Are your people trained in using your SFA system?
One major reason for lack of usage is lack of training, though training has to be applied at the right times. Training is best when an employee first joins the company, not when some other issue has prevented the acceptance of the SFA and become an excuse for why it isn’t being used according to your company policy.
- Is there a training program?
- Is it thorough (documented, on-line, classroom, time allowed for it) or an after-thought?
- Is each discipline trained on the process and the SFA? Note: Training is different for different disciplines.
- Is there adequate support in place for employees to follow up on their training?
There are lots of aspects to effective training, and it’s often worthwhile to involve a professional trainer in SFA implementation. Training for sales effectiveness is a lot like training for sports; there is a certain muscle memory that comes into play. So training can’t be just an event, it has to be a sustained process.