So, my husband and I decided to do some work on our home. By do some work, I mean, ask my Dad – because when I attempt to do carpentry work, I’m more likely to smack my thumb with the hammer, than to hit the nail! So, there’s my Dad just working away and me standing there watching in awe as I hear two small taps to start the nail and one bang to drive it home. Every. Single. Time. And he made it look so easy! Don’t even get me started on the myriad of other tools that he utilized with ease throughout the day. Measuring tapes, levels, drills, saws, you name it. There was such precision and consistency in his approach to using those tools, that it came through in the quality of his delivered product. 

That got me thinking about this concept of every role having tools of the trade, so to speak, and the level of mastery they may or may not have with those tools.

Take me and my Dad – his user persona and mine are miles apart when it comes to mastery of carpentry tools. Can I use those tools? Sure. Can it use them well? Sure can’t! But if I had a mentor and I practiced could I get better? Maybe!

CRM Sales User Personas

So let’s have a look at the CRM Sales User Persona. It seems like there’s an expectation that CRM “should be so easy and helpful that people will automatically want to use it and they won’t need any training”. I know, right now you’re saying, “Yeah right!”, don’t worry I am too!

But with our carpentry analogy in full force, CRM should be like a hammer in the hands of a carpenter to a Sales Rep right? With that crystal clear picture in your mind, let’s think about your CRM Sales users falling into one of three categories:

1. Skilled Carpenter: They know the tool. They work with it daily. They're looking for ways to improve their skills and add new tools to their toolbox.
2. Weekend Warrior: They use it once or twice a week. They get the job done that management requires, and maybe a little more. They've gotten enough training to understand the fundamentals, but they rarely stray outside of those.
3. All Thumbs: They use it only when they have to. Maybe they update opportunities the day before the monthly sales meeting. When they do use it, they often have issues and need support. It feels unintuitive to them and their skills haven't expanded much at all since their initial training.

Let’s put these definitions to the test against your current CRM Sales Users. Take a few moments to categorize each user into the appropriate bucket. (By the way this is for your eyes only – unless you’re looking to remove some folks from your friends list).

Create a CRM Training and Adoption Plan

Now comes the hard part – formulate a plan! Can you move some "All Thumbs" to "Weekend Warriors" and then even move some of them to "Skilled Carpenters"? Consider how you might be able to pair some of them together so that your skilled people can mentor those who are less skilled. Do you maybe need some of them the remain "All Thumbs" and outsource some of their work to the more “Skilled Carpenter”?

In a perfect world, your Sales Users will treat CRM as a tool of their trade and will become highly skilled. Those that don't might risk finding themselves on the wrong side of the growing digital divide! But, in reality, you might need some support for those slow adopters. What does the right level of training, support and communication look like to support each of these roles?

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