As in any profession, salespeople must constantly adapt to the tools of an evolving world. Just as it’s unlikely you’ll find a feather pen or a Rolodex in an office today, you also won’t see many salespeople relying on oversized car phones to close a deal on the go. At a certain point, it’s inevitable that companies will make adjustments to keep up with the times. After all, if customers are using advanced technology, it makes sense that companies should be interacting with them using tools that are up to date as well.
Of course, if technology adoption is to have an effect on a company, the commitment of the entire team becomes a required element. But getting that kind of cooperation is not always a simple task. Managers who are proposing shifts in their operations should be aware that their star sellers might not immediately take to the new processes without some resistance. Though it’s counterintuitive that anyone would resist technology designed to make their job easier, managers should anticipate a number of challenges, and do their best to ease their workforce through the transition. There are all sorts of emotional and psychological barriers that could potentially come up along the way. Drawing from tips offered by industry consultants and experts experienced in guiding sales teams through such changes, CRM has composed a set of guidelines for companies in this all-too-common position.
1. COMMUNICATE THE GOALS
Picture this: You’re a salesman, and you’ve been doing your job better than you ever have. You’ve exceeded your quota, and just last quarter you earned a promotion, thanks to the revenue you raked in for the company. All seems to be going well, but then, out of left field, your manager announces that the company is going to be putting in a new technology that will make things better for you in some way. There’s only one problem: He doesn’t explain how or why.
You might wonder what you’ve been doing wrong. After all, you’re yielding the company results, and your current methods for selling seem to be working, so why would they need to change? Is there something you weren’t aware of? Why the ambiguity?
There may be myriad practical reasons for why the change needs to be put in place. Perhaps mobile usage is predicted to increase in the coming year, and your manager is simply making sure the company is ready for that transition. Perhaps he wants to encourage more of a community atmosphere around the office. Unfortunately, it’s often the case that management does not adequately or clearly communicate the reasons for change to the employees.
Before proposing any major change, it’s advisable that management establish clear reasons for why the change is being proposed, and how it is going to enhance salespeople’s experiences. For a sales force to understand how a technology is to help them, they need to understand what their future will look like with it in place. “If you can’t articulate the benefit to [the sales team] and the company, you have no business making any type of change,” Jim Dickie, a partner at CSO Insights, wrote in an email to CRM magazine.
Likewise, it is of vital importance that management create a consistent narrative that instills confidence in the workforce.
Lior Arussy, founder and president of Strativity Group, holds that the language the higher-ups in an organization use is also of vital importance. He even resists using the term “change management” when possible. “Whenever you say ‘change,’” Arussy says, “[what] employees hear is ‘Whatever you’ve done until now is wrong, and now we’re going to put you on the right track.’ That’s not a good message.” Instead, he favors what he calls “cause management,” which attributes any need for adjustment within a company to the customer. Under this approach, companies make an effort to craft a story that communicates the idea that this is the outcome that will best benefit the company.
Similarly, highlighting what is not going to be changing can be a source of encouragement for the sales force as well. One way companies can do this is by stating that it isn’t the values that will be changing. “In a sense, you’re introducing a consistency while asking them to evolve,” Arussy says. “It’s a much easier transition because [this way] they don’t feel like they’re leaving everything behind.”
2. FEAR OF CHANGE ISN’T NECESSARILY FEAR OF TECH
It might come as a shock to some that the technology itself is not usually the reason that employees are resistant to change. While it’s tempting to jump to the conclusion that veteran sales reps are more likely to oppose new technologies, it can’t quite be boiled down to the “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” adage. On the contrary, as Tim Kippley, director of customer obsession at Rightpoint, a technology consulting firm, points out, many older people are becoming less resistant to using technologies. Such behavior has also fostered a greater willingness on this group’s part to adapt such programs for their business needs. “Facebook, Amazon, and [various] consumer apps have really changed the way people think about technology in their personal lives,” Kippley says. “They want to do the same things when using a business app.”
But problems will likely begin to surface when salespeople are not given enough notice about the programs they’re expected to use. Even before it’s been decided which technologies they’ve settled on, managers should give their workers an outline of the problems they are trying to fix. This also gives the sales force the opportunity to provide input and make suggestions about what types of processes they would like to see streamlined, and how they envision their ideal sales environment. Though a company might not always have the budget for what the salespeople have in mind, they’ll at least be involving them and making them feel as though they are part of the equation from the outset.
Also important is that workers are given the time to develop the kinds of skills necessary to make full use of technology. Just as it took the culture at large a while to figure out how to use social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram, Arussy points out, so it takes workforces some conditioning to see how new programs can be of aid to them. “If you can be proactive about teaching people those new skill sets and teach people how to use [the technology] in small segments, this definitely can accelerate the change,” he says.
3. NEW TECH CAN BRUISE THE SALESPERSON’S EGO
All self-respecting salespeople are proud of their work. They like to feel as though they possess an innate talent, and that there’s a reason they’re doing what they’ve chosen to dedicate so much of their time to. Regardless of age or experience level, there are certain natural emotions that might come into play when companies are proposing changes.
