You’ve tested and tweaked your CRM system; your team, stakeholders and executives have signed off. Everything seems ready to go.
What’s next?
Before you launch a company-wide rollout, let’s discuss one crucial step in a successful CRM implementation — TRAINING.
You may think the technology choice is a main indicator of CRM success. Surprisingly, success has more to do with people and processes than anything else. And from my experience, CRM training is one of the most underutilized aspects of a CRM implementation.
Even experienced sales professionals can take up to six months to proficiently use CRM in their sales calls. What about training new team members?
If you are looking for faster adoption and better ROI, demand a robust training experience that emphasizes continuous learning for all.
Tips for a Successful CRM Rollout
CRM training should be conducted and driven by the people who will use it. In this case, I call them the Super Users. Super Users are a unique subset of your company who collaborate with the point person responsible for driving a CRM initiative, the CEO for CRM. Super Users may represent any of the following:
- Sales managers
- Outside and inside sales
- Customer support representatives
- Marketing managers
- Data analysts
- Other C-level executives
The Super Users understand how the CRM will impact day-to-day operations and can be a conduit between executive decision-makers and their team. Who should make up your team?
Follow the Day-in-the-Life Script
To ensure relevance and practicality, training sessions should follow a Day-in-the-Life script, tailored to job functions and departments. This structured approach keeps the training on track and relatable to your specific needs.
Here’s an example of a Day in the Life Script:
- You met a new contact at the account and want to manage them in the CRM going forward. Create and link them to an account.
- With the contact you just met you had a good visit and would like to log a call with a summary of your conversation and the products discussed.
- You found a new op that you want to manage in CRM. Link to the contact along with the product of interest, value, probability %, expected close date, next strategic action.
- While at an account you found out some new key information about the account/site that you want to log in CRM.
The Day-in-the-Life script is the foundation for a structured roadmap for building your CRM system and can also be used in training. The script details exactly how a CRM must function to best perform in your operation. The script keep training on track because it follows your company’s story, how you interact with the systems you have today, your workforce makeup (remote, mobile workers, personas), and the needs of various departments.
Training should be set up in such a way that they can relate to their specific job functions and see how their role interacts across the company.
Gamification in CRM Training
If you’re looking for engagement in the training process, it can’t be boring.
I like to add an element of competition into the training process with gamification. Learning new CRM features and practices can be an engaging experience if you include rewards, leaderboards and achievements to make the journey fun and interactive.
Gamification is simply turning non-game activities like education and training into precisely what it sounds like — a game. For instance, learning new features and uses of CRM can unlock next levels or collect rewards.
Gamification mechanics may include:
- Experience points
- Leaderboards for bragging rights
- Badges and achievements
Gamification makes learning fun and can increase engagement, feedback and long-term buy-in.
When I assist companies in their CRM journey, I begin with smaller training groups broken up by branch or region and prefer to have face-to-face sessions. I’m a big believer that smaller, in-person interactive groups that can promote interaction and engagement, and allow time to ask questions or discuss experiences.
Stay Connected After Initial CRM Training
One of the biggest mistakes I see with CRM rollouts is the notion that training should be one and done. All too often, I see CRM providers or integrators simply go over features and benefits, wish the sales team luck and send them on their way.
However, this doesn’t account for all the situations that will arise post-implementation, including how the team communicates with one another, how leadership handles error management or role-specific training.
That’s why I believe follow-up training sessions are a vital part of the CRM journey.
I recommend weekly or bi-weekly follow-up sessions during the first two to three months following the launch. These provide built-in opportunities to discuss best practices, allow for Q&A sessions and share experiences.
After that, I suggest businesses plan for routine training sessions that align with your needs – monthly or quarterly.
These ongoing training sessions ensure long-term acceptance and adoption of CRM and allow for opportunity to troubleshoot discrepancies before they become problems.
Promoting the Why – and Why Not – of CRM
While the Super Users are the focus of CRM training, the CEO for CRM is the one who champions its success. The CEO for CRM is the one who spearheads the CRM implementation plan and the ideal person to communicate the “why and why not” of the CRM.
Reiterating why CRM is beneficial is something that needs to done continuously. When you first roll out a CRM to your team, they naturally focus on how it will impact their roles or the sales cycle. They can miss “why” CRM can help them and the company achieve greater success. They have yet to see it in action.
Over time, they begin to see how the CRM is an effective tool for creating a single source of truth that can be shared and leveraged companywide. They now have data at their fingertips to make sound business decisions.
