How To Get Your Sales Team to Use Your CRM

If there is one thing sales reps love to do–it’s to close a deal and make those commission checks. The best salespeople get revved up over bringing in a continuous stream of sales for the company. And, this is a great thing because it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.

The one thing senior sales reps, or those who have been around a while, don’t like doing is giving up their tactics. When you have built a comfortable career around specific strategies, you don’t want to lose all that hard work and sacrifice if someone were to copy your methods.

And, seasoned sales reps have been through the wringer. The hardships helped them to develop the successful strategies today. They have seen bad reps come and go–those who try to take credit for the hard work of others.

As a result, seasoned sales reps can grow weary of a new CRM system. Will the company boot them after they’ve found out their secrets to success? Will other sales reps steal their thunder once they’ve learned of their techniques? Maybe, or maybe not.

But, you can’t control bad sales reps. What you can do is provide better customer service and efficiency by implementing a CRM system and getting your senior sales reps on board.

Why do some sales reps hate CRM systems so much?

Some people, even successful people, can be set in their ways. From years of living and learning, they have developed a system that works for them. Now, you want to shake that up? All those tough lessons are now going down the drain in the name of technology?

Well, not really, but some sales reps do think that way–just as many other accomplished individuals. You can’t blame them, but you can also get them on board. The key is to understand how they think. There isn’t a typical sales rep either. Some are quiet workers, while others are a bit more vocal.

Some can talk about their deals all day long while others simply let the numbers and the awards speak for themselves. And, there are some sales reps who have an idea that a CRM system is like big brother. They don’t want to track how many dials they’ve made or emails they’ve sent. It’s as if CRM has taken the fun out of sales and playing it by ear.

The sales rep feels a loss of control when they have to record every interaction they make. Then there is the fact that many sales reps find the admin tasks as part of the unglamorous facet of the job. It’s always glamorous to be closing deals and making the big bucks. Entering data, on the other hand, is boring and time-consuming.

Why should they record interactions when they can just jump on another call or head to another meeting? Another reason some salespeople don’t like a CRM system is that they feel they now have to share their contacts. They worked hard to build a relationship with the decision maker, and now they have to give it up to other employees who did not have to put in the work to get that contact information.

Yet, there is a collaborative aspect here. You might be sharing contact information, but now you don’t have to worry about other departments messing things up because they reached out to the wrong person. Plus, successful sales reps are busy sales reps. Sharing information means that other departments can help them reach their goals by focusing on a collaborative and customer-centric marketing effort.

One sales rep only has so many hours in a day. And, by recording each interaction, the sales rep can improve their sales numbers. Even the highest-earning sales reps will appreciate the ability to make more money.

Share the benefits

One way to get your sales reps on board is to focus on the benefits of using a CRM system. They can better serve their customers if they have all the information they need, on hand. Use examples to demonstrate to visible advantages of using a CRM system. 

Show them that when they share contact information, the marketing team can nurture dormant leads so that the sales rep can bring those leads back into the sales funnel. It’s also vital to explain how the CRM data will be used and how it won’t be used.

It doesn’t matter where you work, no one wants to feel as if corporate is tracking their every move. People need to feel some freedom within their job role, especially those who have earned it by putting in the time and effort.

So, let your sales reps know exactly how managers intend to use the data. This shouldn’t be a game of “gotcha.” Instead, the shared information should help managers in providing more relevant coaching and strategies.

Explain how usage can lead to company opportunities down the road

If a sales rep is interested in career progression, then they would be interested in learning how CRM usage can enable career progress. If the CRM implementation is company-wide, then it wouldn’t make sense to promote someone who is not a CRM advocate.

So, convey the message of how important a CRM system is to business. And, it is important for company executives to be users of and advocates of the CRM systems. You can also reinforce their role as team leaders and role models.

Explain how others, especially new hires, will follow their example. Growth-oriented sales reps will understand how important it is to be viewed as company leaders–and, CRM adoption is part of that critical process.

In conclusion

It is true that you may have sales reps who will fight tooth and nail against using a CRM system. They feel like you are tracking their every move. Still, when you understand their reasons, you can work around it with effective strategies to improve CRM adoption.

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