Boost CRM Adoption with 3 Change Management Best Practices

Widespread adoption is key to a value-generating CRM, and not only for the data reporting. Sales enablement features can drive efficiencies and increased productivity across Sales, Marketing, Services and Operations. But figuring out what features your workforce will actually use, and creating a roadmap for rolling out those features successfully – that is a human design challenge.

Set up your rollout to succeed. When planning a CRM implementation, consider one thing:

WE ALL NEED TO EXPERIENCE SUCCESS…

The natural tendency is to judge a product based on the value it provides, upfront. Even though the vast majority of the benefits of CRM come later, after everyone is already using the same, integrated system, a successful rollout needs to plot out and prioritize direct benefits.

1) PLOT FEATURES ON A ROADMAP, AND WEIGH THE BENEFITS AND DIFFICULTY OF EACH

First, create a roadmap that visualizes the logic of the rollout process. Feature A unlocks C, D, and E – feature B unlocks X, etc. Then identify the payback and difficulty of each item. This tends to expose some easy wins in cases where two features are equally difficult to accomplish (or equally easy), and one is more valuable. But often the decision is complicated by technical necessities and uncertainties.

One item might be difficult to unlock and produce little direct value, but it will unlock a number of other valuable items after. Another difficulty is associating discrete value to pain points. Tracking data in a CRM provides immeasurable benefits – particularly in the C-Suite. Having a single, objective data repository will help execs answer nagging questions, for instance. And the value of those answers is obtuse. Use relative value.

2) PRIORITIZE TRAINING FOR THE PEOPLE WHO THE TOOL WILL BENEFIT MOST.

It is also critical to map out WHO benefits from each feature. Which stakeholder(s) will be able to accomplish tasks more conveniently? And which employees have expressed desire for these items? Remember that every individual has a unique process, which results in a different value system. As such, every customer-facing employee will prioritize a unique feature set. When you rollout features, introduce the tool to the employees who already see the item’s value.

3) CREATE REPORTING AND FORECASTING DASHBOARDS THAT ACCURATELY DESCRIBE WHAT REALLY MATTERS TO THE FIRM.

Ethical accounting practices will publish annual reports in a meaningful way that gives investors an accurate reflection of what is actually going on. Reporting and forecasting dashboards are even more important. One practice is ethical; the latter drives data-driven decisions in real time.

To experience success in the C-Suite, dashboards need to be designed either in part or whole by someone who can understand the company on a strategic level.