When you deploy Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you’re giving your staff an incredible and comprehensive toolbox. The next step is getting your staff to actually use it. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is easy to learn and use because it works like other familiar Microsoft products, but the fact is that most people don’t like having to change the way they do things. Of course, as they do use and become familiar with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, everyone becomes more productive. The new tool adoption challenge was faced by Trek Bicycle, who deployed Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3 years ago, and now successful adoption has made their sales processes more consistent and enabled them to better analyze their sales data.
Trek Bicycle, located in Waterloo, Wisconsin, is the largest bicycle manufacturer in North America. They sell bikes in more than 90 countries, with a staff of 1800 people. They deployed Microsoft Dynamics CRM three years ago to better analyze their sales data, but the problem was that it took a while to get their sales reps to use it. That was the challenge faced by Trek’s enterprise collaboration manager, John Dix.
Dix says, “Trek is all about innovation, about trying new things. And before we brought in CRM there were a lot of homegrown solutions. There was little consistency and every rep had their own processes and their own tools.” But one problem was, when reps left the company or changed positions, their homegrown “solutions” did not transition well to the next person in their role. A new rep might inherit a box full of hand-written notes, “left trying to figure out the puzzle.”
Looking for more consistency, Trek turned to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Dix says, “We looked at a lot of products and it came down to Salesforce and Dynamics CRM, and the main reason Dynamics won was because it fits with our full Microsoft BI stack and the price was better.”
Dix tackled the adoption challenge “one bite at a time,” building solutions to problems that bothered reps into Microsoft Dynamics CRM one at a time, until not using it was simply crazy. As an example, returns to stock had been a “gigantic pain” for Trek reps for years. If a store sent something back, the warehouse would have to track down the rep to figure out what to do next. So Dix built a “return to stock” form in Microsoft Dynamics CRM that sends emails to the warehouses so that they are fully informed in a timely manner. Dix says, “That process has really cleaned things up and made the warehouse happier, made the reps happier, and everyone is happy to use CRM because they couldn’t accomplish that task anywhere else.”
