criticalactivities such as account and opportunity planning. Solicittheir ideas about the limitations of their current systems, andwhat improvements or new capabilities would help them themost.

There are numerous questions you can use to uncover theneeds and problems your sales teams face every day. Themore questions you ask, the more trust you will build and themore insights you will gain on how to properly set up yourCRM system. The big payoff, though, is that sales teams willview the CRM as their system, which means they will actuallyuse it in ways that will benefit both themselves and theorganization.

KEY ACTION #3

Create a sales task force with representation from individual sales makers, sales managers and leadership.Work with them to identify their needs in territory management, account management, opportunitymanagement, lead management, activity management, forecast management, pipeline management,customer communication management, automation and customer research. Document all needs, prioritizethem based on value, and create a roadmap. Gain agreement on the roadmap.

Leads produced by marketing lose their effectiveness if notcalled within 24 HOURS.

Every 24 hours that passes,a lead’s head decreases by

time they reach the sales organization. Leads MUST be called within 24 hours. The longer it takes to call a lead, the less qualified it will be. This time delay between generating a lead and passing it to sales creates tremendous friction between the two organizations, wasting the time and energy of both groups, and leaving both groups pointing fingers at each other.

A properly configured CRM system makes it much easier for marketing and sales to communicate, share and transfer information, and carry out planning and strategy initiatives. When everyone has access to the same information and the same capabilities in real time, breakdowns in information flow can be eliminated, and critical benchmarks and deadlines can be more easily met. Leads can flow seamlessly from marketing to sales, enabling rapid response and higher connect and close ratios.

On average, more than 75% of leads produced by marketingdepartments never receive a call or email from anyone. Theremay be no bigger revenue generation obstacle in mostcompanies than this disconnect between sales and marketing.Even though both sales and marketing are ultimatelyresponsible for driving revenue, they often report to differentexecutives, pursue slightly different goals, and use conflictingmeasurement objectives. This results in sales and marketingfrequently being at odds with each other.

Marketing focuses on developing a variety of creativecampaigns to generate interest in the company’s products andservices. These campaigns can take months to prepare and rollout. Using traditional methods, leads generated by theseprograms are captured, categorized and delivered to the salesteam over days, if not weeks or months. Consequently, theleads generated by marketing campaigns can be old by the On average, more than

of leads produced by marketingdepartments NEVER receive a callor email from anyone.

75%

BEST PRACTICES Integrate Sales and Marketing#4

25%

The advantages go beyond enhanced communicationeffectiveness. A properly configured CRM system is atremendous boost to genuine collaboration so that marketingand sales can begin to work together seamlessly to launch andsupport highly targeted sales initiatives.

By leveraging all the capabilities of CRM, sales and marketingcan efficiently collaborate to design a tightly coordinated effortthat aligns messaging, product sets, pricing, margin, salescadence, and sales goals into one seamless effort.

CRM can not only automate many routine tasks, includingalerting sales makers of new leads in their queue, or alertingmanagers that leads aren’t getting called, but it also enablesmeasurement and analysis of the results so that programs canbe adjusted.

This type of highly coordinated and unified strategy caneliminate cross-departmental competition and significantlyenhance the planning and execution of sales activities.

Both sales and marketing processes should come alive insideintegrated work streams enabled by CRM, and finally deliverthe result that the entire organization is looking for: closingmore business at higher margins.

KEY ACTION #4

Insist that marketing and sales leadership meet weekly to discuss integratedprograms. Create a joint sales/marketing dashboard based on your KPIs.Provide sales with a minimum of 2 weeks’ notice before launching marketingcampaigns that will produce leads. Flow all leads through the CRM system. Gainagreement from sales to call all leads within 24 hours of receipt.

One of a sales manager’s most important tasks is to monitorthe sales production of each sales maker. After all, the successof the entire organization depends on making sure the salesteam is generating new business and driving revenue at anever-increasing rate. If a sales maker isn’t doing well, the salesmanager needs to recognize that quickly, so appropriatecoaching can be provided and/or changes in strategy can beimplemented.

