Last week at the Innovation Factory Peer2Peer the Executive Director, David Carter presented on the Pipeline and CRM. If you are not using a CRM for your business then you are wasting part of your sales and marketing effort. In the past, CRMs needed to be installed on a central server or PC and required lots of customization. Today, there are dozens of versions that work in the cloud and are very easy to use and configure. The biggest issue is often getting your sales team members to use the system.

This blog will highlight a few of the ways to make sure your team is using the CRM, not just as you roll it out, but also over time.

Make it Easy For the Reps to Get Started:

Many of the CRM systems make it easy to import contacts from other CRMs or even from Outlook or Gmail. It is also possible to connect those same email engines to your CRM so that emails that are sent directly into the CRM. It is usually possible to have calendars synchronize. Don’t forget about connecting their mobile devices and those mobile contacts as well.

Train Them:

Once the data is in the CRM and the system is connected to some of your other business tools, train the team. Show the team how to get the most out of the system to not only mirror some of their old processes, but also to get them using some of the new features.

Use it For Everything:

I worked for a company that spent millions of dollars on a CRM and then had reps generate separate reports in excel and word to supplement that CRM. It did not work very well as the reps saw all the duplication of work and there were many versions of the information in different formats. The CRM should be used as the hub for your campaigns, generating quotes, account planning, forecasting, and much more.

Sales Leaders Need to Use it:

The senior leadership team needs to use the system everyday just like the sales team. They should be running reports and holding themselves and the sales team accountable. One of our clients has noticed there were a few random quote templates, that were not generated by their CRM. They have implemented a system where a quote will not be approved unless it comes from the system.

Carrot and the Stick:

At the beginning, with a new CRM instance there is often a lot of clean-up and learning. Some of the learning could be by the sales leadership as you roll-out the new system. Using a carrot with the sales team to help through this period is often helpful. There could be a contest on getting contacts scrubbed, or a prize for the team once a certain threshold is reached. After and during that initial period the leadership team should explain that the use of the CRM is expected and mandatory.

If you are based in Hamilton, come out for our next Sales Peer2Peer at the Innovation Factory. I will be leading a session on growing your sales team. If you can’t make it Hamilton, download our white paper on building your sales team.