I have just returned from a from a lengthy discussion with a client. We have beed asked to review the client's sales processes with particular emphasis on why sales personnel haven't been using the systems. The issues were not driven by a need for greater detail in corporate reporting or lack of information about forecasting, but simply that sales don't use the systems put in place to help them do the selling. It seemed that the client had done all the right things, involving the sales teams in building the systems, making it as easy as possible to complete forms online, monitoring usage, getting feedback. But none of these good things had produced the desired results. "They still don't use the system".

Sales people are notorious amongst the IT fraternity with respect to using (or not using) IT systems. It perplexes the developers who have conscientiously responded to the gripes from sales and added little tweaks and changes to make the system just that little bit easier to use. "We added an interface to their Blackberry to make it easier for them to work but they still don't fill in the g'damm product number! and they said that was their biggest problem!".

The issue is that Sales staff are also conscientious. They are out there doing the selling and their time is best used in this way. Who wants to be filling in some arcane form on a website at 9pm at night after a long day on the road.

Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions to getting people to use systems correctly, but I have listed below some techniques we think are useful.

·  It has to come from the top. Its no good having a system which is not sponsored by the senior people in the business - who understand it, know its benefits, expect it to deliver and can communicate this to their staff. The boss expects you to use the system!

·  Reasons for using the system. Its no good having people fill in mandatory fields on forms when they don't know what the fields do. Worse still having fields that are necessary and everyone knows no-one ever looks at them on a report - this can easily be resolved by the developers - Review the forms and remove unnecessary fields or hide them on and "Advanced" tab. However, for necessary fields, explain what they are used for why they are there, who is looking at them and what the consequences of not completing the form correctly can do to the business.

·  Communicate early. Non-use is often a result of poor training (or no training). Induction training for new sales staff should include an introduction to the systems. Where possible use sales staff (as opposed to IT or operations) to do the training. Better still have your top flight sales guy (no gender implied), winner of this year's porsche 911, do an introduction. Tips and tricks for getting the best out of the system wouldn't go amiss and use real world examples with nice big numbers.

·  Online Training. You should have good (and up-to-date) on-line documentation. 5 Minute spoken tutorials on specific subjects, How to log a quotation, How to promote a lead to an opportunity etc. These are easy to create using something like PowerPoint or adobe's range of tools and can be done incrementally. Saleforce.com have spent a lot of time creating online tutorials but they apply to the out-of-the-box system. Your system is probably customized for your business needs, you should customize the training at the same time.

·  Monitor usage. This is the big brother approach yes but it doesn't need to be an intrusion on anyone's civil liberties. If a user hasn’t logged on without legitimate reason for a lengthy period of time then flag it to their boss. But be sympathetic you wouldn’t want to be told off for not logging onto a sales system as you breast feed your newborn.

·  Monitor Time Spent. "but it take 20 minutes to fill in an opportunity form!". It probably doesn't but how do you know? A simple timestamp on opening and saving a form might give you an heads up on time spent. If this isn’t possible then ask the question on your regular usage feedback survey - how long does it take you to complete an opportunity.

·  Regular user feedback. A simple set of survey questions on usability emailed to your sales force would suffice. 5 questions at the most with radio button selections. Bottle of Champaign draw for all those completing the survey.

·  The big stick. Tie system usage and accuracy into the bonus.

This is not exhaustive but its a good start.