We bought a CRM but the team isn't using it properly, how do we establish the workflow internally?

I've seen dozens of CRM rollouts end up in the trash over the years. They all make the exact same mistake: executive leadership wants pretty reports, and the sales reps foot the bill. A salesperson only asks one question: "Is entering this data making me money?" If the answer is no, they won't touch it. Prune the fields down to no more than five and you'll see the difference right away.

First thing tomorrow morning log into the admin panel and uncheck "required" on 30 of those 35 mandatory fields. Keep only contact name, phone number quote amount and next follow-up date mandatory. Keep meeting notes restricted to simple bullet points too.

We went through a similar crisis with our 8-person tech sales team. Filling out a form took an average of 6 minutes, and reps were only logging about 12 records a month each. Once we trimmed the fields down to 4 and set up mobile integration, active opportunities logged jumped to 45 per person each month. A little data is always better than no data at all.

Is your commission structure tied directly to CRM data though? When a rep closes a deal how is their payout calculated if there was no active opportunity logged in the system? If they can earn their commission outside the system, they'll never adopt the software.

when we first got it we wanted to log everything too and nobody even touched it. only when we integrated the pbx so calls logged automatically did they actually start using it. like anything manual blows up eventually.

Pulling it up on screen in weekly meetings sounds like a good idea on paper, but if you bury field reps in bureaucracy, they won't have any energy left for the actual clients. A salesperson's job isn't to feed a data warehouse, it's to close deals and get invoices out. Maybe this team doesn't even need software this complex.

To salvage the process, put these three rules in place: 1) No price protection for clients not in the system; another rep can take them over. 2) Opportunities without a scheduled next action date are dropped automatically. 3) Quote revisions must be generated and sent to the client exclusively through the system.

Such a familiar story. Dont turn it into a battle with the sales team. Just sit down with them over coffee open up the system, and ask them straight up: "Guys, what info do we actually need here?" They cant complain about cutting fields they chose to remove themselves.

edit: fixed a few typos.

I agree, and I'd like to emphasize that. The only thing separating friendship from partnership is a written contract.

Hope this helps.

I agree, and I'd like to emphasize that. Are you looking for a partner or a co-founder? They are two different things.

Good luck with that.

Thanks, that was the answer I was looking for. Give trial work but pay for it; free trials don't bind anyone.

the cheap-looking path usually ends up costing more later and btw just because eveyone does it doesn't mean it's right.

if you have questions write them; I'll answer as best I can.

I agree with this. Don't hesitate to ask; those who don't ask always pay more.

Hope this helps.

Generally correct, but one part is missing. Any unwritten clause becomes a point of disagreement later, as both sides remember it differently.

I'll argue the opposite, don't get mad. When making decisions, write down the worst-case scenario too, not just the best.

I'm also curious if anyone does it differently.

Noted, thanks.

I'm curious too.

Exactly and not many people know this. When you try to change everything at once nothing settles.

If I were you I'd go this route.