Is your Sales Effectiveness still on the decline?

According to the CSO Insight 2018 Sales Effectiveness Study, overall sales effectiveness has generally been on the decline since 2012. We believe one reason for this is the persistent focus on technology being the answer, as opposed to a tool to facilitate the answers. We have used the tagline for some time that “ You can’t layer automation on top of chaos!” The article provides another quote from Michael Hammer that also relays this sentiment: “automating a mess yields an automated mess”. If you have unstructured sales processes, lack of clarity regarding roles & responsibilities, undefined rules of engagement, and poor training & onboarding, and low accountability, no SFA or CRM will resolve these issues. However, an SFA or CRM can dramatically enhance the effectiveness or well designed sales processes and structure. Bottom line… streamline sales business processes, then design/implement the technology specifically to support the way you want the business to function before spending millions on implementing a new CRM that delivers the same results you already have.