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. So if you want the bear to ride his bicycle in the circus, it’s worthwhile asking if the bear is trained.

I ran into someone at a conference who wanted his SFA system to also do his billing. I want to go on record as saying a database is a database and anything is possible. But if you want to train a bear to ride a bicycle, it’s usually a good idea to start with a bear. In the last eight years, SFA has exploded with core capabilities and compatible software (witness SalesForce.com and their original AppExchange). However, it still is prudent to ask, “Does the system have the core functionality required to meet our needs?” (i.e., Are we sure the bear isn’t going to eat us before we get the training wheels off the bike?)

If you want to get to the bottom of something…start at the bottom. Before shaving the bear, it might be a good idea to find out when the last time it ate was, or if it even feels particularly warm and would like a trim. When you want to properly diagnose and solve problems with SFA systems, you need to start at the bottom. One way to do this is to ask, “Is the ‘sales’ or ‘customer relationship management’ process you want to emulate with your SFA/CRM system well defined?

In general, senior managers are not paid to solve problems; they are paid to think about the consequences of problems and then get other people to solve them. However, in my experience, they are not very good at it. They often succumb to the “Shaving the Bear” syndrome. If faced with Global Warming, do you really want to shave polar bears?