Most sales managers rely on two key tools to monitor salesmaker productivity: pipeline and forecasting. However, highlyeffective sales managers understand that there is a differencebetween the two. Forecasting is focused on later stage deals—the ones that are far enough along that you can begin to get afeel for the likelihood of success in the current quarter.However, forecasting does little to help with future quarters.

Technically, pipeline refers to every opportunity a sales makermight be working on—including the ones that are far enoughalong to be at the forecast stage—but there are many otheropportunities in the pipeline that are not that far along yet. Wecan designate these deals as being part of the “forward”pipeline, because they are focused on the future developmentof sales that ultimately impact later forecasts.

BEST PRACTICES Manage the Forward Pipeline#5

The problem this creates is that too many sales managersdon’t differentiate between the two, which often leads to salesmakers not working hard enough or smart enough to developthe deals farther back in the pipeline. If this situation persists,sales makers will spend too much time on the forecasteddeals and the opportunities deeper in the pipeline will beneglected, leading to a decline in deals that reach “forecasted”status in the next quarter.

Start by creating a realistic timeline defining how long it takesfor an opportunity to move through the pipeline. Manyorganizations still rely on the old 30-60-90-day predictiveapproach, as in, “it looks like this opportunity is about 60 daysfrom closing.” The sales maker bases this estimate on the levelof progress that still must take place within the account.

The problem with this predictive approach is it makes it veryeasy for deals to get stuck and die before anyone realizes whathas happened. The sales maker can just keep pushing the dealback another 30 days, waiting on things to happen, rather thanbeing proactive and working with the customer to make thedeal happen (or put it out of its misery and mark it as lost).

A more sensible way to manage the pipeline is to monitoropportunity progress based on the length of the sales cycle,and link the work being done on the opportunity to the time itshould take to close the deal. We might call this the “cadence”or “pace” approach.

The cadence approach works like this: What is your typicalsales cycle? If it is 24 weeks, then begin by determining whattasks need to be done each week in order to guide theopportunity to close in 24 weeks. For example:

You get the idea. So, what if you have an opportunity that hasbeen in the pipeline for 10 weeks? If you have a cadence inplace, it is a simple matter of checking to see what shouldhave done at Week Ten. If it hasn’t been done, the opportunitymay be in danger of being lost. A sales manager’sresponsibility at that point is to get with the sales maker, findout what the roadblocks are, and provide the coaching andsupport required for the sales maker to get the opportunityback on schedule.

Once sales managers start managing the forward pipeline thisway, forecasting becomes less urgent but also more accurate.Sometimes people try to attach a forecast to an opportunitybased on the time it has been in the pipeline, which is nothelpful or at all accurate. An opportunity shouldn’t be assigneda forecast status until certain key objectives have been met.For example, does it make any sense to attach a forecaststatus to a deal when you haven’t even submitted a proposal?Can you forecast the success of a deal with any degree ofaccuracy when the customer hasn’t agreed to any next steps?As part of your cadence process, you should create a set ofbenchmarks that define when an opportunity is forecast-worthy; anything that hasn’t hit those benchmarks remains inthe forward pipeline and the sales maker should workdiligently to keep it on track.

• Whom do you contact in the account, and when do you contact them?

• What kind of information and materials do you send out each week?

• When do you schedule the product demo?

• What external and internal resources do you need to leverage to develop the proposal, and when do you meet with those people?

• By when should you have the proposal in front of the decision maker?

Managing the forward pipeline using the cadence approachmakes it much easier for the sales manager to implementeffective coaching. Again, using the 24-week sales cycle as anexample:

• Let’s say that after 10 weeks the sales maker should havedeveloped a thorough needs analysis, built a set of contactswithin the customer organization, and prepared a list ofsolution options to discuss with the customer. If your salesmaker is now at 14 weeks with this customer and stilldoesn’t have these steps completed, that might be a goodindication that he needs help with questioning skills touncover needs and identify opportunities.

