As your business grows, both in terms of sales volume and sales employees, manually tracking your organization’s activities becomes nearly impossible. This method of doing business is time-consuming, brain-draining, and downright inefficient, which is why many sales organizations use CRM systems to prevent details from falling through the cracks.
Maybe you’re already using a CRM and are thinking of switching to another solution. Or maybe you’ve never used one before but are finding it harder to ignore the time- and money-saving benefits they promise your sales team.
In either case, it’s not just about finding the right CRM for the job. Much of your success will come from how you choose to implement it in your organization. Sales reps who don’t understand its purpose or how to use it or sales leaders who fail to leverage its most important features will not be able to get as much from the experience.
Take a look at our four best practices when bringing a new sales CRM system into the mix and how you can set up every sales rep for success:
1. Get Buy-In from Management
CRM is only helpful if your people use it, but lack of support from company leaders can also cause your CRM strategy to collapse.
CRM isn’t just to help sales reps streamline their job. They’re the ones ultimately plugging in conversation data and tracking sales, but everyone else in your organization can ultimately benefit from the data you collect in the CRM.
Since company leaders drive the culture of the company, it’s essential to get their buy-in before adopting a sales CRM system. Their enthusiasm can create a ripple effect all the way down to your sales team and ensure that everyone is on board with the upgrade.
2. Appoint an In-House Expert
When you decide on a CRM solution, ideally you’ll have endless support from the provider. But it’s also beneficial to designate an in-house expert that others can do to for answers, training, and other resources at a moment’s notice.
This person should know every feature, function, benefit, and button of the CRM. They’ll be responsible for teaching others how to use the system, create processes, manage the system, and ensure a successful implementation. Ideally, this person will be someone who will be using the CRM and has an eye for detail.
3. Establish Clear Processes and Expectations
In addition to a resident expert, you should also have internal resources for guidance. Document your processes and best practices for using the CRM, from setting up a new user to establishing user privileges to creating workflows and other expectations.
Anyone using the sales CRM system should know what type of data to collect, the proper format for inputting data, and how to access data, as well as any repercussions for deviating from the protocol.
This is one of the most critical stages of implementation, as the CRM is only as good as the data stored inside. If you have a sales rep that isn’t documenting conversations or inputting lead information, then it’s going to be difficult for sales managers to generate accurate reports.
4. Plan the Rollout
Planning a rollout is no easy feat, as there are lots of moving parts and details that could derail a successful CRM adoption. Your in-house expert should take the lead on training your sales team and other users on the purpose of the CRM, how it works, and their responsibility to use it.
You should also be prepared for questions and rejections. Change is hard, and people usually don’t want to learn something new because they’re comfortable with the way things are. It’s essential to anticipate these feelings and respond accordingly so that one negative attitude doesn’t damage the optimism of another.
LeadSquared Makes Sales CRM Implementation Easy!
As you’re exploring sales CRM solutions, one of your biggest considerations should be how it fits within your existing sales ecosystem. Implementation will be critical to your organization’s success, especially when you factor in the time it will take reps to get comfortable with the new system and ramp up production.
LeadSquared’s intuitive, comprehensive sales CRM system takes much of the guesswork out of implementing CRM in your sales department. With easy-to-follow workflows, customization, and ongoing support, reps can spend less time learning and guessing and more time selling and building relationships with your customers.
See LeadSquared sales CRM system in action with a free CRM demo and discover for yourself how it transforms the way you do business for the better.
