Why is your CRM holding you back?

One of the most popular questions we get asked when meeting with new customers is whether or not Sparta can be integrated into a CRM system. The question is not an unfair one. Given most customers head into their discussions with us thinking that they would like to use Sparta to measure and reward people for measuring core sales activities - such as closed deals, opened opportunities or even booked meetings - it makes sense that you would want to sync that data from a CRM into Sparta.

However, given that we now know that driving increased sales performance is best achieved by promoting actions, not outcomes - using a CRM makes no sense. Why? Because the behaviours and actions that we believe will lead to more success aren’t stored in a CRM!

If you’re reading this thinking “but I just want my team to book more meetings and close more deals and that data is already in our CRM”, I challenge you to ask yourself, what exactly is it that leads people to book more meetings and close more deals in the first place? Isn’t it better to focus on those behaviours instead? What are the core behaviours that your top performing staff do, that your middle performers do not? What behaviours if people focused more on, would cause your team to increase their performance?

It could be turning up earlier than everyone else, it could be making a clear plan for each day in the morning, it could be reading specific training material, it could be passing an internal certification, it could be asking specific questions to customers. You get the idea. Every result (whether it’s a booked meeting or a closed deal), is triggered by a number of behaviours that led the sales rep there. Instead of worrying about the results, measure, promote and reward the behaviours. I guarantee you’ll end up with better results, more booked meetings or closed deals anyway.