• If, at 20 weeks, the final proposal should be sent off to legalto be reviewed by both sides, but we are now at 24 weeksand the sales maker is still wrestling with pushback on someissues from the decision maker, this could mean that thesales maker’s ability to handle objections and move throughto closing is weak.

The important take-away is that both the sales maker and thesales manager must work just as hard and just as smart whendealing with the forward pipeline as when trying to bring theforecasted deals in for a landing. The more seriously you attendto the forward pipeline, the happier everyone will be when thenext quarter comes.

KEY ACTION #5

Separate your forecast meetings from your pipelinemeetings, and don’t confuse forecasting withpipeline management.

Consider switching from the 30-60-90 day approachto the sales cycle cadence approach, or at leastinstalling safeguards to keep deals from staying inlimbo if you stick with the old method.

Define cadence steps for each week of the salescycle that conform to your sales process and theexpectations of the organization.

Design coaching plans around each of the steps thatcan be leveraged to build sales maker skills whenworking through each stage of the cadence.

Refocus pipeline conversations around managingand coaching to the status of the forward pipeline.

Use the pipeline meeting to inspect the quota topipeline ratio (normally 3x or better).

BEST PRACTICES Seperate the Prospecting Cycle from the Sales Cycle#6

There was a time when sales and prospecting were almostsynonymous; it was assumed that anyone in sales woulddedicate a great deal of time to identifying and developing newopportunities, also known as prospecting. However, more thana decade of unbridled growth and prosperity, from the mid-1990s up to the present severe downturn, lulled many salesprofessionals into the belief that prospecting was no longer apriority, because customers were plentiful and readyto buy. Now, with customers postponing purchases andslashing budgets, sales organizations must rapidly shift fromfarming—nurturing the same customers year over year—tohunting, getting back out into the marketplace and aggressivelypursuing new customers, as well as creating new business withexisting customers.

This is by no means a simple proposition. A change like thisrequires nothing less than a complete transformation of theunderlying culture of the organization, and a distinct and clearseparation between the prospecting cycle and the sales cycle.The prospecting cycle is the distinct set of activities required toget a prospect to qualify into or out of a sales cycle. Once aprospect is qualified, then the sales cycle begins. Attitudesmust change, values must change, strategies must change,expectations must change, and in many cases, personnel mustbe replaced or retrained as the entire organization takes on anew mission and a new identity.

A major component of this new strategy is a commitment toprospecting; sales professionals must increase their level ofinfluence to work with higher-level decision makers at theircurrent customers, and also expand to find new opportunitieswith companies they have never engaged before. A changethis profound—one that will force every single person in theorganization to adopt new priorities and learn new skills—creates a lot of pushback and institutional drag. Change canonly come from the top, and it will only succeed if the peopleat the top refocus their priorities and activities to make surethe organization doesn’t falter until the vision is achieved.There are five discrete steps to separating the prospectingcycle from the sales cycle.

As mentioned, the pushback and institutionaldrag related to moving from a sales culturebased on farming to one based on hunting

can be very significant, for a variety ofreasons. Change is hard, inconvenient,

confusing, and threatening. Peoplenaturally resist and try to avoid it because

they prefer comfort and stability. Especiallyif the organization has a history of announcing

new (and short-lived initiatives, most people will pay lipservice to the change, but keep the status quo in practice,based on the assumption that “this too shall pass.” For thisreason, the new vision must be consistently and prominently

promoted across the organization. Messaging must be createdaround the new vision, spelling out the reasons for the change,the outcomes that the change will achieve, the process for thechange, and how the change will challenge and benefiteveryone in the organization. This can’t be accomplished with aglobal email and flyers posted on break room walls; the newmessaging must infect the vocabulary of every manager andbecome the foundation of every sales meeting. People willinitially have questions and concerns. Managers and seniorleadership must be prepared to answer these questions inways that provide clarity and direction.

