Executives, administrators, marketing and sales ops/enablement professionals are spending a lot of their hard-fought budget on sales and marketing technology.  The hard work isn’t done, however, once you’ve designed and implemented the system; it isn’t even done after user training.  You need to have a strategic plan that considers constant renovation and reminders of why your users should be using the components of their tech stack.

Let’s consider the first step in our proprietary ADOPT system for user acceptance of technology:  ARTICULATE.

articulating salesforce technology to teams and stakeholders: Sales & MarketingAt the onset of your new tech launch, during a relaunch, and even during periods of “stasis” (does that ever really happen?), you should Articulate the value of the technology to your sales team. This is an iterative process and the approach is likely different depending on the key stakeholder or department.  First, you should address their WIIFM, or What’s In It For Me?  For sales people using a CRM, that may be the ability to deliver pipeline data without putting together excel spreadsheets or power points for their 1:1s with their managers; for sales management it may be the ability to have detailed dashboards that have forecasts in real time.  Marketing may love the ability to see their conversion rates pull through from leads; Operations will enjoy the forward-looking bookings predictions to know what their resource planning should represent.  And Finance – well, they love data, right?  You get the picture; figure out the reasons why each department will love what the tech has to offer, and capitalize on that as you define and articulate the personalized value.

Once you’ve shown them how this application will improve their life at work, you stand a better chance of it actually being adopted and used – and that makes your job and life easier, and helps to protect your budget. Keep in mind the Technology Diffusion Model – this model identifies stakeholders/users as varying buckets:  innovators/early adopters (these are the types that sleep outside for the new iPhone, and as 16% of your team, these are the ones that will jump in and be your early cheerleaders), early/late majority (this 64% is exactly as it sounds- the majority; once they see everyone else using it, they likely just will, as it becomes part of the culture to do so), and laggards (the other 16% who will have a really hard time coming around to your new system, and will need much more convincing; it’s often best to leave them out of your early planning as they’ll need proof that it’s working for the adopters who have come before them). Be aware of all of their needs and motivations, and be sure to educate and promote the new technology to address everyone’s individual WIIFM and eagerness to adopt.

Tune in next week for more details on how to Demonstrate system usage.  Looking for a quick overview of our proprietary ADOPT system to sales tech user acceptance?  Here you go!  Looking for a more detailed overview of how to implement the ADOPT system in your company?  Check this out!

Keep up the awesome focus on tech adoption and innovation!