Why Salespeople Hate Salesforce

Salespeople typically don’t like charts, reports or math. I personally been involved with thousands of “sales automation” projects, that are being used by probably 100,000 salespeople or so. The general feedback from the salespeople is usually unprintable, which is one of the reasons why we created Spiro, but more on that later. Since the days of Siebel, following with salesforce.com, there have been billions — really! — of dollars spent on sales automation technologies, but as of yet, I have not found a single sales rep that would tell me they love their system. No one says that the highlight of their day is entering accounts, contact information, or jotting down activities in order to make sure their efforts are streamlined. Salesforce Wasn’t Built For The Sales Team Salesforce was put into place to organize sales operations and sales management, not to benefit sales. Most sales professionals feel that salesforce.com — or any CRM — is a way of controlling them. No one likes to feel that they are constantly being monitored. They want the freedom to go about their daily tasks on their time, without pressure, without force, and without big brother looming over their shoulder. One telling example: when I asked a VP of Sales recently how he planned on getting his sales team to use the new CRM system, he said “because I’ll fire them if they don’t.” It was a lie, but it showed the attitude. Salesforce Isn’t User Friendly There are so many different things that need to be done within salesforce.com that trying to figure out what to do next can take up way too much precious time. Trying to understand the difference and value between events, tasks, notes and activities — leaves no real way of differentiating all the facets of the Salesforce. Salespeople want to sell and make money. They want to be in contact with people, not sitting in front of a computer playing system analysts all day. Salesforce Can Make A Sales Rep’s Job Harder! The main thing a field sales person does with salesforce is data entry. Everything a salesperson does in a day, every single task, every person she comes into contact with, must be documented. This means going to a computer after every single thing they do, or trying to use their mobile device, to type everything on a tiny keyboard. This is a major disincentive. One sales rep I know actually told people not to email him because if they did, he would have to fill out the salesforce information for them! The Dreaded Salesforce Required Field Most versions of Salesforce have certain fields that are required to be filled out before the salesperson can move on to a different page or task. This can mean up to 98 fields that must be filled in so that marketing can measure the campaign success. I’ve seen required fields from having the correct address, billing information, to even hair color or eye color! Built By Salespeople For Salespeople Sales people need a system designed with the key players, them, in mind. That’s why we built Spiro, the personal sales assistant for salesforce.com. It does all the crap, admin work in salesforce.com for salespeople, and provides them with proactive advice on who to contact next. We’ve seen salespeople increase their monthly sales by 11% when they use Spiro. When a sales team is happy and has tools that actually increase productivity, management will be happy with the profits rolling in. Sounds better than the grunt and groans about an inadequate CRM system. Your Personal Sales Assistant Spiro is the personal sales app for quota-carrying salespeople who want to make more money. Learn more at SpiroHQ.com, or download it today for iPhone, Android or as a Chrome Extension. Subscribe to our Medium postsEnter your email to receive updates from Spiro.powered.by.rabbut.com