How to Get Your Sales Team to Adopt a New Technology
Do your homework
Change is hard and often requires convincing. Your sales team has grown accustomed to acquiring new business a certain way, for better or worse. If you’re considering adding a new sales tool to your team’s arsenal, particularly a field sales management app it is best to shop around and find the product that has the best features, price and functionality required for your sales activities. Having a clear understanding of how the product functions and how it will improve sales success is essential for getting your field staff onboard.
Test with an early adopter
Select a few employees with varying technical capabilities and if possible from different divisions to test the new app in order to gauge ease of functionality and work through any difficulties, kinks and challenges. This may require a lot of communication with the software’s support team to sort through specific challenges and get guidance on using the application properly and efficiently. After the pilot has successfully been completed by the early adopters, they should remain engaged by assisting in training other staff members on its usage.
Implement a usage mandate
Once the appropriate app has been chosen, purchased and implemented, a senior manager must direct employees that adoption of the new technology is mandatory so that the transition can be as smooth as possible. It’s imperative that staff members expected to use the new sales software understand that it’s a directive from leadership for the benefit of the company, individual team members and customers alike and that those benefits cannot be realized if everyone is not on the same page.
Train thoroughly and check in often
Recruit early adopters and the executive team to influence and train the sales force on the new app or software. Use success stories to demonstrate how the app saves time, resources, improves efficiencies and increases revenue. Communicating wins such as “Angela saved 5 hours of office time last week by processing payments with mobile invoicing on site and therefore will receive her commission payments faster.” Incentivize your team by highlighting successes that they can directly relate to and benefit from by utilizing internal evangelists. Have sales managers check in on how using the new app is working out, interface with the software’s customer support and retrain as needed.
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