Your brand new CRM system won t be worth the time and money invested unless you can figure out a way of getting people to use it.

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1 Introduction User adoption is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges a company will face when implementing a new CRM system. By nature, people don t like change. Whether you are retiring an old CRM system or you never had one before, everyone had their own way of doing things. Your brand new CRM system won t be worth the time and money invested unless you can figure out a way of getting people to use it. This ebook will help as a guide/checklist to help you get your sales people, marketing people and support people using the system effectively and efficiently.

2 Involve users in the decision process Make sure that you involve users from all departments and levels in the decision and roll-out phases. In the end, it will be these guys spending up to 50 hours per week using the system. Their input at this stage could be valuable. Having users feel like they are part of the team and the decision process will ease user adoption, as opposed to having a new system imposed on them by the powers that be. Make sure you listen to the users and understand what is important to them. Analyse each feature of the CRM with the view of do we really need it? and how will we benefit from this? Positive impacts: Users will feel part of the process On-the-fly user feedback, before you commit Sell CRM to your users OK, so you are sold on the benefits of a new CRM system. This commitment will be in line with your future business goals for streamlining business processes, saving time, making your customers happier, empowering your sales people with business intelligence and so on. but are your users sold on this change? Every user should be informed of how the CRM will benefit them to do their job. The deployment of the CRM is always the hardest part, but if you can show them the end-game before the hard work starts, the transition will be easier. Positive impacts: End users who are sold will show a positive perception of the CRM This positivity will spread to other colleagues and co-workers

3 Provide great training A top CRM system will be worthless if the people using it don t know how to get the most out of it. It goes without saying that users will need training, but the trainer shouldn t just teach users how to use the CRM system. They need to understand your business processes and teach the users how to get the most out of each part of the CRM. Not only should your trainer teach the basics, but they should be teaching users how to leverage these tools to their maximum. Similarly, it s important to provide on-going training. Refresher courses will help slow adopters of the system. The training shouldn t just stop at the end of deployment; it should be an on-going study for the users. Positive impacts Well trained users sail in the right direction, from the start. Confusion and a non-understanding leads to poor user adoption. Identify Super-Users During the implementation phase, identify two of three users who will use the system most. These will act as evangelists for the CRM and help ensure other user others adopt the CRM system at an early stage. This will make them feel part of the CRM admin team and their positivity and knowledge will filter down to all other users. Positive impacts Super Users will act as evangelists for your CRM. Their enthusiasm will spread across the team.

4 Don't bombard users with features Sure enough, your new CRM can do everything now, apart from make the tea but studies have shown that if you keep it simple and provide users with the essentials, they will use these essentials more than a fullblown Salesforce.com system. If your users don t require an internal chat messaging system, then disable it. I ve even heard of a CRM that will integrate with your car now. For the initial stages, this is over kill and may put off users. Who cares if your CRM can integrate with your automated office plant watering system? If it s not needed, get rid of it. Keep the system simple. Sales guys work at 65,000 MPH. Make sure the forms are designed and laid out intuitively and in an uncomplicated manner. Reduce the amount of fields that sales guys have to enter and analyse the real value of each data field. If that field holds little or no value to anyone, take it out. Having a system that slows users down will contribute to a negative affinity towards the system and may make the users feel like data entry, instead of sales, marketing and support. CRM systems such as SugarCRM enable admin users to easily adjust the layout of fields. Individual users are also able to customise the look and feel of their system, so only the data which is key to them takes up their valueble desktop real estate.

5 Make executives use the CRM Some CRM systems such as SugarCRM come with an activity stream. When, for example, a user wins a substantial business deal, top level managers are able to express their praise to the employee similar to commenting on something on Facebook. This public news feed is an excellent way of congratulating and praising employees for their efforts and driving enthusiasm. Provide tech support Having a new system without technical or support assistance can be risky. Often enough, things go wrong and without experts to guide you through to difficult times, this provides users with a timely opportunity to develop a negative affinity with the new system. In the early phases it is important to avoid this situation. If staff are sat twiddling their thumbs while or impaired, this can be a difficult association to Furthermore, reducing system down time will keep the bad office politics press at bay. the system is down remove. As with any new system, users will become stuck when learning the ropes. Having expert support from the vendor or Super users will ensure a helping hand is just a phone call or an away. This will comfort users somewhat and ensure a bottle-neck-free production.

6 Make it fun and reward use. Sales people are competitive and you can play on that a little with the CRM. You can turn it into a game, with badges and public regognition. Why not introduce incentives to reinforce adoption? A CRM makes it easy to measure the completeness of data on key accounts, or the cleanliness of data submitted under the new process. Rewarding your 'CRM Heroes' with cases of wine or commission can go a long way. system Lead by example Implementing a CRM system is a top-down initiative. Many managers will preach the importance of the CRM system, yet request reports in Excel at the end of the week and seldom login to the CRM. A CRM system is only as good at the data inside it, so get used to planning meetings, filling out call records and updating information about prospects as much as possible.

7 Adopt Mobile CRM Mobile CRM is essential; it empowers the end users when they are on the road. It provides the user with comfort that when they are away from their office they can update the system with time-sensitive information and retrieve information back, where ever they are. SugarCRM customers enjoy full mobile access across iphone, ipad, Android, Windows phone. Configuring the system requires no development learning. Mobile CRM is offered here across all subscriptions. Empower with sales Intelligence CRM has come a long way since the early days. No longer is it a big relational database. Nowadays, for example, users of SugarCRM can enjoy integrations into InsideView, Jigsaw and Hoovers. This empowers the sales guy with intelligent information regarding the customer or prospect. Connectors into social networks mean that knowing your contacts has never been so comprehensive.

8 Obtain feedback Throughout the various stages of implementation, from production testing to annual reviews; listen carefully to feedback from the users of the system. Listening to users about how their work processes could be streamlined is an important step in long-term user adoption. If action is taken place based on this feedback, the CRM can feel like a living growing organism. Invite your vendor partner along to the meetings. They can provide first hand advice on what can be done and recommend customisations and configurations that have worked well at other implementations. Your Sales/Marketing/Support/Management teams will respect you for taking their opinions and ideas into consideration and will make 100% compliance much more likely.

9 Summary Taking on board these tips will ensure your workforce embrace the new CRM system with both hands. But remember, everyone must be on board for the journey, from the receptionist to the CEO and managing directors. CRM systems evolve and can be likened to a living digital machine. It feeds on data & connections and provides a business with the 360 degree view of its customers. Sometimes you will encounter sceptics on your team who are afraid of change or doing out of their normal routine. At first, they may not accept a new CRM. It s important to convert these members as soon as possible, as their negativity can spread to other users. Remember, keep things simple! James Banbury