Posted by Matt Pfountz
Why use CRM?
CRM is a highly configurable platform that can be used to manage just about anything.
At its core, however, most companies buy CRM for its ability to improve sales efficiency and increase revenue.
I've worked with some salespeople (with 30+ years of experience under their belts) who are not very interested in learning a new system. How have I helped these non-technical users engage with their CRM?
At its core, however, most companies buy CRM for its ability to improve sales efficiency and increase revenue.
I've worked with some salespeople (with 30+ years of experience under their belts) who are not very interested in learning a new system. How have I helped these non-technical users engage with their CRM?
How do you get users to actually use your CRM?
One incredibly useful tip I've learned is to set them up with URL addressable views.
URL addressable views
The CRM navigation that was introduced with CRM 2013 has a learning curve. There is no way around it.
For salespeople who are struggling with the UI, one thing you can do is create bookmarks directly in their browser to take them to the entity / view that they need in CRM.
You can also accomplish this with dashboards, but those have limitations on the amount of data that you see on the screen (6 lists) and only show the first 20 or so records per list.
URL addressable views work in any browser, but you need to be using Internet Explorer to create the link. Chrome and Firefox will not allow access to the clipboard.
For salespeople who are struggling with the UI, one thing you can do is create bookmarks directly in their browser to take them to the entity / view that they need in CRM.
You can also accomplish this with dashboards, but those have limitations on the amount of data that you see on the screen (6 lists) and only show the first 20 or so records per list.
URL addressable views work in any browser, but you need to be using Internet Explorer to create the link. Chrome and Firefox will not allow access to the clipboard.
How to create your bookmarks:
1. From within CRM, navigate to the entity and view that contains the list that your salesperson wants to use. In this case, we are going to link to an advanced find view that we created for our salesperson.
2. Click on the "copy a link" drop down and choose “of current view.” This will populate your clipboard with the direct link to the view.
2. Click on the "copy a link" drop down and choose “of current view.” This will populate your clipboard with the direct link to the view.
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3. Now, open Notepad and paste the link. Remove anything before the "https" and remove the closing ">" character. That will leave you with something like the following:
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4. Finally, go to the browser of your choice and add the bookmark (or favorite). You can repeat this exercise with each list that you want your user to access, with the end result looking like this:
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For more useful hints and tricks to improve your CRM adoption, check out our free guide to CRM user engagement.