By Adele Crane. Adele Crane, is the best selling author of two titles, “Improving Sales Force Efficiencies” and “Get Sales Focused”. A world renowned business consultant and Director of Sales Focus International, Adele has 20 years of experience specializing in cultural change, knowledge management and the diagnosis of businesses and individuals that contribute to change.
When the matter of knowledge management and systems is raised in conversation with many sales managers and directors, they immediately look to the financial reporting within the company. They can run a plethora of reports on customers by product, turnover and margin which can be extrapolated to regions and a myriad of other reports by design.
Some companies extend the approach even further to systems that relate to quality assurance: the process to be used when entering orders to the financial or operational system, the process to be used for credit notes and other compliance obligations for the effective operation of the company. A CRM may also be in place but often the content within the software is sadly lacking any real information or value.
Are these systems? Huge Risks!
Most certainly, but they are potentially only about one tenth of what is required for effective sales force management and moreover, protection of the company’s knowledge against vagrant sales personnel.
There is a high degree of risk associated with operating a company whose knowledge of customers and associations is retained only in the heads of individuals. It is a risk that has seen many companies suffer significant downturns when that individual departs, leaving a massive void in their place. Companies can spend one or two years recovering from the lost information. The company does not really know the customer beyond their past buying trends and they lose enormous credibility as the new sales person struggles to find his way with what was a long standing customer.
Knowledge Management is about having systems for the sales force that;
1) Retains customer knowledge gained through interaction in sales activities, and more importantly,
2) Providing business and organisational knowledge for the sales force to be effective in their role.
A system that can achieve these two points leads to the establishment a standard of performance across the team that manages the experience of the customer.
The areas of knowledge are not the narrow vertical of information often thought of as financial/product knowledge nor the over promoted CRM software that exists in the market today. Rather, “knowledge” is about the all encompassing area within the selling function that was recognised by Harvard Business Review research as the core ingredient required to be a formidable competitor and a successful company. That is, a company that has well defined systems, filled with knowledge on many levels rather than the commonplace CRM. In fact, the Harvard Business Review cited the CRM system as an add-on rather than the pivotal system that most companies are led to believe.
Purpose of Knowledge Management
The main purpose of knowledge management is about fully informing sales people before they go to a customer so that they possess a high level of credibility. Through knowledge management, sales people are given the tools and knowledge on how to use those them in order to enhance their communication with the customer.
They are also provided with knowledge on how to identify and cultivate opportunities for specific products. The working documents and methods used behind the scenes for planning, key account management, customer management, accurate forecasting, standards of operation and expectations are clearly defined. These are vast and potentially one of the most important investments for any company.
Each element of the knowledge management and systems directly affects the efficiency of the team and particularly, their capability to sign new business. The smarter an organisation becomes in its selling function, the more efficient and effective it becomes in how it operates, consequently leading to maximum growth achievements.
Your Responsibility
As a director or executive of a company, it is your role to embark on the process of developing the knowledge management and systems whilst ensuring you are installing best practice that will mark you as a formidable competitor.
By starting to document your methodologies, experience and procedures in a way that is customized to your organizational values, style and approach, you will be taking the first step towards minimizing the risk of sales people leaving and taking your business with them.
Interestingly, most sales people report that on implementation of thorough systems and processes in an organization, they finally understand what is required and the boundaries they need to work within. In most cases, sales forces are as desperate for the right guidance and direction to conduct their sales activities as much as their managers’ need to for their sales teams to conform to the right procedures. Organizations with solid systems can usually deliver a 25-35% increase in results.
Get Help!
Through the book, “Improving Sales Force Efficiencies” you can learn the keys to sales force efficiency. It takes you through what well defined systems are, knowledge management and how you can face the challenges of improving your organisation to be a low risk formidable competitor in the market. This book is a practical resource for its logical and valuable insights into many of the fundamental barriers that organisations place in front of themselves and stop potential growth in the future. Improving Sales Force Efficiencies is available through www.amazon.com in Europe and USA or directly with Sales Focus International www.salesfocusintl.com.
Interesting post. We have discussed the role of a CRM system at our company. It is great to store data, reminder for sales activities, following up on leads, etc. But it all boils down to establish a positive relationship with the customer and there is knowledge management a good way of integrate your activities in the whole business chain.
Hi Adele,
You’re absolutely right. Many sales people resist using knowledge management systems not because they’re too busy. And not because they’re techno phobic.
Sales people often kick/scream about documenting what they do because they want to protect their turf and job security.
Techies are often like this too.
Now mix sales people + techies together, as in our niche with small business computer consulting, and you’ve got some pretty major negativity about knowledge management.
Ultimately it’s up to senior managers/owners to change the culture of the company to be more focused on systems, as opposed to giving into the whining and bullying of prima donnas.
Sometimes personnel changes are needed.
Because at the end of the day, if the prima donna walks out the door, you don’t want the entire “business” walking out the door with him/her.
Thanks for the great post.
Joshua Feinberg
I appreciate your article. As I think about the resistance that salespeople have toward new technology and, more specifically, knowledge management systems, my personal experience as a sales manager has taught me a few things.
First, I believe that the resistance expressed by many sales agents is a product of the uncertainty they percieve in their environment. Having managed multiple sales teams within a high-pressure commission only environment, I’ve quickly learned that uncertainty goes hand in hand with the job. Sales agents are highly sensitive to change — while their concerns may seem trivial to some, anything which adds to the uncertainty they already feel can throw them off their game. Wise managers will be very sensitive to these concerns and implement new policies and technology incrementally — much like boiling a frog in a pot of water.
The second thing I’ve discovered is that such change is much easier to implement when a strong relationship of trust is established between sales agents and their managers (check out this link to see an article I recently wrote about this http://www.strangelegacy.com/2008/04/27/lessons-of-effective-leadership/). If sales agents trust their leaders, and trust that the data collected through knowledge management systems will be used for training and assistance rather than punitive action, it will be much easier to win their enthusiasm for such tools. Often, when a large group of agents is highly resistant to a new policy one can trace the problem back to senior management, and a failure to build this type of environment.