CRM and sales training don’t always go that well together. Sometimes a sales team is trained in a selling methodology, only to find that the CRM system doesn’t support it very well. Or the CRM system has plenty of horsepower to implement a strong sales process, but the sales methodology lacks the conceptual oomph to get the most out of the applications.

That’s why it’s gratifying to see leading CRM vendors and leading sales training firms working more closely together. A perfect example of this is the Miller Heiman Sales Access Manager, an AppExchange application that offers bidirectional integration of Miller Heiman’s most popular planning and strategizing worksheets.

• The "Blue Sheet" for Strategic Selling helps sales professionals to build and maintain a strategic approach to pursuing opportunities. It gives salespeople an easy and user-friendly way to build strategies for individual opportunities, moving them to close faster.
• The "Green Sheet" for Conceptual Selling focuses sellers on the effective management of their individual sales calls, helping them properly position their products. It gives salespeople a consistent process for leveraging every customer interaction as they move through the sales cycle.
• The "Gold Sheet" for Large Account Management enhances the sellers’ ability to build lasting relationships with their largest customers. It gives sales teams a repeatable and reliable way to exchange information and build one- to three-year strategies to grow their most profitable customers.

Sales Access Manager allows data entered into the worksheets to flow in real time into salesforce.com. This provides sales managers instant visibility into the activities and strategies of their salespeople, thereby enabling them to make better decisions. Through an integrated easy to use interface within the salesforce.com application, sales leaders gain access to an automated tool to help them fully leverage and reinforce the award winning Miller Heiman sales methodology training throughout a sales organization.

What We Like about It:
For decades, Miller Heiman has been one of the world leaders in sales training. Few (if any) selling methodologies are as well regarded or have proven as useful in so many different selling environments. The Sales Access Manager, by providing quick access to Miller Heiman’s planning worksheets, strengthens the utilization of Miller Heiman sales methodologies both at the management level and at the level of the individual sales employee. In other words, it melds sales training into the CRM environment.

This, in turn, increases user adoption of CRM, because sales reps can more easily see how working with and in the CRM system helps them to develop and close more business. There are substantial benefits to management as well, because the additional visibility inherent in the Sales Access Manager is provided in the context of a workable sales methodology. This makes it easier for sales executives to more efficiently allocate resources to the right opportunities at the right time.

Profile:
Partner: Miller Heiman
Application: Sales Access Manager
Application Published: October 2006
Average User Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Pricing Plan: Varies; see vendor for more information
More Info: www.millerheiman.com