What is the Sales Back Office? And how do they deliver value to a Sales team?
I often refer to myself as working in the “sales back office”. Many people call it their sales operations team. The back office is often the missing piece for smaller teams, especially ones that aspire to big growth. Many large companies invest in teams for their sales back office, and for good reason. The contribution is growing revenue and significantly improving sales productivity. In the recent Miller Heiman CSO Insights study, they say [...]
How did our CRM implementation go so wrong? My top 6 reasons
My original title for this article was “Its not you, it’s me”. CRM implementations fail for many reasons. Sometimes it is the purchase of the wrong software, sometimes even really bad software. Maybe a less than competent implementation partner. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say most problems come from our own organisations. In more cases than not, we must take accountability for the success or failure of the [...]
Help! No one is using our CRM
Sadly, this is a common refrain. And it really doesn’t need to be that way. Here are a few tips to help you get your team using your CRM so that you can start getting value out of it. Make sure it works Kind of obvious. So much so that I nearly didn’t include this. But in many cases, some simple hurdles are standing in the way of your CRM being used. [...]
How to choose a CRM
Do you or your team have days like this? Days where you remember at the end of the day that you wanted to contact that customer who hasn’t responded to your email proposal. And you also need to call and recover the relationship with another customer after the service delivery team didn’t quite understand what the customer’s arrangements and expectations were, making a tricky situation even worse. All the while you are wondering [...]
What is the best CRM?
Asking this question is like asking “what is the best vehicle to buy?” A small, fuel efficient Toyota hatch might absolutely be the right vehicle for some people, but it is not right if you have a family of seven. Or if you transport heavy equipment! So, what are the right questions to ask when considering the perfect CRM for you? It is very important to be clear on what you want it [...]
Goals and plans
Years ago, an unfit and overweight office worker recalled a youth of dreaming about completing big events: a half marathon, a triathlon. It was December 31, just a few weeks before she would turn 42. Staring at a list of resolutions that looked suspiciously like the list from the year before… and the year before that, she realised that it wasn’t going to get any easier to do these things with each year [...]
Overcoming overwhelm
Have you ever had the feeling that you are doing everything wrong in your business or career, but it would all be fine if only you knew the secret? Then searching for the answer, are you confused and overwhelmed by all the self-help, personal and business development advice out there? Adding to and not at all resolving the feeling of being overwhelmed by your challenges in the first place? Do all those gurus help us? [...]
My three words for 2017; next stop goals!
Instant Vision Board! Today I saw a post from the wonderful Suzi Dafnis from HerBusiness, suggesting that we consider what our 3 words for 2017 could be. This is an idea she sourced from Chris Brogan, who has written this excellent post on his words for 2017 and the background behind the idea. I am in the middle of firming up goals, and planning the detail of 2017 and this was the perfect [...]
MBA = Valuable experiences
Many people ask why I'm even attempting an MBA, especially at this point in my life. School aged kids, growing a business, an already full dance card of volunteer and sporting commitments. Surely it isn't worth it at this point? The answer is yes, it is returning so much more than I need to put in! I won't lie - it has been hard work so far and I don't expect it to [...]
CSE 2014 Conference wrap up
Just over a week ago, the Centre for Sales Excellence held its annual conference in Melbourne. For an agenda that was dominated by vendor presentation, I was thrilled to walk away with so much actionable new knowledge, from fantastic local and international speakers. The conference was themed around customer engagement. Aligning the sales organisation to meet the needs of customers was central to everything we spoke of. Some highlights, from the top four presenters [...]