This is where the battle for transformationis won or lost. The skills and processes

required to succeed in an order-taking /farming culture have very little incommon with a hunting /prospecting

culture. Senior executives often fail tograsp just how profound these differences

are, and assume that by simply redefining theoutcomes they want, the sales teams will shift

gears and get the job done. Nothing could be furtherfrom the truth.

Farming usually involves responding to requests from thecustomer, who will then make their final decision based onfeatures and price. Of course, there are opportunities forfarmers to provide value propositions and up-sell to acertainextent, but most of the time they are starting withwarm, qualified leads who have already decided to buy, it is

just a matter of determining from whom, and for how much.Prospecting, on the other hand, requires the sales maker tofind the customer, contact the customer, uncover viableopportunities, and work with the customer to develop theopportunity and close the deal. Skills needed to successfullyimplement a prospecting strategy include:

every single person in the organization to adopt new prioritiesand learn new skills—creates a lot of pushback andinstitutional drag. Change can only come from the top, and itwill only succeed if the people at the top refocus theirpriorities and activities to make sure the organization doesn’tfalter until the vision is achieved. There are five discrete stepsto separating the prospecting cycle from the sales cycle.

• Market Research

• Qualification Skills

• List building

• Telephone

Techniques

• Methodical

Organization

• Rapid Rapport Building

• Voice mail/email

Techniques

• Questioning and

Listening Skills

• Rejection Management

• Handling Objections

Most companies do a pretty good job ofmeasuring the sales cycle. The mostcommon metrics include number ofopportunities by stage, value of

opportunities by stage, pipeline to quotaratio, and closed/won ratio. Prospecting is

quite different—and in fact must bemeasured separately—from the sales cycle.

Like the sales cycle, prospecting has its own unique set ofstages, and each stage has to be measured in order to identifyperformance gaps on an individual basis. Overcomplicating theprospecting cycle leads to confusion; keeping the stage countto five allows the sales maker to stay on track while providingmanagement the metrics needed to monitor and enable theprocess. These stages are:

Pending – No activity has occurred yet at this stage. This is ahigh-probability prospect that has been identified, either bymarketing or by the sales professional, as someone with apropensity to buy, and placed on the sales maker’s call list.Management should use this stage to assess whether or notthe sales maker is ready to take on more prospectingactivities. Unqualified – This stage is used when a meaningful

interaction with a prospect is completed and the prospect isnot a fit. Once a prospect passes through this gate,marketing should kick off an automated lead-nurturingprogram.

Qualified – This stage is used when a meaningful interactionwith a prospect is completed and specific qualificationcriteria are confirmed. If a prospect passes through thisgate, then the regular sales cycle kicks in.

Unable to connect – This stage is used only after the multi-stage contact strategy fails to deliver any meaningfulinteraction with the prospect.

Launched – In this stage, the sales maker has kicked off a set of marketing and calling activities to generate interest from their prospects. We recommend a multi-stage contact strategy to connect with prospects, including 5 to 6 connection points with a blend of email and telephone calls. Some companies will measure each of these as discrete stages.

With these stages in place, you have the ability to identifychoke points, on an organizational and individual basis, andspecific prospecting metrics can be measured. Each salesmaker can then be coached on specific skill gaps. Key metricsto follow and coach to are:

• % of prospects that convert from Launched to Qualified –this is an indicator of sales maker effectiveness in followinga specific multi-contact strategy

• % of prospects in Pending vs. total – this is an indicator ofsales maker effectiveness in starting and maintaining aprospecting cadence

• % of Qualified to Unqualified – this is an indicator of salesmaker effectiveness in communicating the valueproposition with prospects and gaining prospect interest

Nothing will get the message across that your organization isserious about shifting to a prospecting culture like consistently

tracking these kinds of metrics and holding peopleaccountable to improve them.

