| | December 20148CIOReviewCRM implementations do not always have the success at the beginning that everyone has hoped for. CRM systems are not the type of system you can turn on the switch and walk away from, but a living breathing system that must grow and change with your company and users' expectations. The process of implementing and modifying the technology is easy compared to the habit change that faces your sales team when moving to a new CRM system. While using a new CRM there will be a change to your sales team's well established routines, getting them to adopt and boils down to: does this system help your sales team do their job better and easier than the process they had before. Keep in mind that the users of this system are the ones who generate revenue for your company. Putting key information at their fingertips and taking mundane tasks off their plate to free them to have more time in front of the customer to sell more should be every one's goal. To do this takes continual effort from both the business and technical teams to keep your CRM system relevant and then training your team so they understand how to take advantage of it.Continuous Feedback and ChangesHas the usage of your CRM system gone from a fire hose to a trickle? Does sales management have to push your sales team to use the system? This gets old after a while for all involved and they eventually grow weary of it. Talk to your customers/users and make sure you implement an ongoing process to gather feedback from all levels as Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Reps and those in supporting roles all have different perspectives on the processes they would like to see implemented and changed. This should become something that is done on an ongoing basis with changes happening after each round of feedback. Compared to custom development, making configuration changes in Salesforce is fast and something that can be done in hours. In fact, you will spend more time on your internal governance activities ­ filling out docs and conducting testing - than it will take to make the changes your users requested. TrainingAlthough Salesforce is easy to use, it in myopinionCRM Adoption is a Journey By Jason Davis, Vice President , Salesforce implementation at PlainsCapital BankJason Davis
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