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14 FEDA News & Views Changing the Way You Cook since 1990 800.988.8103 360.650.1111 woodstone-corp.com STONE HEARTH & SPECIALTY Commercial Cooking Equipment Discover why OVER 13,000 OVENS, rotisseries, charbroilers, tandoors, and planchas have been SOLD IN 75+ COUNTRIES worldwide. Made in the USA. CRM continued suggested sales metrics like improving the speed that oppor- tunities move through the sales process, higher win rates and increased share of customer spend." As for how long it will take to see a return, gains can be immediate if you know what you want to accomplish and how CRM fits into the equation, adds Dancer. "If your salespeople are not calling on the right customers, at the right time, with the right advice, and you know where they should be spending their time, CRM can help sales managers direct and coach their salespeople and use data to show them they are getting better results," he says. "It also allows them to answer questions as they arise, instead of reaching out to the sales force for answers." KaTom's vice president of Business Development can attest to that. Not big on having his team of five fill out lengthy reports, Chesworth used to burn up to six hours a week on either preemptive coaching or inquiring about sales calls and outcomes. Now due diligence takes about 30 minutes, since all sales activities are documented in CRM. Using the relation- ship module in Microsoft Dynamics NAV (integrated with the distributor's ERP system), outside sales reps log all sales calls, phone correspondence, emails and quotes. They can track their activity with both current customers and prospects, continued on page 20 suggested sales metrics like improving the speed that oppor tunities move through the sales process, higher win rates and As for how long it will take to see a return, gains can be As for how long it will take to see a return, gains can be immediate if you know what you want to accomplish and how CRM fits into the equation, adds Dancer. "If your salespeople are not calling on the right customers, at the right time, with the right advice, and you know where they should be spending their time, CRM can help sales managers direct and coach their salespeople and use data to show them they are getting better results," he says. "It also allows them to answer questions as they arise, instead of reaching out KaTom's vice president of Business Development can attest to that. Not big on having his team of five fill out lengthy reports, Chesworth used to burn up to six hours a week on either preemptive coaching or inquiring about sales calls and outcomes. Now due diligence takes about 30 minutes, since suggested sales metrics like improving the speed that oppor- suggested sales metrics like improving the speed that oppor- suggested sales metrics like improving the speed that oppor tunities move through the sales process, higher win rates and As for how long it will take to see a return, gains can be immediate if you know what you want to accomplish and how CRM fits into the equation, adds Dancer. "If your salespeople are not calling on the right customers, at the right time, with the right advice, and you know them to answer questions as they arise, instead of reaching out 3 Keys to Getting the Most Out of CRM Focus on making your salespeople effective It is usually a mistake to implement CRM solely as a way to give management the ability to oversee or micromanage salespeople, says author Mark Dancer. CRM success requires salespeople to use it. They have to enter data about calls, sales results, etc. If they view it as busy work, or worse, management second- guessing their decisions, they won't use CRM and it won't be very effective for the company. Start small before you go big CRM, like any technology implementation, requires training, data cleansing, systems integrations, etc. If a distributor tries to do too much all at once, it can overwhelm the organization. This can have a nega- tive impact on sales productivity, and even stall the process. New results require new behaviors CRM puts information in the hands of salespeople and management, but it doesn't create a new, incre- mental result until someone decides to change. It is the responsibility of management to figure out what those new behaviors are and then guide their salespeople using CRM to adopt a new sales process, call on the right accounts, sell on value, etc. Tips courtesy of Mark Dancer, the author of Getting the Most Out of CRM: Best Practices for Wholesaler- Distributors, published by the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence. Mark is currently working on a new book for NAW focused on adoption and use of digital tools (ecommerce, social media, big data, mobility and multichannel solutions) and the impact on wholesaler-distributor value strategies and business models. To order your copy of Getting the Most Out of CRM, go to http://www.naw.org/crm.