One of the most important factors in the success of your CRM implementation is employee buy-in. The bottom line is that no matter how much time it took to plan your CRM, or how much money you spent implementing it, it isn’t worth a dime if you can’t get your staff to use it. It is easy as a manager to see the benefit, but how do you translate that to the masses.
Here are 4 easy steps to adoption:
1. Roll out your deployment from the top down. Let your managers and senior staff lead the way. Show that they are 100% committed to the success of the CRM. Allow them to experience some of the benefits and be able to share that before moving forward.
2. Use peer pressure. Prior to the big staff announcement of the new system, choose the most respected person on the team to be an evangelist. That person can set a great example for the rest of the team showing enthusiasm for the project.
3. Be sure to offer adequate training. Your least tech savvy user needs to be just as proficient as your IT manager. Begin with the basics. Have the team truly grasp how to perform the essential tasks for a bit before moving on to additional functionality.
4. Calm the fears. Many sales people can be slow to adopt due to transparency of their activities. It is true that managers may hold sales people more accountable for their duties, but be sure to let everyone know that the system is for the good of the company as a whole. Accounting can pay out commissions more accurately based on closed opportunities, managers can monitor quotas to determine bonuses, and sales leads can be distributed more accurately and appropriately to just name a few benefits.
Download this useful guide to increasing CRM adoption rates within your sales staff.
