When a mid-sized business first implements a CRM solution for Sales and Marketing management, there a number of steps it needs to complete to set up the solution, get it up and running, and ensure that it is adopted among its sales staff. In companies of this size, there is often already a manual procedure in place for storing lead and opportunity data, and usually this is being managed in set of Excel files or in SharePoint. Assigning leads and tasks to the sales reps is done in a haphazard manner, and part of CRM adoption is educating the team with a standardized workflow that is CRM-centered.
The major steps are as follows:
1. Importing the existing leads and opportunities database into Dynamics CRM without any data loss. Set up customized views of this data in the CRM.
2. Customizing lead and opportunity entities to reflect the company’s specific needs.
3. Designing a standardized procedure for the sales team from assigning new leads all the way to converting opportunities to sales.
4. Testing the solution on sample data.
5. Going live.
6. Ensuring adoption of the solution with sales team staff.
7. Troubleshooting issues with the initial implementation and improving the system to address these issues.
Here are some tips that will help guide you through each of the above steps, along with a projected timeline:
Step 1: Import leads data from Excel using Save to XML Spreadsheet 2003 (or as CSV), and take time to map fields properly to the CRM. Try to create views that will present data that is most relevant to each user. (2-3 days).
Step 2: Dynamics CRM’s Customize Entity functionality makes adding new fields to leads and opportunities entities quite easy. Some of these fields will likely be quite necessary parts of your existent sales terminology, and the customization is a must to ensure adoption and effectiveness of the solution (4 days – 1 week).
Step 3: Hold a session with yours Sales VP/Manger to draft a procedure for the path of a lead to a sale, and give a session on this procedure to your sales team to get their feedback and begin educating them using the CRM (3 – 4 days).
Step 4: Create or import test records and run through the sales procedure with several users to iron out problems (3 – 4 days).
Step 5: Go live over the weekend (of course!) and closely monitor the initial live activity. Leave a possibility of rolling back and pushing off go live if there are too many issues which crop up. (1-2 days).
Step 6: This may be the hardest nut to crack, as one of your key managers may be barely looking at the CRM, even though his presence is vital. After a few one-on-one sessions with this user, an a couple sessions with the team as a whole, you may be on your way to full adoption. (Some gentle ‘encouragement’ from our CEO can’t hurt.) After that, drop in and check on your users every few days, and send encouraging messages to those who are adopting the solution well. (2 – 3 weeks).
Step 7: You may experience surprisingly few issues if you follow the above steps; still, common issues such as such creating better customized views, tweaking user permissions, etc., are necessary to resolve, but you should be able to handle them relatively quickly. It’s important that your turn-around-time for solving these issues is quick, as this will facilitate quick adoption and satisfaction on the part of the team. One particularly “tough” issue that can arise is how to send emails via the CRM (we’ll cover this in another blog post), and this can take a few days to iron out. (3 weeks - 1 month)
Good luck with these steps. Hopefully, after implementing them, your sales team will depend on your Dynamics CRM for their line of business operations.
Next stop…your Support Team!