How To Make Your Salespeople Fall In Love With Your CRM System
When asked how they feel about a company’s CRM system, some salespeople respond with, “It’s too complex, it’s time-consuming, it’s not user-friendly, it’s frustrating, and it’s designed specifically for management.” This is how many salespeople view CRM today – they view it as an unhelpful tool.
So, how do your salespeople view your CRM system? You want them to love it, right? In this post, we’ll show you just how you can make your salespeople fall in love with your CRM system.
Involve Your Salespeople With Choosing The CRM System
In addition to choosing a CRM solution that is easy to use, easy to train, and easy to set-up and maintain, you should also consider involving your salespeople in the entire CRM selection process to get their buy-in. This will help them be more optimistic about your new system. In fact, the more ownership your salespeople have in selecting your new CRM system, the more likely they will be to adopt and come to love it.
Training, Training, Training
Your CRM system will only help to improve sales performance if your company adopts a smart approach to training and development. Without proper training, your salespeople might become frustrated and lose interest in their work altogether.
Geoffrey James of Inc.com recommends using managers as trainers. He says, “When sales managers are responsible for training the reps, it not only guarantees that the managers learn the system, but it also makes the managers into the sales team’s first line of support. A ‘train the trainers’ approach thus helps everyone work to more closely to ensure that the system becomes integral to the sales effort.”
Training is the best way to give your employees the level of understanding needed to make your CRM system perform well. And, when you provide the right training program, they will be more inclined to use the system.
Integrate Your CRM And ERP Systems
When your ERP and CRM systems are not connected, it leaves you with multiple databases that can result in a cluttered view of business processes and disjointed operations. And, if your CRM system is filled with duplicate and incorrect data, your salespeople will cringe at the thought of using it. However, if you integrate your sales CRM and accounting ERP systems, everyone in your organization will be able to use the same data. CRM and ERP integration removes the duplicate data and provides the same rules for each system.
Commercient’s SYNC, an industry leading ERP and CRM data integration app, is unique in that it installs quickly, works right out of the box, and costs 60 to 80% less than traditional ETL tool sets. SYNC establishes a “heartbeat” synchronization of data between your EPR and CRM. As each system’s data changes, the changes will automatically SYNC between the two.
For example, our SYNC app makes it possible to see your accounting data in your sales system, which keeps you and your team up-to-date with changes made to your ERP and CRM simultaneously. This allows your sales team to do what they love, and do it well – sell!
Get Regular Feedback
Getting regular feedback from your salespeople – that is, listening to their needs and issues, then acting on their feedback – is a great way to encourage the adoption of your CRM system.
Sean McPheat, MD, of MTD Sales Training says: “Ask [the sales team] for their input in designing the system from the outset if you can and make it as simple for them to use as possible. The system should be molded around your sales process so at any stage your sales people know and understand where each of their prospects and clients are in the sales cycle. The people that are going to use it should be the ones to help shape what it looks like and to have an important say in what it should and could do.”
Need more help with your new CRM or want to know more about our SYNC data integration app? Reach out to us today!
