Annually, more than $5 billion is invested in sales technology start-ups. On average, sales organizations spend $4,797 a year per quota-carrying rep. That said, more and more money is spent each subsequent year on sales technologies and enablement, and it’s not likely to slow down anytime soon. Yet, despite this investment, few organizations feel that their CRM system and sales enablement technologies deliver on expectations.
In our work with hundreds of organizations, we find that the majority of the time, poor ROI on sales technologies is caused by failure to recognize three key points:
To improve ROI on sales technologies, organizations must start with what they are trying to do, what they are trying to enable, and how they are trying to enable it. To do that, start with six key questions:
We work with clients to help them establish a vision and business case for their use of sales technology. This guides the development of core capabilities, processes, and definitions that are consistent across businesses, geographies, and roles.
Then, we address the “people” success factors including stakeholder engagement, skills development, and supporting organizational structure for technology adoption. When appropriate, we partner with CRM and sales enablement technology integrators to address “process” consistency and capture key requirements.
Finally, we help set the framework for continued organizational support and reinforcement by sales managers to drive user adoption.
Our clients consistently experience substantial improvements in adoption and ROI from sales technologies, which translates to better enablement and better results.
Laura Sardilli is a partner with Symmetrics Group. She has helped numerous sales and sales operations leaders ensure that their sales technology decisions and implementation approaches are grounded in solid fundamentals of sales effectiveness.
Contact us to discuss how to ensure sales technologies directly support sales effectiveness.
How can companies avoid the typical pitfalls that lead to CRM failure? Download the whitepaper to better understand the relationship between CRM strategy, sales effectiveness, and CRM technology.