When selecting new tools for your sales team, it’s important to answer a series of questions that will allow you to focus in on your goals and narrow down the selection pool. Marketing & Sales Technologist Miles Austin, in partnership with Base, share 9 questions managers MUST ask before implementing new tech tools to their businesses. Read full article: http://blog.getbase.com/9-questions-you-need-to-answer-before-introducing-new-tools-to-your-sales-team

1. 9
QUESTIONS YOU
NEED TO ANSWER
BEFORE
INTRODUCING NEW
TOOLS TO YOUR
SALES TEAM
PRESENTED BY

2. What specifically are you trying to improve or gain?
Clearly identify what you want to achieve.
Saying that you want to streamline your deal flow is not good enough.
1. What stages of your deal flow?
2. Who can impact deal flow? Sales, Operations, Finance
Executives?

3. How is it being done currently?
1. Will you be replacing an existing tool?
2. Is it a manual process or are you creating something
entirely new for your organization?
2

4. How will you measure success?
Decide at the very beginning how you will measure success of the new tool.
1. How will you know that it’s delivering results?
2. Will success be visible to everyone, or only to the
management team?
3

5. Which roles will be using the tool?
Make sure that whoever will be leveraging the tool is involved in the decision process.
1. Will it be for salesperson use only?
2. Is the tool being selected for management?
3. Is the need being driven by the sales team or sales
management?
4. What role will Finance, Sales ops, Marketing, or
Customer Service have in the tool’s use?
4

6. How will the sales team be trained?
1. Will there be a formal training session?
2. Can it be trained online or does it require in-person
training?
3. Does the vendor provide tutorials or certified trainers?
4. Does the vendor have a curriculum available?
5

7. Where will it be used?
1. Is this a tool that will be used at a desk, on a laptop?
2. Is this a tool that will be used in the field, in a mobile
setting?
6

8. Do you need an app or web-based tool?
Some tools come with both options available
and can provide additional benefits if available.
Even if you have not yet deployed tablets into your
sales process, now is a good time to plan for that
possibility.
7

9. How will you manage the tool and data?
1. Will you manage the tool and data centrally or on an individual basis?
2. How and where is the data stored?
8
3. If it is an individual tool, how can it be shared and aggregated to view the data from the
aggregate view of the company?

10. Will there be an impact on the customer?
Some tools will require customer agreement to implement.
Electronic signatures are effective productivity enhancers,
but if your customers will not participate, it is a waste of time.
9

11. Other questions that may need to be answered
Budget - What are you willing to spend to get the desired results?
Timeframe to implement - Is this a tool that can be rolled out immediately,
or is there a rigid timeline to install and deploy?
Customer testimonials - What do others have to say about their experiences
and the results obtained?
Bonus

12. Thanks to Miles Austin for
sharing these 9 key questions
to ask BEFORE introducing
new sales tools to your team.
See more here, and follow @milesaustin and @getbase on Twitter.

13. The CRM your team will actually want to use.
Available on web, Android, iOS and Windows devices
Base is the only CRM built for people and the first post-PC CRM where your
mobile CRM experience is just as important as your web CRM experience.
Base is used by tens of thousands of businesses to manage sales and
customer relationships. Our mission is to make you and your team 10x more
productive.
Try Base Free
14-day free trial

14. Thanks for viewing!
Nice find! You’re well on your way to becoming a sales machine.
Now be a friend and share this checklist with hundreds of your closest Internet pals.

15. © 2009-2013 Base | getbase.com