Few people work effectively when they are being suffocated. If you ever had a boss who looked over your shoulder 24/7/365, you probably felt as though you were being buried alive.
Nonetheless, there’s a tendency in sales management to bury sales reps alive with call reports, forecasting reports, lost business reports, new business reports, business assessment reports. (Have I forgotten any?)
Sometimes reportfests are driven by insecurity. Management doesn’t really know what sales reps are up to, since they’re out of sight most of the time. There’s a lurking suspicion sales reps are at the movies instead of making cold calls, or buying a new lawn mower instead of selling product.
Sometimes reportfests are driven by loftier motives – a desire to instill organization and discipline in the sales force, qualities that are often lacking in exceptionally strong sales performers.
Whatever the reason, micromanagement seldom if ever works. Here’s why -
1. Micromanagement is oppressive. It saps morale.
2. Micromanagement consumes massive amounts of time – time better spent doing actual sales work.
3. You, the sales manager, cannot digest and act on massive amounts of information. You waste time trying, and the whole report-and-react process becomes an exercise in futility. Not where you want to be.
Ways to keep a firm handle on things without micromanaging
- Instead of reviewing everything, spot-check. If reps are doing a few things right, it’s likely they’re doing most things right.
- Use the element of surprise. Tell a rep you’ll be accompanying him in the field today. That will give you a far better handle on how the rep is doing than reviewing a year’s worth of call reports. Reps won’t like this technique, but they will be better for it.
- Talk to customers. I think of reports as a self-imposed buffer between the company and the customer. Reports measure activity and communicate ideas, but reports can’t tell you how customers feels about your company and the sales representation you’re giving them.
- Follow a handful of projects. By staying close to a sales rep on a particular account or prospect that matters, you will gain a clear understanding of how the rep does business, and as a huge bonus, have a wonderful teaching opportunity. Giving yourself fully to a rep on one important project bears far more fruit than haphazardly checking in with him or her on 50 projects.
At first, you may feel as though you’re flying without a net. But give it time. You’re going to see improvement in performance and morale, especially your own.
I agree with you completely. I have done extensive research that takes this even further by understanding the level of resistance to activity controls that I have termed “The CRM Dilemma.” I believe I have identified the true reason behind CRM failures that is best described in a quote by Douglas Hartle that says “It is a rare dog that will carry the stick with which it is to be beaten.” I invite you to take a look at the research presented informally on my blog.
Arne, your blog is quite interesting. Any sales team contemplating CRM ought to check it out before proceeding, at a minimum.
Brad, thank you for your kind endorsement. I try to add to the presentation of my research every day. On a similar note, I was on Salesforce.com “Ideas” today and I saw something that I think Sales Managers should avoid using. SalesForce admins, can now add an element of “tracking” that will measure the time reps spend in the program, and exactly what users do while logged in, without their knowledge. Some are planning to use this feature to measure user adoption by “Catching” those reps that log in once per week to avoid the “No log-in report”. If the aversion to CRM by sales reps, is so high, that “gaming” needs to be continually countered with higher and more punitive monitoring, perhaps we need to take a harder look at what is causing the aversion in the first place. The tools and benefits in CRM that are available to reps are amazing. If reps are avoiding using the tools, because they fear having what they enter in be used against them, adding yet more “elements of fear” will likely unify them even more against CRM. Thanks for this great place to discuss these important issues.
Arne, wow. You’re raising quite an important issue – Big Brother meets CRM. I imagine most sales reps would be uncomfortable having their movements tracked with their knowledge, let alone without it. Do you think that sort of tracking is ethical? Thanks for your comments – the “gaming” issue is something sales people and managers need to talk about.
Brad, Audit trail tracking in software is generally created for regulatory situations. For example; a bank need to know the last person that viewed or touched an electronic document. Unfortunately, some look at such tools and see other uses such as overall CRM usage monitoring. In response, some guy will invent a program that will sit in your CRM program, and just flip pages for you all day
The labor market is tough and is going to get tougher. Companies need to give up on the notion of activity controls. Until I discovered “The CRM Dilemma” I really thought that activity controls were possible as long as we told sales reps the information would not be used against them. I was wrong but now I understand.