No easy answer here, and we can't really blame the users, either.

Talking to prospects about Sales Force Automation (SFA) one always feels that there is a tone of incredulity in the conversation. Sure the CEO sees the value of having a known pipeline of business and a verifiable forecast. But how to persuade the sales team to play along?

This seems especially difficult when you are looking at a team of 10-40 people. Larger companies with larger teams have gotten over the hurdle of user adoption to some degree, aided by the fact that there is a layer or two of management between the salesforce and the executive/ownership level.

But for these smaller companies the owner probably hired most of the experienced people and they have delivered up to this time without an SFA system. As a rule, salespeople are not timid about voicing their opinions, especially when a new tool threatens their independence.

Many of these same salespeople have adopted contact management systems, however. So the argument that the SFA tool adds too much administrative overhead is specious at best. In fact, subtract the functionality of a Contact Management tool from and SFA tool and you will find the answer to why seasoned salespeople often reject SFA tools. Bottom line: SFA tools provide management with questions; good, tough questions. How many active prospects do you have? How many opportunities have you found? How long does it take you to prepare a proposal? How long does it take on average to close a deal? How many leads need to enter the funnel in order to see the level of business we need to finish?

Looking for ROI from an SFA tool? Again, it is the tool's questions that provide the return. For example, over time a good SFA tool, like the NetSuite CRM product we implement, will give you a very good idea of how your pipeline delivers results: 100 leads, 10 prospects, 3 opportunities, 2 quotes and 1 win. Using these metrics you can quickly see which salespeople are setting themselves up for regular wins and which are out looking for a huge white whale of a deal. Regular wins are going to help you grow your business, and a good SFA tool is going to help you achieve regular wins.

User adoption has often been blamed on the software, and there's some truth here. But we are now in the third iteration of CRM and the tools are streamlined, they provide any time anywhere access, and they are very intuitive and easy to learn. The last steps to user adoption need to be taken by the users.
T.Foyde http://sightlog.sightlinesconsulting.com/public/blog/105236