Best Practices For Creating A CRM User Training Plan In An SMB

Purchasing and implementing a new CRM solution can be an exciting yet a challenging endeavor. Your small and mid-sized business (SMB) is keen on taking steps to streamline its workflow, and employees aim to gain new features and tools to assist them during their work. 

Now, as an SMB, you are a part of this digital revolution, therefore your staff needs to match pace. Empowering your team members with the knowledge of handling the latest technology can be the biggest blessing.

Implementing the latest and best CRM solution isn’t the end of the road. It’s the start of the revolution. Your teams-sales, marketing, customer service, need to be trained on this. The biggest challenge you may encounter is getting your teams used to this technology. There maybe resistance and a few difficult individuals who would want things to remain as it is. But look at the long-term benefits and the surge in profit margin that the CRM solution will bring. Keeping that in mind, encourage your team members to embrace the technology and create a well-defined training plan.

User training is probably the most important step to implement a CRM solution successfully. Let’s discuss how you can create a training strategy for CRM.

It’s common to see training programs being planned where end users are not included in the planning or design phases. This naturally causes a rift when the first glimpse of the training module is presented and a software application full of foreign screens and little-to-no understanding of new processes, workflows, and configuration changes that have been added, is displayed.

Most organizations believe that staff members can ‘learn’ as they go. That means they can get used to handling the CRM, e.g., Dynamics 365 software while on the job as it is easy to adapt.

However, like any software, a proper training plan is required to avoid future hassles. Although this type of training has a purpose, it’s not enough to ensure that users at every level will be using the solution effectively.

Typically, this kind of training turns into a ‘quick fix’ approach for users learning the solution. Instead of what was intended to simplify sales processes, it starts being a cause of worry, daily.

Your team is left with an advanced understanding of how to perform basic activities but is not capable of utilizing new features that were intended initially.

Would you rather waste hours resolving an issue with the system caused by your team member or spend a few days training the user appropriately to prevent such incidents?

The smart move would be to train them instead of bashing heads to resolve the issue.

So, what will be the contents of this CRM training plan? Here are a few best practices that you can follow.

• Identify who all need to access the CRM solution for the project scope
• Appraise the budget that comprises cost estimates for resources allocated to training development and delivery, as well as costs for end-user training
• Summarize the expectations, milestones, and deadlines to be achieved before the implementation
• After role assignments, establish who will deliver each section of the training
• Set a specific timeline for the training sessions
• Deploy teams that prepare the training modules needed for the sessions
• Evaluate the form of training to be conducted-virtual classrooms, offsite sessions, or CRM Consultant headed programs
• Design an assessment metric plan that has specific parameters to measure the success of the training sessions once done

Remember, no one’s going to tell you that a new CRM implementation is going to be easy, but you can lessen your overall stress during the process by following best practices, a lot of planning, and careful user training.

Have you never implemented a new CRM before, or are you looking to make this process seamless and easier? Then it’s time that we had a chat. Also, you can download our CRM Selection Checklist, if you are still thinking of implementing one. Contact us for support.