How to Prepare for Automation

How to Prepare Your Company and Team for Implementing a CRM System

One of the first steps toward systematizing and automating a business is establishing a unified ERP or CRM system within the company. A few years ago, implementing a CRM system was considered a privilege of large companies that simply couldn’t physically keep track of everything happening. Small and medium-sized businesses often settled for an Excel document and task tear-off sheets. However, today, business systematization has moved from being a trend to becoming a necessity for every company.

Often, external specialists are brought in to address this issue. Such strategic partnerships with external experts (integration companies) offer additional advantages during implementation:

  • An external, objective view of sales processes and the ability to identify potential problem areas and additional opportunities in the sales funnel.
  • Experience and understanding of the full functionality and capabilities of the CRM system, allowing faster implementation and anticipation of potential challenges.
  • Familiarity with various systems and auxiliary services, enabling the selection of the best implementation option tailored to the company’s business processes.

However, it’s crucial to understand that their work complements, but does not replace, the involvement of the company and its managers. To successfully implement and use a CRM system in the future, both the company and the team need to be prepared.

Below, we will examine the key aspects to consider and address during the process of introducing automation into a company:

What to Consider in the Initial Stage of Selecting a CRM System:

There are many CRM systems on the market, each with its own specifics: some are designed for convenient client database management and communication, others for task allocation among departments and specialists, and some specialize in inventory management and financial control. To choose the right option for your team, you need to:

 ⭢ Answer the question: “What specific tasks do you want to solve with a CRM system?”

 ⭢ Create a list of CRM functionalities important to you, dividing them into “critical” and “desired” categories.

Processes First, Technology Second

Before implementation—and ideally before selecting a CRM system—you should have clearly formulated and documented business processes, goals, and sometimes even the company structure. Thus, either independently or with the help of integration specialists, carry out a series of simple but important actions in the company:

 ⭢ Map out the business process chain from the moment an incoming request is received by the company (or from the point when managers start calling leads) to closing the deal and transitioning the client into a loyal customer category.

 ⭢ Consider the roles within your team in relation to client work, how many people should work on a single project, and in what way.

Team Preparation

Preparing the team before CRM implementation is a critical element of success. Resistance to innovation is a standard reaction from employees to something new. Managers and other staff often believe that their work will become harder and more complicated, with time spent solving issues related to the new system instead of doing their jobs. Open dialogue about the importance of CRM, discussions of expectations, and explaining its purpose will help the team understand its value and relevance to their daily tasks. Effective collaboration between integration experts and the internal team simplifies the implementation process.

It’s also important to involve the sales department when discussing the communication and sales process with clients. No one understands the details and nuances of their work better than the salespeople themselves.

Our experience with implementations often shows that perceptions of the sales process vary greatly among different employees. The way the company owner, the sales department head, and the managers themselves see the process can easily be three different perspectives, which must be aligned before implementation.
Moreover, when managers know their input is valued and will be considered during system configuration, it reduces resistance to adopting the CRM system.

So, the system has been chosen, processes documented, managers engaged, and settings configured. What comes next?

Training

Next is mandatory employee training on using and working with the new system. However, give employees the opportunity to explore the system before the training—let them click buttons and try to figure out where everything is located. Access restrictions will prevent them from damaging the system but will generate many useful questions they can ask during the training session.

Alternatively, plan two training sessions: the first introductory session and a follow-up after at least a week of working with the new CRM. This additional training will allow the CRM implementation specialists to evaluate how the employees use the system and give the managers a chance to ask questions and possibly propose minor adjustments for anything overlooked during the initial setup.

Support and Control

Finally, organizational support and monitoring are essential to ensure that the new system doesn’t turn into an unused toy or merely an electronic notepad despite the effort and money invested.
After launching the CRM and training the staff, two things are critical:

⭢ The manager should lead by example, using the CRM to review sales department results. This encourages CRM usage and motivates managers to input data into the system consistently.

⭢ Managers shouldn’t be left to “figure it out” on their own in the first few weeks. A responsible person should monitor and control how managers use the CRM. Without this, it may turn out after a month of active work that every manager has been using the system differently, making it impossible to compile unified statistics.

Considering these aspects, the company will be well-prepared to implement a CRM system, minimizing the risk of resistance and maximizing the effectiveness of this powerful tool.
We wish you success!