A lot of effort is put before zeroing on what you think would be the perfect CRM Tool for your organization. And just when you think it’s time, calamity strikes. The fear of change sweeps through the entire workforce. It’s so fascinating to see how a qualified group of people get overwhelmed thinking about a change this small.

Some people take it in good spirit. Whereas, others just give up in their minds. They believe spreadsheets & emails are the best way to do business forever. Almost funny, isn’t it!

As a leader, you’ll most likely not have much time for training the employees. But what you should do is, come up with a plan to unroll the CRM gradually into your business.

Also, one of the first things you should do is to let all your employees know how amazing & helpful a CRM can be for their work. Or how much difference a CRM can make. This will help them getting rid of the nervousness in the initial days. Only when they realise the value it adds, they will feel extra motivated to give the CRM a try.

Hence, your basic aim should be to get all your employees on the same page with you. Identify their point of hesitations, break those barriers if you have to.

Let’s talk about a couple of most common barriers that arise:

Lack of Planning

You should always do your homework beforehand, preparing a timeline for the CRM rollout & the guidelines going forward. Not doing so, & expecting everyone to come onboard straightaway is not wise.

Still if you don’t have that much time, the first thing you should do is to analyse what you have coming up in the next few months. Also, make a policy to use the CRM for all new leads going ahead. It will help to an extent.

If your team is still hesitant, invest some time in showing them tutorials, walkthroughs of the CRM. Yes it’s tough to pause office work & train everyone at any point. But it won’t get any easier in the future as well. So better face it now.

The Fear of Unknown

People have this fear because they are not open or confident enough to face something that’s unknown. They are just too happy with the way things are, dealing with the sales cycle on spreadsheets & manual emails.

What they don’t realize is if someone fails to resume office for a longer period due to any reason, everything falls apart. Or worse, if someone leaves your organization, what if the folks taking over don’t understand anything on the spreadsheet?

It’s just too risky to run a business like that. And what you need is a CRM tool that’s easy-to-use & follows a standardized pattern for everyone to catch-up in quick time.

It’s also a good idea to take opinions from the employees on what features they would like to see in a CRM, things that will help them. This way, they will also feel involved in the process & will be eagerly adopting the CRM tool once it’s implemented.

Your ultimate responsibility should be to train your employees & give them time to try out the new CRM. Don’t forget to show them the list of integration that can be made with familiar apps such as Google Calendar, Live Chat, Mailchimp etc.

If it takes a bit longer than expected for everyone to come onboard, fine. The results will be in your favour in the long run. It’s not hidden, that a CRM simplifies business cycles. And who wouldn’t want that?

Let me know if you’ve got anything to add to this. I would appreciate your opinions.