After hours of research, discussions & negotiations… you finally have a CRM in place. What may shock you after a few days is when you still find your employees hesitant to take the plunge. They are still on the age-old methods of using spreadsheets & sticky notes. Can be really frustrating!

Well, change is difficult. Not everyone embraces change quickly. Matter of fact, research says that nearly 40% of employees prefer to stick with traditional methods when a sales crm app is implemented at their workplace. That’s a lot to slow down your productivity & efficiency, don’t you think.

The hesitation might be due to various reasons such as difficulty in use, technology phobia, lack of willingness or motivation, lack of knowing the benefits it has in store etc. As a manager, it’s your responsibility to figure out .

But here the question arises why your sales team refuses to use a CRM? Some of the reasons for this are very common, you can hear about them in almost every discussion. Your sales team will ask you a question: Why Use CRM?

However, you might disagree with some of its reasons, but it’s not important, you need to change their mind, don’t command their loyalty. Understand your overcoming employee trepidation which is the key to improve sales team user adoption.

People Don’t Like ‘Change’

Everybody likes to be in their comfort zone. And sales folks are no different. Key is to make the change easier for them, by making them involved from the very beginning.

Ask them what they need or what they expect from a sales crm system, what are their current pain-points, or you can also take their vote on which CRM would likely be best for them. By feeling involved, many from the hesitant group may well feel confident or even like the idea of moving to a CRM. And chances are that they may even convince their colleagues to come on board too.

Salesteam Feel The CRM Is A Monitoring Tool

The CRM tools are popular for its ability to track the user’s activity. Send emails, update records, completed tasks, and all the metrics to measure the sales performance. 

Also, some salespeople think that the CRM is a digital evidence that can be used against them if they fail to meet their goals.

So, in such a situation the Higher authority needs to address their concern regarding the job security being on the line if they are failing to fulfill their targets. 

It can be mitigated by setting up realistic goals  for your sales, assigning leads appropriate to the agents, skills and fostering a collaborative atmosphere where you team will get rewards for achieving goals. Make your sales team understand that crm software can most likely help a business to grow by keeping all your salesforce on track.

Don’t Realise The Benefits Of Using A CRM

One of the most common reasons behind employees not using a CRM is that they aren’t well aware of the benefits it’s likely to give. Best thing to do is to sit down with them and help them realize the numerous benefits you get from a CRM , from saving loads of time to increasing efficiency & customer satisfaction.

Sharing some real-life case studies may go a long way in helping your cause.

Lack Of Technical Expertise In Using The CRM

There can be two major reasons behind this; either your employees are not tech-savvy enough or they are just familiar with some other app. Best way to deal with this is by extensive training, simple onboarding & regular feedback sessions.

It will be even more effective if you enlighten your employees about the industry best practices & how the use of CRM is on top of everyone’s list. Any added motivation always helps!

Your CRM Isn’t User-Friendly

Chances are that your team decided to give the CRM a try, but got confused or got lost in navigation. First impressions last long & it’s true in this case as well. If the first few minutes of using the CRM fail to impress your employees or if it’s unclear how they can organise their data, they will shut the door there itself.

Leadership plays a very important part in such cases. Choose a CRM that’s easy to get started with & then guide the employees through the initial phase until the ice breaks. Once everybody realizes how a CRM can help boost their efficiency, they will come on board in no time. Keep it a point not to hurry!

Cluttered Data Everywhere In Your CRM

No matter how advanced your sales team CRM is, it’s practically impossible to keep an account totally free from duplicate or outdated data. And with time, it only gets worse. Unorganized data is a huge turn-off for employees for whom, every minute counts. It takes away a lot of their time to dive into a pile of unorganized data looking for what they need.

Having a strict usage policy in place from the beginning & conducting frequent audits can be of great help in such cases. The sooner you buckle up, the better for your company.

Conclusion:

If used in the right way, a CRM can provide endless benefits to a company from improving productivity to customer satisfaction & conversion rates. Always remember that it’s not the first nor the last time your employees will hesitate to embrace new technology. But with proper guidance & the above steps… it will really be easier for a manager to adopt a CRM for their day-to-day work 🙂

Looking for a sales automation solution? If yes, then try Wakeupsales CRM tool to grow your business.