This is the Achilles’ heel of many prospectingorganizations, even when the rest of theculture seems to be properly aligned. Salesmanagers are charged with overseeing theperformance of their sales teams, but toooften sales manager activities are focused

on managing—evaluating metrics, filingreports, conducting pipeline meetings and

sales meetings, and solving personnel issues.

This leaves the sales team to fend for themselves when itcomes to most customer-facing activities. In this environment,most sales makers do the best they can, but they don’t knowwhat they don’t know, and often they don’t find out until thesales manager calls them in for a heart-to-heart about theirpoor performance.

If your organization wants to excel in a prospecting culture,your sales managers must be equipped and empowered tospend whatever time and resources it takes to support andtrain their team members through regular coaching. Themetrics outlined in the section above provide managers withspecific areas to monitor and coach. The sales manager mustbe able to create a coaching plan to help each team membercontinue to grow and improve. Coaching puts the teeth inaccountability, and delivers the solutions that team membersneed to achieve the goals the organization has set for them.

In order to improve and sustain sales team buy-infor a prospecting culture, make sure that

rewards are tracked to prospecting activitiesas well as to overall results. Sure, theyusually work hand-in-glove, but rewardstracked to key prospecting activities can

reinforce the message that the prospectingculture is here to stay. Spread the rewards

around, but make sure everyone can connectthe dots and see that the rewards are keyed to prospectingactivities, rather than just getting lucky with a big deal from arun-rate customer

Depending on how complex or simple your products andservices are, you will have a variety of sales activities,supported by specific tools that surround the overall salesprocess such as Lead Management, Territory Planning, AccountPlanning, Opportunity Management, Forecast Managementand more. However, the social media revolution has spawnedan amazing new set of innovative and intuitive tools that allowteams and individuals to collaborate more effectively, addressperformance gaps, and close new business faster and withhigher margins. This revolution in sales enablement has threekey components:

SOCIAL

Businesses are now finding ways to tap this technology andenergy in ways that enable their teams to collaborate moreeffectively and easily in real time and across geographicalbarriers. Using virtual platforms and new software applications,teams can now share ideas, conduct research, andplan/implement new programs.

MOBILE

The social networking revolution has migrated fromPC/Laptops to handheld devices, beginning with smartphonesand then to iPads and other tablets. These devices give teammembers access to these social tools and platforms anywhere,anytime. This next generation of social collaboration createsincredible boosts in productivity by enabling teams to sharevital information more quickly and adjust critical activities inthe need of the moment, eliminating delays that can lead tomissed opportunities and lost revenue.

OPEN

Perhaps the most important component, openness is theprimary driver of success in this brave new business worldwhere rapid access to accurate, important information drivesyour competitive edge. These new social, mobile technologiesmake critical content immediately accessible to everyone onthe team regardless of time zone or geo, which in turngenerates valuable feedback and intel across the entireorganization. Training, coaching, planning, data harvesting,assessment, and redeployment of important assessments andactivities become simple and seamless

BEST PRACTICES Enable Collaboration and Support Tools#7

With this powerful set of tools at their fingertips, the only thinglacking for teams is a comprehensive deployment strategy tohelp them leverage all the possibilities. Many CRMs havealready integrated Social, Mobile and Open networking intotheir solutions with other CRMs aligning and adopting at arapid pace.

You will need to make some decisions about which tools willbecome the best practice standard. Some will be simple toenable, and others will be complex. Regardless of complexity, ifthe tools all reside in the same place, the likelihood ofadoption and use will drastically increase. On the other hand, ifthe tools conflict with your CRM, you will drive down theadoption rates of both and complicate the CRM learning curve.Every organization is different, and you will need to decidewhich tools are most important in your situation.

KEY ACTION #7

Identify the key tools used by your sales organization.Rationalize them and pick the best of the breed.Enable them in the CRM system.

Social Collaboration Quick TipsWhen connecting via social networks, remember:

Keep it brief

Be professional

Don’t like/repost everything everyone says and does

Post useful assets and resources

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Offer help whenever you can

Use hash tags and other tools properly

Front-line sales managers are the most important lever in anysales transformation or CRM adoption effort. Gain theirsupport, and change will happen. Ignoring or alienating themwill virtually ensure a failed project.

