Is That Sales Tool Worth Your Time?

By: Geoffrey James
Topics: Marketing

Sales technology (SFA, CRM, Sales 2.0, etc.) can be useful, but it can also be a huge waste of time and effort. Fortunately, it's easy to figure out whether a sales tool is worth learning and using. Simply ask yourself the following five questions:

...Is management twisting arms? If management is putting pressure on reps (like threatening to withhold commissions if they don't use the tool) then the tool probably isn't useful. Sales reps ALWAYS embrace technology that helps them sell (e.g. cell phones, email, IM, web conferencing) and always resist technology that wastes their time. If the reps don't love a tool, that tool is usually crap.
Does it drive the wrong process? Most sales tools come with out-of-the-box functionality based on the "best practices" of other companies. Unfortunately, what's "best practice" in one company can be "worst practice" in another. For example, any company that's smaller than IBM, yet tries to sell exactly like IBM, is going to fail. You need a tool that what works for your company, not your competitors.
Is the data frequently in error? All too often the data that's in a tool (like a CRM system) came from old databases or was entered by folk who weren't concerned with accuracy. To be useful, sales tools must be developed with some form of data cleaning and data verification, otherwise you'll eventually end up with a set of tools that nobody can, or will use.
Is there an easy workaround? I've seen cases where reps are 100% percent compliant with a sales tool or process, but have a completely different system for actually getting things done. Example: the sales manager's spreadsheet is the "real" compensation system. If this is the case, the "official" tool is simply flushing productivity down the toilet.
Is the tool frequently unavailable? Nothing is more demoralizing than a sales tools that's not reliable. If a tool isn't stable enough to be available when needed, or can't be accessed when reps are on the road, then the reps (who are nothing if not practical) will constant looking for (and inevitably find) other ways to get the job done and find out what they need to know.

If the answer to any of the questions above is "YES!" then there's a good chance that sales tool isn't consuming more effort than it's worth. In that case, you should do everyone a favor and lobby your management to have it mothballed.