Finding a CRM system that fits your business can be a time-consuming process. And once you find the right match, you'll face organizational challenges, asyou face the tough task of answering what a CRM is and how to effectively implement HubSpotCRM into your sales team's daily routine.
It can be very difficult to get your team to use and accept a new tool. In my opinion, this is also why most CRM/sales projects fail. In my opinion, it all boils down to one of the following problems:
- There is no buy-in from top management.
- There is no internal CRM owner to oversee implementation and use.
- No one is trained on how to use the software. The sales team has to figure it all out on their own.
- Users see little to no use for a new CRM. They are not open to change.
This often leads to problems with data and processes within the HubSpot portal. The sales team cannot track the progress of deals, cannot automate tasks, cannot organize sales activities and cannot use the HubSpot CRM efficiently. So sales numbers don't go up.
So what can you do to ensure that implementing the CRM actually helps increase sales? That it is not seen as yet another tool that needs to be ticked off administratively yet again? Here are my tips:
Tip #1 - Involve all stakeholders from the beginning
CRMs today involve many users: from managers in the C-suite to teams in marketing, finance, technology, customer service and sales. So this involves many diverse objectives. You may also face resistance from your sales team, as sales managers often still see HubSpot as a marketing tool.
So for a successful implementation, it is crucial that you involve top management in the process as early as possible and explain exactly what HubSpot can do for your company. This will have a positive effect on the entire organization and accelerate adoption of the new platform.
Tip #2 - Designate an owner of the Hubspot portal
Make sure you regularly review your CRM to ensure it stays in line with business goals. This is where a HubSpot portal owner can help. An internal contact who oversees the implementation, can help others with any issues, and sees opportunities that others may be missing.
Tip #3 - Set up your HubSpot portal the right way.
A CRM system with missing information is one of the biggest frustrations of sales teams. If your database is also missing information, the sales team will see little use for the tool and will be back to working with Excel in no time.
By setting up parts of HubSpot CRM and sales tooling for the sales team, you ensure that high-quality data is in the system from the start. This keeps your data integrity intact. And if you also set up other HubSpot features - such as dashboards that allow each sales representative to see his/her leads - you save the sales team valuable preparation time, which means they will see the value of the portal from the very first login.
Tip #4 - Get the team behind the CRM by demonstrating its usefulness
Sales people prefer to focus on selling rather than learning a new system. Logical. However, most sales people are quick to make a tool their own once they see how they can benefit from it themselves. By properly explaining (and capturing) the benefits of the CRM and, most importantly, letting the sales team experience them for themselves, you'll see that the team quickly gets behind it.
Tip #5 - Provide HubSpot training.
You don't want to know how many clients have knocked on our door over time after they had pieced together their implementation themselves, without any HubSpot training. They had set up their HubSpot portal around a clear sales process (at least they hoped), but never invested in training to teach the sales team how to track their sales processes within HubSpot CRM. Often they didn't even know how a large number of Sales Hub tools worked.
And while there are some people who are eager to try a new toy and like to figure things out for themselves, there are plenty of others who are a bit more skeptical about it. The best change management strategy for dealing with both types of people? Invest in a clear point of contact for well-researched HubSpot CRM/Sales training. This way, people learn how to enter data into the CRM system and, more importantly, they all work to the same guidelines.
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