In this article we examine some of the tools and techniques that can increase sales productivity by improving the way in which users interact and utilise their CRM System with a Digital Adoption Solution.

It doesn’t matter whether your sales team use SalesForce, Sugar CRM, Zoho, Hubspot, Microsoft Dynamics 365, or one of the many other CRM systems on the market, there are a number of common challenges with how they are used which can have significant impact on sales productivity and the wider organisation.

Common Challenges Sales Teams Have Using a CRM System

1. Complex User Interface – where a CRM system is not intuitive this leads to information not being completed correctly, if at all. CRM systems typically don’t just serve the sales team, other parts of the organisation may be reliant on data that is collected by sales reps. However, sales reps aren’t always clear how to provide that data in the right way.
2. Ineffective Training – its important to balance training needs: training content should be easy to absorb, should be available in “bitesize” refresher sessions and also available “on demand”.  Without this approach, there’s the real chance of a degradation in quality CRM usage over time.
3. Time Pressures – sales teams often have to work with as many as 13 digital applications (source: Gartner, Increase Sales Productivity with Digital Adoption Solutions) and tools in their day-to-day activities and this limits the time available to update communications, tasks, opportunities and activities in the CRM system.
4. CRM Functional Deficiencies / Intricacy – sales reps will often resort to performing activities in Excel as a workaround to not understanding how tasks can be performed in the CRM system. This leads to potentially critical or important information not being recorded in core systems and instead being buried in isolated spreadsheets. Ultimately this reduces the value of the CRM system and reduces the effectiveness of the investment the organisation has made.
5. Reactive vs Proactive Use of CRM – the onerous nature of CRM systems can often lead to sales teams updating records only when prompted or more likely when prodded. This means that the organisation will suffer from a lack of accurate visibility of core metrics like pipeline, forecasts and sales velocity.

The State of CRM Training

Organisations make significant investments in CRM training, but training can often be limited to the deployment of a new CRM system or as part of a new starter onboarding process. Whilst this training has generally evolved from a classroom style to more online and more easily consumable courses, it is often relatively poorly adapted to ongoing learning and guidance.

Refresher training tends to address general issues and it is difficult to tailor this to individual requirements meaning that users must endure sessions that don’t reflect their needs. This leads to lower engagement in training courses and reduces their relative effectiveness.

The Changing Nature of CRM Systems

CRM systems are much more malleable these days. Plug-ins, Apps and Extensions enable organisations to modify and enhance their system to suit the evolving needs of the business and take advantage of new technology as it becomes available. This alters the way in which a CRM system may operate.

Users need help to understand how to get the most out of new features and functionality to maximise the effectiveness of additional investments that the organisation is making.

Training and enablement teams are often tasked with rapidly deploying training for new capabilities that the business may have invested in. This brings challenges particularly with remote teams and users with differing levels of capability, expectation and need.

What is Digital Adoption?

Digital Adoption is the measurement of how well an individual can interact with software applications to perform specific business processes.

What is a Digital Adoption Solution?

A Digital Adoption Solution helps organisations ensure new users are brought upto speed on systems in a faster and more engaging way, as well as ensuring existing users are maximising their effectiveness. It has significant impact on reducing initial training, ensuring a continuous learning process and negating the amount of support required.

According to Gartner “a digital adoption solution will help guide a new user who isn’t in the software every minute of every day to do important tasks with confidence.”

A Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) assists users interacting with these systems through the via in-app prompts and on-screen guidance as well as monitoring how systems are used to identify further areas for assistance and ensuring compliance of process steps being undertaken.

5 Benefits of a Digital Adoption Solution that Increase Sales Productivity in CRM

1. In App Training reduces the need for costly and time-consuming training courses. Users are presented with software walkthroughs and in-app messages to guide them through system processes. Training takes place as users interact with the CRM system as opposed to theoretical use cases in a training course.
2. Improved Data Quality ensures that sales reps complete required information the right way the first time. This helps to prevent tasks having to be re-worked by sales teams and ensures the organisation can access valid and up-to-date business insights.
3. On-demand Assistance means that sales teams can access help when they need it and are not reliant on other support teams. Users can self-serve to resolve problems, resulting in them being solved earlier and reducing the impact on support teams and the number of tickets raised.
4. Faster Onboarding of New Starters becomes possible as users can be guided through the use of the system and shown where to click and what to do. This allows new starters to start being productive earlier and allows them to focus on customers rather than on internal systems
5. Improved Visibility of user behaviour within core application systems helps the organisation to identify methods to improve user experience and adherence to process. The ability to track actions and patterns means that organisations can make informed, data-driven decisions. No longer are future training requirements determined by subjective feedback. Digital Adoption Solutions ensure the organisation can see where users are having issues and adapt accordingly.

Empowering Sales Team Productivity

For organisations where sales teams are required to use multiple applications, where these systems and the processes within them can change and where training is an ongoing requirement, a digital adoption solution can be a critical tool to maximise productivity and user engagement.

To further understand how a digital adoption platform could work for your organisation, please contact use here and one of our experts will be in touch.

About the Author

Trivender Singh

Trivender started his career as a software developer and has over 20 years’ experience in developing and implementing Business Process Automation solutions using Cognitive Capture, Robotic Process Automation and Business Process Automation technologies.

He is a Computer Science graduate, and holds a master’s degree in Software and Systems Security from University of Oxford.

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