Sales Lead Management Today

No Tree is too Big for a Short Dog to Lift his Leg On!

I like borrowing cowboy wisdom to make a point and this is no exception. No matter how good a CRM system you have there is always a salesperson that will figuratively lift his leg on it and say he won’t use it.

Why do salespeople literally lift their leg on the CRM System?

The primary purpose of a CRM system, even if they don’t believe it, is to help bring control to their sales lives. Control time, reduce use of spreadsheets, track hundreds of prospects, reduce the need to remember appointments, important dates, and ultimately close more sales. Why do salespeople resist CRM systems? The reasons are common:

1. Too little training

2. Resistance to change.

3. What’s in it for me attitude.

4. A poorly customized CRM system installed without salespeople’s opinions and input.

5. Ignorance of management about the customers buying process or the salesperson’s selling process.

6. Lack of input from marketing about their needs from a CRM system.

Frankly, and this is between you and me.... I have my cash invested where the sun don't shine.

The winning caption for the Sales Lead Management Association cartoon this month is from Bill Goldsmith from Bill Goldsmith Productions. Considering we hear corporations have cash but they are slow and cautious in spending it, this caption and the runners-up (below) are maybe a reflection of the new normal. Our thanks to Stu Henecke of CartoonLink.com for his continued fine humor as we make fun of the world of sales and marketing.

The runner-up captions were:

From Ken Murray at VanillaSoft: We simply can't increase your budget Jim. The funds just aren't there. We are sitting tight on our position.

And one from Andy Brownell of LeadMaster: As CEO of this company I'm telling you need more sales, I can barely reach the keyboard.

There were many more, too numerous to mention but all fun. Thank you.

 

 

A faint heart never filled a Royal Flush

Seems like every time I turn around there is somebody talking about sales and marketing alignment, but the people doing the talking know what to do and the people doing the listening are faint of heart. The faint of heart never go for the royal flush.

It’s usually the marketing managers doing the listening but something happens when they close out the webinar or get back home from the seminar. They’ve been told that if they can only reach alignment with the sales department life will be grand. They’ve been told they can overcome being overhead if they start acting like they’re holding a royal flush and sit down with the sales manager and work on common problems. They been told they’ll win the “Alignment” hand if only they’ll do this, or if only they do that.