Stop Feeding the Pig (THE DATA (CRM) PIG) and Enjoy Some Sales BBQ Instead

Speed, quality and complexity are paramount to sales (and just about every other service related business) success. One of the biggest challenges in sales has been on the operations side or with the sales process. For as long as I can remember, we have been looking for ways to improve it. We have been seeking the sales process magic bullet. I can tell you from my experience that many seem to think the magic bullet is the Customer Relations Management System (CRM).

While I agree that the CRM can be a great tool for the sales team to be more effective, I caution that the CRM is all to often the “PIG” in many organizations. The problem is that this “PIG” must be fed at all costs. This pig’s food is data. Executives and sales managers spend much of their time sending email after email telling everyone to feed the pig. Of course, their emails may read that all sales people need to update their sales data (projects and forecasts) in the CRM, but the message is the same: “feed the data pig.” Why do I refer to this as a “Data Pig”? Well, a Data Pig does nothing but consume data. It serves no other purpose. The data is only consumed. Once the data is in the Data Pig it is useless to the sales person. The CRM (Data Pig) was not built with the sales model in mind and it does not provide tools, techniques to outputs that are useful to a salespersons process or needs. This Data Pig (CRM) only serves to provide management what they need to justify numbers (it is a show pig for the county fair). The only time this Data Pig will be useful to the salesperson is when it is put to slaughter. Do your team a favor and see if your CRM is a Data Pig and if it is, put it to slaughter. Enjoy the BBQ and get productive.

If your CRM is actually a tool and has the necessary elements to make your sales team more productive then they will not feel they are feeding the Data Pig, rather they will be using a system that is helping them complete their job more efficiently. The responsibility of the sales manager and sales executive is to provide the tools and techniques necessary to remove the junk from the salesperson’s way, so they can work most efficiently. The CRM system should make them MORE productive and not be a burden. To make it this way, you may have to relook your CRM.

One of the approaches I took was to apply Six Sigma process improvement and apply it to sales. Since sales is a process. Six Sigma is about improving speed, quality and complexity. Speed, quality and complexity are paramount to sales (and just about every other service related business) success and therefore the process of sales (and other service businesses) is an example one that is optimal for Six Sigma improvement.

As we look at what the Six Sigma DMAIC methods will bring us, I feel I need to first tell you what Six Sigma and Process Improvement are and are not. Refer to the table below to see what is and is not Six Sigma Process Improvement:

What I am trying to say is that a CRM system is not a substitute for good processes and process improvement and it is not a substitute for developing your sales force. If you are considering process improvement and deploying a CRM system or if you are re-examining your process and CRM deployment, you need to make sure that the processes and systems support the sales team and not the other way around. I remember working for a VERY large company and one of the people I respect in this industry said, “If a sales person wants to submit a PO on a bar napkin then we need to have a system that supports that.” At that time, I was a gung-ho analytical IT type that was a stickler for the process and the CRM system. I learned then that the needs of the sales force far outweigh the needs of us sales support people (if you are not in sales, then you support sales).  The first and most important aspect of a CRM, reporting and data mining system, is that it supports the needs of the sales team. I have seen too many times where a CRM system is implemented so that upper management had “visibility” and middle management has “accountability.” If your system’s goals are visibility and accountability it just might be missing the most important aspect – usability.  So, fix it and enjoy the ribs, pork chops, and bacon while you are at it.