There once was a farmer whose daddy, and his daddy, and four more generations of daddies had farmed the same land. Their business grew handsomely over the years.

Now this farmer’s crop was failing. Being proud of his craft, it annoyed him that he couldn’t figure out why, and it pained him to see the crop fail on his watch.

Being a man of the millennium, the farmer Googled and read FarmersWeek.com. And then one day in a strong summer sun it came to him. “I know”, said the farmer, “I need to get the SheepBell-FarmForce weed removing, plant pruning, fertilizing, insecticiding, ethanol burning, satellite dish GPS tractor with an optional iPod connector”.

The sales rep paid a visit to the farmer, who gladly did a dazzling demo, and the farmer was in awe of the machine. They even let the farmer use the machine for a few days. The monthly leasing terms were the icing on the cake.

The farmer bought the new machine, reconfigured the dashboard to his liking, and taught his children how to use it. Now the children weren’t too crazy about the new machine. After all, in the past daddy had bought other machines that came and went. The children felt like they were already working hard and producing as much as possible. So they put up with it and did as their daddy asked.

The farmer was pleased. The machine performed exactly to spec, the report display had lots of cool colors, and the iPod sounded great. His neighbors were envious. He was the talk of the town. At first anyways.

Alas, time passed and there was no improvement to the crop. “How could this be?” the farmer puzzed, “The machine works beautifully. Why isn’t the crop getting any better?”

Though it pained him, the proud farmer called in the local agriculture expert as a last resort - After all, the farmer’s family had been farming the same land the same way for 150 years, what could a so-called “expert” tell him that he didn’t already know?

The expert listened intently to the farmer’s problem and was impressed with the farmer’s history and knowledge of farming. After assessing the situation, the expert explained that the farmer could leverage his proven farming approaches while updating some of his farming process techniques. Said the expert, “If you update your irrigation, fertilization, and crop rotation techniques, then you can still salvage your crop this year. You won’t be needing that new fangled machine for now.”

The moral of the story is: Focus on process first, tools second — Not the other way around.

The best CRM/SFA tools in the world are ineffective unless you have a good sales and pre-sales process foundation. Good sales and pre-sales process with mediocre tools are far more effective than great tools with a lousy process.

The hi-tech highway is littered with stories of companies who implemented CRM and SFA tools and failed. They fail largely in part because they do not change the core reason for their problems - Ineffective processes.

Large gains in sales performance are never achieved through tools du jour. Large gains are always achieved through successful sales process change management.

Just ask the farmer.