Take the lead and show your team a CRM that works

This article was included in the August 30th, 2016 issue of the LACRM Newsletter.

One thing that we talk a lot about is how to get buy-in from your team when it comes to the CRM. This is not only because the users we interviewed found this to be one of the bigger hurdles to overcome, but also because we know how important it is to get everyone on your team on the CRM. A CRM is only as useful as you make it, and without your team backing you, it’s easy to miss out on the system’s benefits. Judi Watts, Director of Hampton Event Hire, knew that she was going to have a difficult time trying to get her team onboard with the CRM. So instead of making everyone use the CRM immediately, she started playing around with it on her own first:

“Initially, the rest of the team wasn’t convinced that using a CRM was a good idea because they thought there would be a lot of double handling. So I set up the CRM on my own, and while it was a big job, I think it’s been a really good time investment. Because of this, I was able to show them how the system worked and they could see the benefits of the CRM more clearly.

Everyone in our office is now working to ignore the habits that we’ve gotten used to in the past few years and are retraining ourselves to use the CRM to its fullest potential. Now every time something works out well, I can say to them ‘See? It works!’”

-Judi Watts, Director of Hampton Event Hire

Tip to try: There are many different ways to encourage your team to get on board with the CRM, but sometimes you need to see something to believe it. So if you’re having trouble getting your team members to use the CRM, one thing you could try is to set up the account either on your own first, or have one or two people on your team to take the lead and become the local CRM experts. Once you have a seamless system that works for you, show everyone else how the customized final product can be used with their workflow. Seeing the CRM in action exactly as it would work in your business goes a long way in allowing your team to see where it can help to make life just that bit easier!

As always, we hope today’s tip has been helpful and if you have any questions, or want to talk through how else you can customize your CRM, don’t hesitate to contact us!

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