21st Century Selling

"3 Reasons Why Sales Force Automation Often Fails
and What You Can Do About It"

"Oh, we want you to come speak to our sales people about technology, Bill, but we wanna wait 'til next year when they get their laptops." "How did you get your sales people to all use their laptops so quickly?" "Oh, we just told them they wouldn't get paid if they didn't use 'em." "I want you to really put a fire under our sales people to use technology, Bill!" "Do YOU use technology?" "Hell no, I'm CEO for God's sake - I have other people who do that for me!"

As the Nation's TechnoMotivator™, I am often asked to speak to sales forces today about the wonders of technology and e-commerce. Many of these organizations are attempting, or have attempted and failed, to get their sales force automation systems off the ground. In fact, the vast majority of SFA attempts have had mixed results at best.

If you take the time to really talk to most salespeople about the reasons, I think you will find the answers to be pretty simple. "This stuff just makes it easier for my sales manager to kick my tail cause I didn't hit my numbers. It does NOT help me sell. And you know old Fred down the hall? He is our best geeky salesman. Can't sell squat, but boy he is a wiz on the 'ole laptop! Why do I need this stuff?"

So we have, by and large, forced our sales force into using technology that our most experienced and best salespeople often see as an obstruction and time waster. Worst of all, it is not giving them something of value in return - a way to increase sales.

Enter the new world of e-commerce. Of course, we have always said "The Customer is King," but in an e-commerce world the whole premise of selling has changed.

The key to selling in a digital age is having the best information instantaneously at your fingertips, and then really using it to your advantage. Herbert Simon the Nobel Laureate has said: "We have changed the meaning of the verb 'to know.' It used to mean, 'to hold in one's memory.' It now means 'the process of knowing how to find information and act upon it."

Ask yourself: "How easily can our sales force get their fingers on the critical information about their customers, our products and the competition that they must have to compete in a digital age?" And even more important, "If we have good tools for salespeople to use, do we truly have their passionate support for technology?"

• When salespeople discover that they can get a competitive edge on a sale instantaneously over the Net by knowing more about their customer than their competitor does . . .
  
  
• When they discover how easily they can master information technology . . .
  
  
• When companies change their focus from monitoring performance to providing the best information to their sales force . . .
  
  
• Then salespeople will embrace technology, and they will enter the new digital world of selling in the 21st century.

Making this change in your approach to sales force automation starts with a real commitment to the people involved. We must change the way salespeople think about technology. Technology needs to be something that is fun and relevant. It must help them close more sales. On management's end, they need to ensure that corporate's raison d'être is to provide the field with the very best information possible in a nearly instantaneous manner. Then you can turn your entire organization into TechnoSavages™!

Bill Metcalf, Ph.D., the Nation's TechnoMotivator™, helps organizations overcome their limiting beliefs about using new communication technology that keep them stuck in 20th century thinking as they enter a 21st century of massive change. You can reach him at: bill@technoshift.com.