Don't change your CRM, change your CRM culture !

I've spent the recent weeks looking for the "perfect" CRM tool. I found one with a great bell, another with an amazing whistle, and the one I especially liked had the shiniest widget I've ever seen. All kidding aside, there were several that had great options that could make our dealer group perform at a higher level. But as the search unfolded, so did the daily tasks of salespeople not sourcing leads correctly, managers not confirming appointments, assignments mis-assigned, and NOBODY completing tasks. And I thought to myself, "what does it matter what the name says on the box of the new CRM tool?"

In the two years that I have been CRM "champion", I've trained dozens of new salespeople and managers. I've simplified dashboards, automated as much as I could without making us seem like robots, and hired additional people to handle the campaigns enjoyed by a robust CRM tool. And we sell 400+ cars a month DESPITE of ourselves.

Don't be fooled by a great sales pitch of a CRM "silver bullet." It doesn't matter what the name says on ANY of your programs if you cannot get the support of the team you have engaging in these products. The REAL silver bullet is continuous daily training of how and why CRM works. Salespeople & managers need to understand the back end of CRM and the triggers involved to making the complete cycle of prospect -to-owner-to-repeat customer. That's the ZMOCRMT. A new acronym I invented to the "aha moment" when they understand the zero moment of crm truth.

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Permalink Reply by David T. Gould on September 24, 2012 at 5:23pm

PERFECT Larry! "Salespeople & managers need to understand the back end of CRM and the triggers involved to making the complete cycle of prospect -to-owner-to-repeat customer." is DEAD ON... Good Selling, DTG

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Permalink Reply by Stan Sher on September 26, 2012 at 2:47pm

While there are CRMs that are way better then others in terms of functions, ease of use, support, etc. It all starts with how you work in the store. Great post. It is all about the culture.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Spensley on October 9, 2012 at 3:53pm

A good CRM tool makes the whole business better regardless of the business. It does not, however, revise broken processes and it will likely not improve the performance of a below average salesperson or manager. It makes all of this performance information more obvious to the business and everyone involved with it.

In the tradition of "knowing is half the battle" it still leaves half of the battle yet to be fought. In simple terms a CRM tool will almost assuredly reveal every weak point and person in an operation, one of the reasons why dealerships struggle with adoption. The other half of the battle is recognizing these shortfalls and responding to them with action and then going back to the rich information provided by the CRM to measure your progress.