Sales performance is not improving – despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on sales technology, according to CSO Insights, a consulting and research firm that focuses on sales management. A recent study suggests that “while the desire to improve sales performance continues to be top of mind for nearly all Chief Sales Officers (CSOs), it simply is not happening,” says CSO Insights managing partner Jim Dickie.

The big question, of course, is: Why?

CSO Insights reports that a big part of the problem is that the Internet has changed the power relationship between buyer and seller. The report explains that because of the availability of information on the Internet, the buying process often starts long before the sales process, as prospects access product facts, pricing, reviews, existing customer feedback, etc., without ever talking to a salesperson. When sales reps are eventually brought into the process, buyers are now expecting the reps to bring much more to the table than just a rehash of product knowledge, features, and benefits. Instead, they expect the reps to have done the homework on their needs and be able to describe how the product/service offering will meet and exceed their expectations.

Clearly, that’s a big change in the way the sales reps must behave in order to close business. However, it also has a direct impact on the potential for CRM to generate sales productivity. CRM is often implemented in such a way that it reinforces traditional ideas about sales process, in which it is assumed that the sales rep is driving the sales process forward, starting with the cold call, moving through questioning, presentation, handling objections, and closing. Unfortunately, that kind of process is meaningless when the customers are driving the buying process.

Traditional sales process concepts don’t take into account the shift in power and knowledge away from the sales rep toward the customer. In order to add value, the sales rep must “swim upstream” (as it were) and add value at a higher level. If a CRM system attempts to automate (and thus reinforce) behavior that no longer makes sense, there are two possible results:

1. The CRM system becomes an active impediment to selling. If the CRM system helps the sales rep cling to the illusion that selling is something that the rep is “doing to” the customer, rather than “doing for” the customer, it will simply make the rep less effective.

2. The CRM system becomes an irrelevant waste of time. If the sales rep is aware that the CRM system doesn’t reflect the reality of the sales experience, but is still forced to enter largely meaningless data, the result is time spent on data entry that would be better spent selling.

Mike Bosworth, author of the bestseller CustomerCentric Selling (Wiley, 2005) argues that the sales process must be adapted to customer buying processes prior to being automated. But that’s not what’s happening. Instead, when sales managers see sales productivity dropping, they’re likely to turn to CRM in an attempt to make their existing, traditional process more efficient. That’s like stepping on the accelerator when you’re heading for a cliff.

This is not to say that there aren’t CRM packages that are attempting to address customer buying patterns. In fact, many CRM vendors are aware of the problem, but are still seeing demand from sales managers for traditional CRM that reinforces traditional sales processes. The reason is simple. The people who are most confused by the changing nature of the buyer/seller relationship are the sales managers, most of whom were successful using a traditional sales process. Because they’re not actively involved in selling in the Internet era, they can’t understand why their “tried and true” methods (especially when supercharged with CRM) aren’t working any longer.