As CRM Consultants we regularly meet with sales directors and sales managers to discuss challenges. In the main, it’s about generating new business, looking after existing customers (number one in my book), and tracking activities. A good manager respects his sales team and is constantly looking for ways to help them, be it via regular coaching sessions, training courses, incentives or investing in systems like CRM. So it was a surprise to meet with a sales director whose opening to me was that he hated his sales team and that they were dumb and lazy. How could we help him was his next question and also that he did not want to spend much either? A dream prospect, not! I said that we probably could not help and him, wished him all the very best and left. In the 20 years I have been helping companies and sales teams prosper I have learnt that dysfunction in a team starts with the head and the only way to change that is to lop it off. Could we have helped? Not in my experience – leopards and spots and all those good things. The point I want to make here is that you get what you pay for. An investment in your sales team can only yield good results, whether it is monitory or effort. Looking at investing in a CRM system? At last count there were 500 plus systems out there, most of them cheap and nasty. One needs to show some respect to your sales team and get a decent system and spend time and money on training and consulting. Take it from me – you will not lose.

By Mark Annett