Should I tie CRM use to sales commission?

Only after the CRM is easy to use and gives the rep something back. Paying people to fill in a bad screen gets you bad data on time.

Do we need a new CRM or can we fix the one we have?

Fix the one you have first. Most CRMs can be trimmed and connected to email in a few weeks, and a switch costs a year of retraining.

How do I get older reps who keep everything in a notebook to use it?

Let them talk instead of type. A voice note after each call that the tool turns into a CRM entry gets you their notes without changing how they sell.

What should a sales manager look at in the CRM each week?

Deals with no next step, deals with a next step in the past, and accounts that have gone quiet. That is enough to run a good weekly meeting.

How long until reps use the CRM on their own?

When it saves them time every day, usually inside a couple of months. If they still skip it after that, something on the screen is still there for someone else.

How do I get my sales reps to use the CRM?

Make the CRM worth it to the rep. Cut the fields to the few you use, put it inside the email and phone they already work in, let the tool log calls and emails for them, and give them something back, like a call list or an account summary. Help getting a sales team onto the tools starts at $3,500 a month.

Reps skip the CRM because it was set up for the sales manager's report. Fix that and most of the nagging goes away.

Why won't my sales reps use the CRM?

Because it costs them time and gives them nothing back. Every field they fill in feeds a forecast someone else reads. A good rep is paid to be on the phone or in front of a customer, so they keep the real notes in their head, a notebook, or their email, and type the minimum on Friday afternoon.

In manufacturing and distribution it is worse, because the relationships are long. A rep who has called on the same buyer for fifteen years does not need a screen to remember them. The company does, the day that rep retires.

Which fields should we cut?

Every field nobody has used to make a decision in the last six months. Go through the screen with the sales manager and ask, for each field, "what did we decide because of this?" If there is no answer, hide it. Most distributors and manufacturers need the account, the contact, the next step, the date, and the dollar value of the deal. Everything else can be optional or filled in by the tool.

How do we put the CRM where reps already work?

Use the email and phone add-ons. Most CRMs plug into Outlook, Gmail, and the phone, so a rep can log a call or an email in one click without opening another screen. If logging a call takes longer than making it, it will not get logged. The same goes for quotes: if the quote is built in a separate tool, connect it so the quote lands on the account without a rep copying it over.

Can AI fill in the CRM for them?

Yes. Current tools can log emails and calendar meetings automatically, write a call summary from a voice note the rep records in the truck, pull the next step out of an email thread, and update the deal stage. The rep checks it instead of typing it. Keep a person approving anything that goes to a customer.

What does the rep get back?

If the CRM hands the rep something useful every morning, they keep it current because it pays them.

A call list of who has gone quiet, who is due to reorder, and who opened the last quote.
An account summary before each call: what they bought, what is open, what they complained about.
Fewer status meetings, because the manager can read the pipeline instead of asking for it.

What does it cost to fix?

Getting a team to use the tools runs from $3,500 a month, with me working alongside the sales manager and the reps. If you want a fast read first, a one-hour second opinion is $150. If the problem is bigger than one tool, see we bought software and nobody uses it. Details are on getting a team to use the tools.

Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.