Implementation & Onboarding | Map My Customers

Why most CRM rollouts fail.

We've heard it all when it comes to why a CRM implementation didn't work:

"My sales team just doesn't use it."
"The data from the CRM is always bad."
"It didn't integrate with my other systems."
"The old CRM admin left, and now no one knows how to train new reps."

And for these reasons, when a company decides to roll out a new CRM, it's a disaster. No one uses it. The data is bad. No one invests in integrating it with other systems. When someone leaves, all the institutional knowledge is gone. Quite the self-fulfilling prophecy.

At Map My Customers, we'd argue that a CRM implementation only fails because the company (and its CRM partner) didn't properly plan the implementation process.

When implementing a new CRM, we recommend a crawl, walk, run approach.

01The crawl stage

Build the foundation and let the team see value fast.

Onboarding

Once you sign on the dotted line, the work begins immediately with a thorough onboarding process. At Map My Customers, this starts with a kickoff call including your company's key stakeholders and your CRM customer success team.

Define implementation goalsWhat does "win" look like in 30, 60, and 90 days?
Discuss the metrics for successThe handful of numbers leadership will be watching.
Benchmark current performanceSo we have a baseline to measure detail improvements against.
Build the implementation timelineThen schedule training sessions with sales managers, company leaders, and your outside reps.

Criteria for the crawl stage

To make sure the team sees the app as intuitive and easy to understand, we set a brand-new technology bar. The first month, your sales leadership team should be encouraging reps to:

Open the app
Get familiar with the interface
Understand how accounts are color-coded and distributed throughout the territory
Map out accounts per week
Log one activity per customer visit
Verbalize how this is adding value to their day

The Crawl Stage

How to crawl, walk, run a CRM implementation: The crawl stage.

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The Onboarding Process

What to expect, step by step.

01

The Kickoff Call

Meet your customer success team. Define project goals. Build the implementation timeline.
02

Account Setup

Migrate data. Set up integrations. Define your users and permissions.
03

Training

Complete manager training. Complete rep training. Benchmark adoption against KPIs.
04

Ongoing Support

Support doesn't end after onboarding. We're with you to coach your business goals.

Where companies go wrong

Overcomplicating data entry and activity tracking is the #1 mistake we see in the crawl stage. Adding new technology is overwhelming, and the more complicated you make using the app during the crawl stage, the more likely your implementation will fail.

You might be integrating Map My Customers with another CRM. Or with your ERP system. Or with your data management system. All of this is great. But the next stage, the walk stage, can do a CSV export and import. So while at first you might think you can do it all, you cannot.

"I love that you continue to beat the drum of a crawl, walk, run to adoption, all centered around value and ease of use for the reps. But then KPIs all being centered around customer engagement."

Andrea EckbergVP of North American Sales, Thibaut Designs

02The walk stage

Now the reps are bought in. Scale the workflow.

Map My Customers activity tracking on mobile

The Walk Stage

Come to accounts informed and strategically segmented.

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How to make the shift

Your outside sales reps are logging activities consistently. They enjoy the mapping and routing tools. They might even be doing some prospecting.

Now it's time to add custom fields. Start slowly: too many additional required custom fields per week or month? Because by now your sales reps are comfortable logging activities, hitting the check-in button, and creating talk-to-text notes. Now, when they visit an account, add a dropdown menu to capture a few data points.

From a rep perspective, the most impactful experience is when they understand why this data point is valuable, measurable, and will move the business forward. Again, the main goal for successful CRM adoption is showing the rep ease of use and value.

Integrations & data

This is also the point where your company and your Map My Customers customer success team can explore additional system integrations. Map My Customers can plug into your ERP system to track orders. Or another CRM from a previous rollout. Or your data planner and data of choice. This is great for your data, bringing your tech stack together.

With consistent data coming in, you can also start to drive insights from your visits. Sales reps could be logging on-the-go notes that include (drumroll, please) topic details, the rep's average tenor, what's working, what they like, and how they use Map My Customers in their inputs when they talk to your customers and what they say to your sales reps. From there, your sales managers don't need to test what these reps see in the rest of the sales team.

Funneling insights to lower-performing reps

The data starts to flag what to coach on. For example:

If you talk to this job title at this time and discuss X, Y, Z product features, you're more likely to get a second call.
Here's how you can get in the door with main decision-makers.
If you show up before territory this way, you can save 20% more accounts in a month.
If you use Map My Customers this way, you can move much faster while visiting existing customers.

In the walk stage, the sales manager is getting visibility into what's working, which means they're uncovering ways for their team to be more effective in the field. Sales leaders say Map My Customers moves them away from managing and toward coaching and leading.

"I don't like managing people. I like leading people. And so for me to police my reps or to make sure you're like to say you have to log your calls, it's a waste of everyone's time. So let's figure out how this is valuable for all of us. And then we'll just do it."

Kevin DunbrackCOO, McCarthy & Sons Veterinary Supply

82% Likely to retain · 2+ activities week 1

88% Likely to retain · 1+ check-in week 1

100% Likely to retain · 5+ quick actions in week 1

03The run stage

Strategic coaching from outcome-based insights.

You're ready to run

By this stage you're 6+ months into a CRM rollout. Your reps consistently log activities. Your systems speak to each other. And your sales leadership team is starting to draw important insights from outside sales activity.

There are a few things our most successful customers do to ensure continued CRM success.

Reduce administrative headaches

By this time, your outside sales team has clearly distinguished between RPAs and AFAs, or revenue-producing activities and administrative frustrating activities. Your sales leadership team can start to reduce AFAs, so your team can do more RPAs. But it doesn't stop here.

Coach teams to success

This goes beyond the coaching from the walk stage. During the run stage, your executives can coach sales leaders and vice versa. By this stage, our most successful companies are:

Predicting pipeline and revenueFrom the activity coming off of field visits.
Optimizing territories and account distributionWith analytics across the territory level.
Developing better relationshipsWith the sales team and with customers.

This last point should not be taken lightly. We've had time and again that sales leaders wish they could be closer to their customers. With a successful CRM rollout, leaders can start doing this again.

Optimize territories

By this time, sales leaders are using analytics data at the territory level. This means you can start to say things like:

"Jacob is one of my top reps. He's got 400 accounts. Where is the revenue actually coming from? Then you start to look at the data, you might see that all the revenue is coming from 100 accounts. And he's not even paying attention to the other 300 accounts. Not because he's not logged in, but because he doesn't have the time."

Now, let's bring another territory manager in to take those 300 accounts and let Jacob continue to grow those top 100. And that's where the growth opportunity is. It lightens Jacob's workload and still maintains a healthy pipeline for him without sacrificing him.

With a successful CRM rollout, you get insights into untapped growth lever opportunities.

Don't let perfection get in the way of progress.

The single biggest mistake we see in CRM rollouts is waiting for "perfect data" before going live. Truly clean data, every time, in real-time? That's the goal, but it lives at the run stage, not the crawl stage. The pursuit of progress beats the pursuit of perfection every time.

How to crawl, walk, run your way to a successful CRM implementation.

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