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Summary

7th Commandment

MANAGEMENT MUST EMBRACE SFA
BEFORE THEY CAN ENFORCE IT.

Too many times tools get deployed without manager buy-in. Then when the troops rebel against the technology, the managers blame the failure either on the developers or their sales force. In either case, the blame is being passed unfairly.

Before management can enforce a tool, management must embrace it themselves. Now there are those who might argue vehemently that management doesn’t need to embrace it – they just need to use it if they know what it good for them. We can tell you from past experience and research that when you try to cram technology down people’s throats (or threaten them), they usually spit it back into your face with great distaste. Nobody wants to be told what to do or how to sell, especially if they are being successful without the automation. You need to sell them on automation. Find their levels of pain in the sales process, create intelligent solutions to ease that pain, and then show them how the tools resolve their problems. If done properly, they will embrace it.

Now it is equally important to note that not everyone learns at the same speed, and this impacts how quickly he or she accepts or embraces automation. To this end you must give management time to play with the tools and to experience the ease of use, the benefits and the return on investment (more selling time, etc.). If you deploy the tool to management and expect them to embrace it immediately, you are setting yourself up for failure. For this reason, you should always deploy to management first, then to the field second. Allow a few months to pass between these two deployments. And make sure that you deploy to an entire arm of an organization rather than scatter the automation across an enterprise. In this fashion you will be able to demonstrate the benefits of automated sales roll-ups and reporting more efficiently.

Take note, also, of the difference in comfort levels between personnel of varying ages. Typically, those in management are older than their field sales force personnel. Depending upon management’s age and their generation’s respective level of PC literacy and training, they may not readily grasp the benefit of automation, and may actually favor manual methods over automated ones. Care should be taken here to spend extra educating this group of people to make them converts. 
Lastly, it is critical to gather feedback from management during the first few weeks they have the tools. Take note of their suggestions or complaints, and then refine it, and test it again. Remove the excuses to not use it, and they will have no choice but to embrace it. Once embraced, they can then begin to enforce its use among their sales force.