Sales Force Automation and CRM - new approach needed

Actually if I just want to type a letter, Word for Windows is easy.  I don't have to go to a menu and select 'letter',  then go to a list of addressees and find the one I want and if there is no record create one, and then select the letter format I want to use and then select the type of greeting I want to use from a drop down list, and so on and so on.

No.  I just type.

If we could make SFA applications as simple as Word we would really have cracked it.   My dream.

I did say in my post  "They are all very similar and probably very appropriate in many situations."  I have never thought of my system as a CRM system (although it has been pressed into this role).   Theoretically SFA and CRM should be the same, at least to existing customers. But the fact of the matter is that sales staff are incentivised differently and work differently.  If a prospect calls the last thing they want to hear is 'Just a moment while I struggle with the computer'.  (Neither does a customer but we live with it don't we).

I have met with people using these SFA/CRM systems for sales and the picture is often that the sales people in the field have their old rolodex and scraps of paper and then they type bare minimum into salesforce.com so that management can produce their reports. 

This is not how it should work. 

Sales people need a tool which is slick and simple.  You might say (and I couldn't possibly comment) that really really good sales people have a low attention span and low patience theshold for technology.  The guy/gal flicking his/her fingers while the computer screen refreshes is the person I am after.  He/she is impatient to get on with the next call because time is money.

I taught my telesales person how to use our system in about 30 minutes.  She got straight into it and it works like a dream.   I just don't see her getting into salesforce.com as quickly.    

Bob