Sales managers are measured on how well their teams grow,mature and close the pipeline—end of story. If a team isn’tmeeting quota, it is the fault of the sales manager. The salesmanager is charged with making sure the team—as individualsand as a group—is driving revenue.

A CRM system is a powerful engine for improving salesperformance. Used correctly, CRM can provide the nervoussystem for all sales performance and coaching conversation,replacing the process of filling out tedious reports. A properlyconfigured and deployed CRM system can become a revenue-driving engine for the entire sales team. It comes down to this:information is power, and CRM puts an incredible amount ofreal-time information at the sales manager’s fingertips.Information can be available on demand 24-7. Without havingto call a meeting or make a phone call, managers can find out:

CRM systems enable sales managers to coach their salesmakers and improve their selling behaviors based on realcustomer data. With this information available on demand,sales managers can quickly shift priorities and develop newstrategies that respond effectively to changing conditionswithin specific accounts. Managers can also conduct moreproductive account reviews and provide effective just-in-timecoaching that will immediately impact sales performance. Allof this serves to drive revenue in a powerful and evenexponential way.

Once the sales manager figures this out, CRM adoption is easy.In a previous section, we discussed Executive KPIs. Salesmanager KPIs are simply a reflection of the executive KPIs.Once sales managers’ KPIs are identified, they can be used inat least two different ways.

BEST PRACTICES Focus on Sales Management#8

• What deals their reps have in their pipeline• How many calls their sales team made this week• Who the sales team called on• What the account plan is and how they are

tracking against it• And much more…

At this point, CRM becomes a sales manager’s ally instead of just another task to manage.

First, you can use it to manage performance. You start this

process by clearly detailing what metrics are being followed,why they are valuable, how they will be measured, how often,and what will be done with the information gleaned fromthese measurements.

It is crucial that everyone on the team understands everyaspect of this process. Create and distribute documentation,send out regular performance updates, and make discussionsof these measurements a part of regular weekly one-on-oneand team coaching. Use these metrics as a guidepost topublicly measure progress. When progress is lagging, this databecomes the lever that guides the performance improvementcoaching strategy.

Secondly, CRM data can be used to inspire and refocus the

team. Make the data the defining measure of your team’sculture. Use it to mold the vision and image of your team.Work the information into your conversations with teammembers. Help the team see that leveraging these metrics isthe key to improving performance and driving more revenue.

Once your team knows and understands the role that CRMplays in helping them achieve and measure success, theirability to meet and even exceed your expectations will risedramatically.

KEY ACTION #8

Select your top 10 Key Performance Indicators. Use the list above as a starting point. Communicate the list tothe team and include a discussion of each of these KPIs in your weekly team and one-on-one meetings

We have all experienced the feeling of being overwhelmed bythe learning curve that comes with learning a new skill orsystem, including CRM. The good news is that CRM systemsusually come with many self-paced training tutorials that canhelp users learn what all the buttons do. The bad news is thatthis type of training is almost exclusively about features andfunctions; users will not learn much about how the CRMenables new sales behaviors that can improve the quality andquantity of customer communication, and ultimately enhancetheir ability to increase revenue. In addition, most training isdelivered in one- to three-day classroom training sessions.

When deploying a new CRM system, nothing is more importantthan ensuring sales teams receive contextual, comprehensive,ongoing training and coaching on strategies and tacticsleveraging for CRM to drive revenue, reach quota faster, andaccelerate sales growth. CRM is a powerful sales enablementtool, and with the right training, sales teams will learn how tonavigate smoothly and confidently through all the functions ofthe system, and to use those functions to support salesactivities in all of their accounts.

CRM strategy and tactics training has an entirely differentpurpose than functional training. Functional training is allabout acquiring knowledge: it only helps sales makersunderstand what each button does and how to access andmanipulate data on each screen.

