In this article we are focusing on implementation because the reason why most SFA projects fail is because of implementation, not because of software selection. Surprisingly, over 75% of SFA implementations fail the first time. There are a few key reasons why these projects fail in the set up stage.

Sales Force Automation (SFA) Implementation Tips

Sales force automation or SFA is an enterprise solution focused on tracking sales, leads, and the gamut of customer services tasks necessary for a successful sales organization. Sales force automation does exactly what it describes, it helps a company manage and automate pieces of the sales effort by providing a software solution that manages all customer and sales information as well as required future activities related to sales and business development.

SFA has become an invaluable sales tool for company sales teams by helping to manage daily sales activity with a user friendly system and interface.  The software also act as an sales assistant by automating routine but important sales functions such as follow-ups, reminders and other customer relationship tasks.  A good sales force automation solution will make it easy for the sales professional to retrieve important customer and company information to review their sales history, status, and a record of past communication, promises and expectations.

As with any department within an organization nowadays, most business processes can be improved and streamlined with software tools.  Sales departments are no exception and because they are the most visible group within an organization, sales erp force automation tools have had a strong following since they first appeared in the late 80s.  Because of the demand for SFA solutions are high there are ton of products and vendors to choose from on the market today with and endless list of capabilities and functionality.

Before deciding on an SFA solution for your organization, it’s important to understand what functions are critical to your sales organization.  Identify your current and future sales needs for this type of software such as customer contact management, sales tracking, sales forecasting, customer history or reporting to name just a few.   Keep in mind the various capabilities and functionalities of software products on the market but first focus on what your sales organization needs are as your guiding principle. How to find the right solution for your organization would be a topic for another article in itself.  In this article we are focusing on implementation because the reason why most SFA projects fail is because of implementation, not because of software selection. Surprisingly, over 75% of SFA implementations fail the first time.  There are a few key reasons why these projects fail in the set up stage.

As mentioned earlier, it is critical that the current processes of the business in analyzed.  This process is called business process mapping and it’s the most critical component of selecting and implementing SFA solutions.  This eye opening process can bring to light areas within the sales organization work, where there are holes, and where pieces are missing entirely.  This information is precisely what is required when sourcing a SFA solution to help bridge, augment, and fill void in the current sales process.  Mapping out these business processes after implementing an SFA solution will lead to chaos.  The subsequent confusion and misdirection will start to snowball and hamper the implementation progress and ultimately stymie the process.

Employee adoption is another area that should be addressed prior to implementation and that should be aided by a good business process analysis completed at the start of the SFA initiative.  Being creatures of habit, the disruption of the normal routine will be challenged by employees.  Bringing key stakeholder in the SFA initiative early in the game is critical.  Choosing a SFA solution that is user friendly and easy to use is also critical to ensure a smooth transition and employee adoption.

Information transfer is the next critical piece of a successful implementation.  The difficulty is getting the data and information from the sales teams heads, desks, note paper, planner, post its and palm pilots into the new SFA database.  Additional resources should be allocated to help with this data dump to facilitate the process and ensure its completion. Simply asking employees to enter all their sales data and knowledge into the database of a new system simply will not happen.  Incentives, resources and processes should be laid out to employees to hand hold them through this critical process.

Training the sales team on the new system is the next hurdle.  The critical step is to get users using the new software.  The learning curve will accelerate dramatically after the first few weeks, so it’s important not to overwhelm users and have them take on too much in the beginning.  A good place to start is contact management as that is the most familiar function in SFA solutions to most sales professionals.   After they become used to the interface, they can move on the other less familiar modules and then the neat bells and whistles that will really make their productivity hum.

Following these steps will help mitigate and bumps on the road and help ensure that the time and resources dedicated to help your sales team’s productivity will be a favorable return on investment for the company and for your sales team.