5 Ways To Sell Your Sales Team on CRM

When selling CRM to rural sales teams, rural companies forget these same people are professionals who sell for a living so they need to be actually sold on something. 
 
If you sell your CRM from the perspective of helping your business rather than helping them win, you won’t get any uptake. 
 
Any big brother connotations? 
 
Good luck with that. 
 
Same for if you don’t reward all their conscientious recording with valuable and insightful reporting. 
 
Why would they take their time to do something if it didn’t benefit them? 
 
CRM success comes down to alignment and shared success. 
 
Your rural sales team have one and only one question when it comes to CRM: 
 
“Will this CRM help make my job easier and make me more money?” 
 
If you can prove it can with case studies of sale people who have successfully make more money and get home to their kids earlier each evening then bingo. 
 
Sold. 
 
You have to provide the proof and truth that the CRM system you want them to use and implement serves their needs, more than yours. 
 
Just like the way you sell to customers. 
 
If a CRM can show a rural sales rep where they are wasting time or help them to qualify or disqualify a prospect quicker then you have a far higher likelihood of them using and adopting it. 
 
If you can’t sell them on the benefits of the CRM that will serve them you will not make your CRM sale. 
 
So what can I do to sell CRM more successfully to my rural sales team? 
 

Here are my top 5 suggestions:

 1. Keep it simple 
 
DO NOT opt for star-trek enterprise solutions form the get go. Start small and simple so it’s not overwhelming. There is a very good usability and adoption reason the likes of Air NZ when starting self-service kiosks started small. Learn from this. 
 
2. NO double data entry 
 
Make it dead easy and seamless for them. Reps hate wasting time re-entering info as much as anyone who’s put on hold and then told to re-enter their PIN. 
 
3. Show me the money 
 
Show them with live real examples of reps who are using their CRM to make more money by spending more time with better prospects. And if you can, show them the time they are saving on the road or the shortened sales cycles. 
 
4. Appoint some CRM champions 
 
Your rural reps – like farmers – will listen to and respect their own the most. Endorsement has to come from their peers. 
 
 
5. Reward and award CRM behaviour 
 
Use a combination of carrot and stick. Carrots in the form of monthly public recognition rewards and sticks in terms of bonus qualifiers and part of their expected PD. 
 
Like any sales situation, think about how you’re going to specifically sell CRM to your rural sales team. 
 

• • What are they currently thinking or saying? (so you can meet them at that same conversation)
  • What are their specific queries/concerns/questions?
  • What fears or doubts (known or unknown) can you remove before they are even raised?
  • What reassurance and proof can you give them that it will be worth their while?
  • How will they be rewarded?
  • Why does it matter and why is it meaningful?

These are the fundamental questions a rural sales team will always ask themselves. 
 
Better still, if you answer these questions before they’re asked and you’re more than half way home. 
 
Good luck! 
 
Let me know what I’ve missed here?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Is you want to learn more tips on rural sales aside from 5 Ways To Sell Your Sales Team on CRM, check out our other blogs.