BEST PRACTICES Deliver Effective Strategic and Tactical Training#9

In

1-3 DAYclassroom training

90% of the knowledge

transfer is

LOST

Users don’t learn by sitting in a classroom. They learn by doing.

CRM strategy and tactics training is about changing behavior;the focus is using CRM as a tool to help sales teams to do theirjobs more effectively. In other words, strategic and tacticalCRM training will transform the way sales makers approach thesales process by:

• Employing a team collaboration focus

• Relying on measurement as an integral component

• Using real world sales calls to reinforce learning and application

• Incorporating ongoing pipeline coaching

• Drawing out best practices

• Developing and reinforcing sales management behaviors

• Leveraging CRM analytics to gain opportunityintelligence

• Implementing a cadence of weekly sales coaching,training, and best practices

• Customizing CRM features and weekly metrics tosupport sales activities

• Above all, building all activities around generatingrevenue

As sales teams are exposed to this type of practical, results-driven training and coaching, their productivity andprofitability will improve incrementally, week after week.

KEY ACTION #9

Involve the sales training organization in the design of the CRM enablement plan. Identify opportunities tointegrate CRM training with existing sales training. Create a training plan that relies on short bursts of live orvirtual training, no longer than 60 minutes per session, delivered over multi-week periods and tied to specificsales missions.

So far in this guide, the focus has been on best practices toboost support and participation from sales teams. These arearguably the most important to insuring that CRM is used as asales enablement tool instead of a sales accounting tool.However, as important as it is to accomplish that mission, youmust also connect a few other non-sales functions in order tofully realize the benefits a CRM system can provide your entireorganization.

Begin by making sure that non-sales-facing functions areincluded in the planning, design and implementation processfor your CRM. Remember, the CRM is supposed to be a turnkeycustomer relationship management system that gives yourorganization the ability to deliver the most efficient andeffective customer experience. Finance, HR, Support,Operations, and other functions all have an impact on thecustomer’s experience.

BEST PRACTICES Include Non-Sales-Facing Functions#10

Not connecting these other functions with your CRM systemlimits your ability to eliminate redundant work processes, andultimately degrades the customer experience. If anorganization is leveraging CRM for a subset of its customerinteractions, but asking non-sales groups to use different toolsthat contain redundant or potentially conflicting information,then there is a disconnect about where, when and how toleverage the CRM. When CRM is appropriately configured anddeployed, it enables a central data-sharing and collaborationplatform accessed and leveraged by all functions within theorganization.

The CRM becomes much more than a salesaccounting or sales enablement tool. Itbecomes the corporate nervous system, usedto collaborate, store, collect, analyze, andshare customer intelligence throughout theorganization.

KEY ACTION #10

The easiest way to ensure high-value customerintelligence and resulting high CRM adoption rates isto integrate the CRM with the financial and order-entry systems. Make this a priority in order toreduce double entry and to provide your teams a360-degree view of customer purchasing patternsthat will ultimately enable better investmentdecisions and go-to-market plans.

BEST PRACTICES Automate Reports and Alerts

One of the key benefits of understanding the customer buying process, and of mapping the sales process and tools in your CRM, is thatyou can now automate many reports that were previously created manually, and eliminate time-consuming periodic process checks. Forexample, there should never be a need for sales managers or sales makers to produce and send a forecast or pipeline report. With aconsistently applied sales process, these types of reports can be built just once and placed on a delivery schedule.

