Finding a CRM that fits your business can be a long journey. And once you’ve found a good fit, you’ll need to prepare for the organizational challenges lying ahead. After all, you’ll be facing the pretty daunting task of effectively implementing the HubSpot Sales CRM into your sales team’s daily routine.
Getting your team to use and accept a new tool can be a huge hurdle. In fact, it’s the reason I see most CRM/Sales projects fail. In my experience, it all boils down to one of the following issues:
- There is no buy-in from top management.
- There is no internal CRM owner to oversee implementation and ongoing usage.
- Nobody is trained on the software. The sales team are expected to figure it all out on their own.
- Users see little to no benefit of using a new CRM. They aren’t up for change.
This often leads to data and process issues within the HubSpot portal, making it impossible for the sales teams to track their deal progress, automate tasks, organise sales activities, use HubSpot CRM efficiently and, most importantly, sell more.
So, what can you do to make sure your CRM implementation actually contributes to increasing revenue instead of being seen as just another tool to fulfil some administrative requirement? I recommend doing the following:
Tip #1 - Involve all stakeholders from the start
CRMs today service a lot of users. From C-suite executives to marketing, finance, technology, customer service and sales teams. This comes with a ton of different objectives as well as potential resistance from your sales team, since sales managers still tend to see HubSpot as a marketing tool.
Therefore, early involvement – and an understanding of what HubSpot can really do for your business – of top management is crucial for a successful implementation. It will send a positive ripple effect through the entire organisation, which will drive adoption.
Tip #2 - Assign a HubSpot portal owner
Reviewing your CRM on a regular basis will keep your CRM working along with your business objectives. This is where a HubSpot portal owner can help. An internal go-to-person who oversees implementation, is there to help others with issues that occur, and spots opportunities others may have missed.
Tip #3 - Set up your HubSpot portal for success
A CRM system with missing information is one of the biggest frustrations for salespeople. If this is the case for your contacts database, the sales team won’t recognise the value of the tool and will be back to working in Excel spreadsheets in no time.
By setting up parts of the HubSpot CRM and sales tooling for the sales team, you ensure that high-quality data is put into the system from the start and your data integrity stays intact. In addition, setting up other HubSpot features – such as dashboards that show each sales rep their leads – won’t just save your sales reps time prepping, but will also show them the portal’s value from the very first time they log in.
Tip #4 - Get team buy-in by emphasizing the benefits of the tool
Salespeople want to focus on selling rather than on learning a new system – obviously. However, most salespeople are certainly willing to quickly and fully adopt a tool if they understand how it will benefit them directly. By making sure you explain, document, and – most importantly – let them experience the benefits for themselves, you will get better buy-in.
Tip #5 - Incorporate HubSpot training sessions
I’ve worked with more clients than I’d like to admit who came to us after DIYing their implementation internally, without any kind of HubSpot training. They had organised their HubSpot portal around a clear sales process (or so they hoped), but had never invested in sales training to teach sales reps how to track their sales processes within HubSpot CRM or use the majority of the Sales Hub tools.
And yes, while some of us get a kick from trying out a shiny new tool and figuring it out on their own, others are more sceptical. Your best change management strategy on handling both types? Having a knowledgeable, go-to resource for HubSpot CRM/Sales training. This way, people will know how to enter data into the CRM system, and – most importantly –will all use the same guidelines.
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