CRM Training in Unsettled Times: 4 Ways to Prepare

The recent and rapid emergence of COVID-19 means humanity is now faced with living in an undeniably uncertain, distracting, and scary time. While the long-term impacts of this new challenge on both society and the economy are still unknown, sales-based businesses don’t have to succumb to the pressure. In fact, with the right CRM technology and software, many don’t have to close down or reduce their operational capacity at all. Instead, they can empower and support their teams with remote working capabilities that means business can be conducted as close to usual as possible.

This technology, however, doesn’t take into account what personal trials team members might be going through; consequently, training any team in this time will likely prove to be a challenge. It makes sense, too, with a constant news cycle practically spelling out economic ruin, not to mention the concern over one’s own health and the well-being of loved ones. While time is the only thing that will ameliorate the latter concerns, sales-based businesses can help reassure their sales teams about job stability through enabling remote working and effective CRM training. 

So where should a business start when training a team? To help your team get acclimated with a new remote CRM or sales tool, the best place to start is by rallying your team and getting them onboard and excited about the new changes.

Rallying Your Team

The key to success in any business is having a passionate team that is excited about the work they’re doing, and the key to achieving this is usually through effective leaders who are able to inspire. While finding this source of inspiration at present may be tough, with many distracted (and frightened) by the unfolding coronavirus news, it is possible through open and honest communication. Those conducting training should ask questions around the best ways to communicate with their team. Some questions might include:

• What is your biggest source of concern right now?
• How can your role address these concerns?
• How can we best communicate with you at this time?
• What aspects of our tools and processes are you struggling to understand?

These questions will enable leaders to understand the scope of distraction and amount of work necessary for training, before finding creative, engaging ways to communicate with their team. From there, those conducting the training are able to communicate the benefits of their chosen CRM software more effectively, in turn getting their team excited about this new software and the benefits it enables. If this step isn’t done effectively, teams may opt not to use the new software (or use it begrudgingly) and adoption rates—and output—will be lackluster.

Make CRM Training Strategies as Engaging as Possible

While it’s important to acknowledge the impact current events are having on a team, it also doesn’t mean that training shouldn’t be conducted. Instead, it means that training needs to as strategic as possible. Those conducting the training need to take a step back and look at the scope of what they’re asking a team to become familiar with. Are you trying to train on multiple tools and platforms at once? Are you completely changing the way a team works and inundating them with boring, unnecessary materials? Is there a way to simplify the training?

These questions are important because if remote working has not been a part of a company’s culture until now, it’s likely the team is already going through an adjustment period or experiencing a learning curve in grasping a whole new way of working. As such, it’s important not to inundate them with CRM training materials that add to the burden and aren’t engaging. Instead, those conducting training need to simplify all training so it’s quick, concise, and relatable. One especially effective way is to train teams in core basics before creating “post-training” instructional guides they can refer to later.

Plan for Remote CRM Implementation

Related to the last point, those conducting training need to ensure that the CRM solution can be implemented completely offsite. Leaders need to think about not only the complexity of the solution itself but also the ability of teams to undertake certain aspects of training by themselves. This can be done by using a range of different technologies, like video conferencing so that in-depth aspects are covered “face-to-face” by those conducting the training exercises, before the team ends the call and attempts to do certain exercises on their own.

If you’re the one sourcing CRM software, you should ensure the onboarding process within the software is simple to follow. This will reduce business costs, as training and implementation often uses up valuable time that can be saved by choosing the right solution.

Consider Existing Platforms and Their Integration Capabilities

When sourcing a CRM solution, it’s also especially important to look at its integration potential with existing platforms. Does the solution integrate seamlessly with any platform? Will the solution present issues in migrating data from existing CRM infrastructure or other often-used platforms? Is the company looking to introduce additional solutions in the future that will need to integrate with the CRM solution?

These considerations are important because integration capabilities will undeniably add to a business’s and team’s workload in the future. How? If data (contacts, clients, information databases) can’t be imported or exported seamlessly between platforms, it spells a lot of additional work for not only the IT personnel who manage these solutions but the teams who need this information to do their jobs effectively.

While humanity is currently faced with a lot of economic and societal uncertainty, it doesn’t mean that sales-based businesses need to give up. Through effective, engaging communication, simplified and streamlined training processes, inspirational leadership, and the right CRM solution, sales teams can make the transition to remote work and continue on with business as usual.

Nikolaus Kimla is the founder and CEO of Pipeliner Sales, Inc., developer and publisher of Pipeliner CRM. He is the author of over 100 ebooks, articles, and white papers addressing the subjects of sales management, CRM, and business. Kimla has founded and run several software companies. He and his company uptime iTechnology are the developers of World-Check, a risk intelligence platform eventually sold to Thomson Reuters for $520 million.