Every organization has different reporting and inspection requirements, but listed on the following pages are the most commonlyautomated reports and alerts:

KEY ACTION #11

#11

DASHBOARD NAMES DEFINITIONS SR MNGR

Campaign/Performance DB Tracks prospecting activity, pipeline management & results X X

Company MetricsShows earned revenue trend GM by LOB/Rep & YoYTop accounts list by revenue

X

Earned Income Tracks earned Income by LOB M/QR/Y X

Forecast Tracks forecasting & historical data by LOB X

Lead Trends Tracks lead generation by source X

Attainment DB Tracks actual performance vs. goals by M/QT/Y X X

Opportunity Accountability

Corresponds to Opportunity Push Counter Reports. Tracks deals with: Closed dates pushed more than 3 times Closing Deals with no activities in

last week Open Deals with NO activities Stuck & Stale Deals Deals with No Decision Maker

X X

WORKFLOW COMPONENTS DEFINITIONS SR MNGR

LEAD ALERTS

Pending Lead Notifies specified users or groups when a lead is in a pending status more than X days

X

No Contact on LeadNotifies specified users or groups when a lead has not been contacted for more than X days

X X

PIPELINE ALERTS

New Opportunity Notifies manager when a new opportunity is created X

Prospecting StageNotifies specified users or groups when opportunities are in prospecting stage for more than X days

X X

Critical Stage Notifies specified users or groups when an opportunity is marked as commit X

Closed LostNotifies specified users or groups when an opportunity is marked as closed lost

X

Closed WonNotifies specified users or groups when an opportunity is marked as closed won

X

Update Close Date Notifies opportunity owner when an open opportunity is past its close date X X

Opportunity Push CounterNotifies specified users or groups how many times an opportunity close date has been changed

X X

ACTIVITY ALERTS

Task Follow UpNotifies specified users or groups to follow up on won opportunity after X days/months

X

Past Due TaskNotifies specified users or groups of past due follow up activity on won opportunity after X days

X X

REPORT NAMES DEFINITIONS SR MNGR

PROSPECTING CYCLE REPORTS

Weekly Lead Trend Total record count of leads generated per week X

Converted Leads List of converted Leads by PM List of converted Leads by PW X

Unqualified Lead Trend CQ leads that have been unqualified due to no contact X

PIPELINE REPORTS

Open Pipeline CQ & NQ open opportunities X

Pipeline closing this Month All open opportunities with closed date = current month X X

Committed Opportunities list of opportunities marked as “commit’ for CQ X X

PQ Closed Won Opportunities List of won opportunities for the past 90 days X

Lost Opportunities by IndustryList of lost opportunities by Industry Segment based on closed/lost date

X

ACCOUNT REPORTS

Accounts by GM% Monthly Account List with won opportunities by GM% X

Top Accounts by spend & LOB Top X Accounts ranked by spend and LOB. 3-year trend X

Top Accounts by Rev RatioTop accounts ranked by revenue ratio based on PY & CYCan be segmented further by revenue size

X X

Walter Rogers is CEO of CloudCoaching International and BakerCommunications. He has created and led businesses in 13 countries on 3continents, has been interviewed on over 100 shows on CNN, CBS and ABC onthe topics of Sales, CRM, Sales Management and Corporate Productivity, is onthe Advisory Board of DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership and was aTexas eCommerce Awards finalist for two consecutive years. His passion forCRM enabled sales performance transformation inspired him to write SPARK!,a book focused on 11 best practices that can massively accelerated corporategrowth by turning a company’s CRM into a corporate nervous system. He iscurrently working with Tony Robbins and other experts on a new book focusedon how to institutionalize technology enabled high performance leadershipand management behaviors.

Prior to his current role, he self-funded, led and created highly profitable exitstrategies for two leading edge software companies; Asset Optimization Group,a capacity planning software company which was acquired by VMware (NYSE:VMW) in 2003 and CertiSource, a transaction management software companywhich was acquired by (NASDAQ: VERT) in 1999. Prior to founding his firstcompany, he was Vice President of Asia Pacific Marketing for Marcam, aleading process ERP Software Company. In his role at Marcam he wasresponsible for all marketing and channel development initiatives in 11countries ranging from Korea to Australia. Prior to his role at Marcam, hefounded and led Market Solutions Group, a consultancy specializing in thedevelopment of integrated marketing strategies.

Mr. Rogers is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Walter Rogers