Is your CRM go-live date fast approaching? Are you struggling with how to organize and plan for your upcoming training sessions?

At PowerObjects, not only do we design, build and implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM and XRM solutions, we also do quite a bit of end user training for these solutions. A lot of this is common sense type advice, but many times these important items are overlooked. Often this is for sales pipeline management or sales process management and we have created two fixed fee programs that include training to help ensure success with your new MSCRM system. One is called PowerSFA and is geared towards an organization that is using MS CRM for sales automation, and the other is called PowerAssist and this is geared towards do it yourselfers and provides the minimum needed to ensure success – including the training!

Let us pass our experiences onto you…

Before your Training Day

For a trainer, most of the work is done before you even set foot in the meeting room. A good trainer has a clear agenda, is confident in the system and the technology and knows the system through and through.

Test, Test, Test (The Process!) – You will want to make sure your solution is 100% ready to go for the training date. Nothing derails training quite like uncovering a bug in a workflow or report! This will also cause your end users to get a BAD first impression of your new system!

Test, Test, Test (The Technology!) – Are you performing training in a large conference room or auditorium where you will be using a projector, microphone, video conferencing or other technology? Make sure beforehand that you can connect to the wireless network, your laptop is displaying on the projector properly, etc. If training starts at 1pm, you don't want to find out at 12:55 that you can't connect to the wireless network and dial out on the phone!

Set Your Goals – Have a clear understanding of what will qualify as a successful training. Is the goal to have each rep enter 10 of their opportunities into the system by next Wednesday? Is each manager supposed to get the weekly sales report out CRM from now on? Clear goals will help to guide your agenda.

The Agenda, Your Friend – Create an outline of the main points you want to hit during your training session. You want your training to follow the business process from start to finish. It may be helpful to split up your training into smaller, focused groups of end users to be sure that their specific training needs are met; a session for Sales Reps may focus on entering opportunities and activities while a session for Sales Managers may focus on reporting and dashboards.

Training Day!

The big day is finally here! Today is the day where you bring it all home. If you have done your due diligence you should be prepared to go out and execute your plan with confidence.

Common Courtesy – Distractions should be kept to a minimum during training (obviously). Ask that all phones be turned on silent if it is a live meeting; ask others on the conference call to mute their lines, etc.

Be Helpful, But Don't get Sidetracked – Make sure to answer any questions that a user may have, but also be sure to stay on topic and on track. Don't let one person derail the rest of the group.

Keep it Simple! - We all know that Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a broad program with a lot of capability, and sometimes that power can overwhelm a new user. You may not want to explore certain areas of the program in your initial training session (marketing lists, advanced finds, etc)

After Training

You didn't think you were done after just one training session, did you?

How Did You Do? – After training has completed, it is helpful to go back to your original list of goals and make sure that each item was given its due diligence. This review is often the basis for additional training sessions and clarification.

Follow Up! – As was mentioned above, MSCRM is quite a broad system with a lot of capability. A successful trainer will be sure to create additional training sessions to teach additional areas of the system. It may be beneficial to schedule a weekly call where one specific topic can be covered at a time.

Create a Community – Create an environment where discussions and feedback on the CRM system is encouraged. It may be useful to have a weekly CRM User Group meeting to share tips and tricks on using the system or composing a weekly email to users outlining recent changes and enhancements to the system.

If you decide you do want assistance – PowerObjects is here to help! We offer a basic CRM101 class that is great for new users, as well as specific classes around driving value out of your CRM system with reporting. Our basic CRM reporting class covers advanced finds, export to excel, and the report wizard – this is a two hour web class…we also offer a complex reporting class that focuses on SSRS for those advanced users.

Happy CRM'ing