If workers are led to believe that so much of what they’ve spent a great deal of time mastering can be transferred to anyone with a pair of thumbs, they may resent it on an emotional level that they might not even share.
One potential complication Arussy mentions is that salespeople might be opposed to the idea of sharing their stats and information, letting some of their colleagues in on their secrets, so to speak. “We call them rainmakers,” Arussy says. “And what’s the essence of the rainmaker? If you don’t have a good product, ‘I’m going to bring the rain against all odds.’ They like to give themselves credit for being magicians.” In offering a transparent system, salespeople can often be made to feel as though their secrets are being shared.
Thus, it would be a good idea to communicate how the technology is going to help them work together and be more connected, ultimately to sell more. “We like to say sales is a team sport,” Kippley says. “Those who are successful know how to optimize and leverage the subject matter expertise within their organization. They know how to get things done faster and cut corners where there are inefficiencies.”
Again, if such steps are not taken at the outset, the message being sent by companies is one of failure on the part of their rainmakers, and that’s bad news.
4. THE TECH IS NOT ONLY FOR MANAGEMENT
It should go without saying that technology should never force people to do more work than they’re already doing to begin with. “If you force people to use a system that is making their jobs worse, you’re going to create massive productivity and employee engagement problems,” Karin Hurt, CEO of Let’s Grow Leaders, a consulting firm specializing in designing strategies for businesses, says. “They’re going to do everything they can to avoid it.”
Along those lines, a sales team should never feel as though technology is being employed solely for the benefit of the managers. Granted, it’s good that CRM provides managers with visibility into a sales force’s progress, but the central message managers should be sending is that the technology is there to help salespeople do their jobs better.
Nevertheless, Kippley maintains that it is helpful to illustrate that higher management is using the technology as well, for the sake of driving home the idea that the technology is being universally adopted by the organization. “It cements the fact that this isn’t just lip service,” he says.
5. DEPLOY GRADUALLY
When it comes to deploying the programs that sales professionals are going to be using regularly over an extended period of time, experts agree that it’s generally smart to steer clear of an abrupt implementation in favor of a more gradual one. In the early days of CRM, a common mistake was that companies simply instituted change and gave little thought to how the workforce was going to receive it. But the trend has been shifting. After enough trial and error, companies have realized that it’s a delicate issue that needs to be handled with care.
Pilot periods are commonly encouraged by experts. During these periods, a small subset of the company is selected to test the technology and share its experiences with the others. Keeping colleagues updated via email, meetings, or through other internal communication channels can be helpful, as it also lets people know what to expect. Likewise, getting user testimonials and videos in which those who have piloted the product attest to its benefits could prove useful.
However, it’s important to be all-inclusive when deciding who is going to be participating in such trial periods. While it might be tempting to recruit the most enthusiastic and vocal representatives of a company to test the materials, it might be a better idea to go for a mix to act as guinea pigs. Analysts suggest drawing a subset of users that will represent those who are ultimately going to be expected to use the new technology. Of course, asking volunteers to step forward is advised, but testers should also be drawn from a segment of those who aren’t as keen on trying it. Kippley suggests that including people who are not technology experts is a good idea, because it helps drive home the point that anyone can use the solution effectively. It also reinforces the idea that there will be support and training opportunities available.
If the right group of people is selected for the pilot program, they can generate excitement about the system and show how the program has helped them do their jobs.
One small factor to keep in mind about the pilot period, however, is the capacity of the system. Since the entire program will eventually be inhabited by more users, the experience that the small subset reports might differ from the one that is waiting further down the line. “A system that works fine when you have ten users on it may not work as quickly when there are 200,000 users connected to it,” Hurt points out. “You need to be able to account for things like that. But other than that, [the beta tests] should be a good indicator.”
6. MAINTAIN THE CHANGE
Change management is not as simple as preparing the workforce for the transition that is about to be introduced. It has just as much to do with ensuring that workers don’t revert to outdated and inefficient methods as it does with ensuring that people begin to use it. “Managing resistance is a process, not a series of events,” Randy Wandmacher, managing director of Accenture Strategy, says.
Because it’s a process, managers should be very careful to communicate the fact that the improvements might not come all at once, but rather in small increments.
Incentives can also act as fruitful aids in encouraging adoption. For this very reason, gamification apps have been gaining popularity, because they allow employees to compete against one another and display to the rest of the company how well they have done by showing off their achievements.
Hurt emphasizes the importance of building employee confidence and a positive environment. One way she goes about doing this is setting specific event days to encourage the use of the new technologies. Typically held once a month, these are known as “blitz days.” The idea is to set aside a time period during which everybody is forced to use the technology in a fun environment. At the end of the day, the users share those results. “The goal is to say that if this can be done on one particular day, why can’t it be done every day?” Hurt says, adding that, over time, the benefits could be substantial.
Another thing to keep in mind, Arussy points out, is that change is ongoing. As time goes on, the window for change for technology is becoming much narrower than it used to be, with updates occurring far more frequently. For some people, it might seem that just as they are getting used to one change, another one is on the way. “We need to create an infrastructure that better supports that,” he says. 
Associate Editor Oren Smilansky can be reached at osmilansky@infotoday.com.