However, the “why” is often displayed more prominently in the customer experience.
When customers see each member of the team and various departments all on the same page, it translates to a better experience. Customers notice it through better quoting, support and service.
This is the salesperson’s competitive edge. The customer experience and value-adds are what differentiates them from their competition.
We talked a bit about the about “why” of CRM, but what about the “why not?”
Most companies are already trying to manage their data the best way they know how. They might be updating countless spreadsheets or organizing contacts in a database. This typically plagues sales cycles with bottlenecks and inconsistency felt by the team and by the customer.
If you’re already manually tracking customer records and transactions, why not make it easier? Why not create a single source of truth that automatically updates across the company for greater consistency and reliability?
Quieting the Fear Surrounding CRM
The first 90 days of CRM implementation can make or break your initiative, especially if your team feels trepidation.
We rely on our sales force to be high performers. We trust them to help us bridge the gap between products and services and the customers’ needs.
But if you suddenly unveil a CRM project without managing your team’s expectations, you could be in for a rude awakening.
There’s a misconception that a CRM system is there to keep watch over the team. CRM is not meant to be a “Big Brother,” eye-in-the-sky monitoring system. It is a tool that keeps company expectations aligned with team expectations for a greater customer experience.
However, it can feel that way if your team isn’t thoroughly vetted on how the CRM will help them perform their work more expediently.
Employees want information and transparency from their leadership. If they feel safe and respected, they will rise to the occasion.
That’s why I stress the importance of explaining the “why” and “why not” clearly and effectively to your team right from the start. Once you set the expectations, answer any questions and your team signs off on it, they are more likely to buy into the program.
CRM Coaching for Long-Term Success
Without fail, there will almost always be one or more sales professionals hesitant about using CRM.
While some leaders may view this as a hurdle, I see it as an opportunity. When we’re about to roll out a CRM implementation, I work with sales managers and other executives on how to coach CRM to their teams.
When CRM is used effectively within the sales cycle, it provides an enormous amount of data. But most salespeople and their managers have never had this level of data right at their fingertips.
Learning how to leverage the data requires routine coaching throughout the lifespan of the CRM. Ideally, managers should perform the coaching for their teams.
Managers should build coaching sessions directly into their standard operating procedures. I recommend scheduling coaching sessions before kickoff and continuing periodically as a refresher to address any concerns.
Where most companies fail is when they think of CRM implementation as a project with a start and end date. Once it’s launched, they believe they can set it and forget it.
In the months following implementation, coaching remains just as critical to change management as it did in the initial stages. Why? Because changing habits is something that needs to happen over time. There will always be users who want to revert to pre-CRM days.
A successful CRM program relies on a mindset of continuous improvement, reinforced by routine coaching sessions.
When leadership clearly defines those expectations, they increase the likelihood of success right off the bat.
Here’s an example of CRM coaching in action:
CRM effectively manages major project pursuits. In fact, managing long, complex sales cycles is exactly what CRM does best. That doesn’t mean CRM is always rapidly embraced.
Years ago, I had a seasoned salesperson who was tasked with managing a major project pursuit for a considerable amount of time. There were some complexities associated with this pursuit as it was being engineered outside of their territory for an end-user within it.
At first, there was resistance to using CRM to manage this project.
When the orders were released, they were released out of our territory and that salesperson was potentially missing out on quite a bit of commission. They were only slated to get a destination credit, rather than the engineering credit which was 25% of the project. Needless to say, the salesperson was not happy.
However, we used CRM to document all the work and outreach the salesperson did in pursuit of that project. As a result, we were armed with clear documentation and data to present to the manufacturer, justifying the additional commission for this salesperson.
After coaching the salesperson through that experience, they became a believer in CRM and what it could do for their jobs and their wallet.
This is a prime example that CRM may not be embraced on the first go round. In fact, the first three to six months following a CRM rollout is considered a critical phase in its long-term adoption and success.
Rarely does a CRM come out of the box perfectly suited to a business’s needs. That’s why I strongly recommend implementing a post-launch program, one that focuses on continuous improvement, coaching and ongoing training to spot issues and develop best practices. Most importantly, use this time to promote “Why” CRM is beneficial and address any fears or hesitancy your team may have.
Remember, CRM is never one and done. It’s a work in progress and requires a culture shift throughout the entire organization. One that strengthens the mindset that CRM is there to help the business — and its employees — perform more effectively and profitably.