5 tips for better adoption of your CRM for sales system

So, you have a new CRM sales system, which should give the department an efficiency injection, yet your sales department prefers to work in the old CRM system. Because of this, your investment disappears into the land of unused systems, and your data ends up in fragmented corners of your organisation. We do not resign ourselves to this scenario at HSO. Below are our tips for a better adoption.

Find out where the resistance is among employees. Why? Because every step is connected to this. What is the current way of working? How can we include these in the technical realisation of the new CRM software system? What needs do my employees have? How can I respond to that?

A successful adoption comes in three components: the implementation of your CRM solution, the navigation phase in which you determine the business value, and the adoption itself. The adoption feels like the final step in the project. However, it is important to include this part early in the process.

What’s about to happen? Prepare your sales department for the changes ahead. Organise a meeting with stakeholders and key users. Discuss the plan and why you are going for this strategy. Take input from all parties involved and listen to their wishes.

If those involved know that they are required to play a role and their needs have been listened to, the use of a new CRM system and thus a new way of working becomes more attractive. Pushing through resistance from your sales team will only lead to resistance. Communication – telling, listening and taking feedback into account – is therefore key in the transition to a new CRM software.

Suppose you offer your sales department all kinds of knowledge sessions about general CRM tooling, in preparation for the new system, but the team already knows what a CRM system is, what it does and how you use it. Then the knowledge sessions are mustard after the meal.

Then sell the CRM system to your sales staff, by emphasising the current pains. Show that these pain points are in the current system and that the new tooling solves them.

Your sales team’s needs may be very different. For example, see the value of the system. Where does the new system add value to your sales? What does it directly benefit the team members, for example how much time is saved?

Awareness of a hitch is the first step. But that is not the complete approach yet. Which brings us to the next tip.

Tailoring adoption needs is not a one-size-fits-all method, but requires an approach that is tailored to the micro-level: to the individual. How? With the ADKAR model.

ADKAR stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement, the need levels in which an employee finds themselves in. Is it about awareness, as with the previous tip? awareness. For value insight and therefore desire triggering? Desire. Or to know more? Knowledge. The ADKAR model is the yardstick for needs.

This is how HSO makes an inventory of needs and resistance: We map out the needs and resistance of employees by means of questionnaires and workshops. This creates all kinds of insights that we summarise into a clear analysis. This shows where you and the end users stand in the ADKAR model. This results in a targeted approach, which we then roll out.

If you don’t pay attention to user adoption and change management, your CRM implementation will never be successful. Our people are therefore specifically trained and educated in the field of adoption and change management. A new CRM implementation often requires a new working method, and HSO can help you with that.