New sales tools can bring huge advantages to sales teams: whether it’s reinvigorating their energy, streamlining their processes, or gaining an edge on the competition. But deploying sales tools is not a task to be taken on lightly: it can be costly and disruptive. This four-part guide examines how to identify the need for new sales tools (Part 1), sourcing new sales tools to prepare for implementation (Part 2), and now, how to deploy sales tools to your team.

It Takes a Village to Deploy a Sales Tool

In order to successfully roll out new sales tools, you (along with other MDs and Sales Directors) must understand that it is a collaborative effort. Since a new tool or innovation affects everyone in the business, everyone should have the option and opportunity to share ideas and make suggestions. Full employee buy-in isn’t possible if only part of the team participates in deployment.

Some MDs make the mistake of assuming that only the sales team would or should want to be involved in decisions about a new sales tool. The reality, however, is that everyone in the organization is responsible for sales to some degree, and change in one department can have a ripple effect throughout the entire company.

For example, if the sales department decides to install a pop-up cross-sell transactional tool into existing software, HR, IT, finance, operations and customer service will all be affected. You can only achieve true buy-in is if all of these stakeholders have a chance to weigh in, voice their concerns, offer suggestions and understand exactly where they fit in.

You’ll need to remain open to ideas and input from the farthest reaches of the organization. Being a leader means more than just being in charge. It means being receptive to the notion that great ideas in marketing and sales often come from other departments or from people with diverse backgrounds and expertise.

Test and Verify: Preparing for Launch

After launch is not the time to identify problems; this reactive approach can waste time, increase costs, and cause frustration throughout the organization. You have several options for running tests prior to deployment, including:

• Creating a multi-discipline project team. When employees with different backgrounds and varied specialties come together, they each bring a unique perspective. This helps the team spot problems that any given individual might have overlooked. A project team with representatives from HR, IT, finance and sales can approach and explore the task from many different angles.

• Running a pilot or simulation. Separate the team into groups and task everyone with trying something different. In relatively little time, you’ll have accomplished a thorough QA and will be able to get real feedback from participants. This is useful with techniques and processes, but not with products where price is a factor.

• Providing the team with a basket. Since certain people will invariably use some tools more than others, a basket of tools can help determine what is most likely to work. Some tools — such as role playing or a certain piece of collateral — will be pick and choose, but others — like price point and CRM — will be directed.

Rolling Out: Ingredients for Successful Implementation

Your primary job is to ensure that everyone on the team understands the overall objective of the tool as well as their individual responsibilities. Launch should be communicated through a series of channels, and in a language that everyone understands.

Some tools may be simple enough to roll out in a regular sales team meeting or through an Intranet site. More comprehensive tools, however, require a launch date, clear expectations, a timeline that includes training, and key KPIs established upfront. If you haven’t been able to achieve total buy-in before implementation, you can gradually transition your team to the new tool by conducting a beta test with a subset. This can help to get endorsements from key salespeople, who then function as ambassadors, encouraging others to give the new tool a chance. You can also ease the transition by relying on a familiar context: rolling out a new sales tool is similar to preparing clients for a new launch.

Finally, consider how you can make it fun. Perhaps a sales contest or some other exciting, competitive activity can encourage the team to fully engage with the new sales tool.

For new sales tools to be effective, you should first carefully assess the needs of your organization (as covered in Part 1 of this guide). Then, you’ll need to source different tools and prepare your team for implementation (as discussed in Part 2). Implementing a new tool successfully is always a group effort. You’ll have to embrace input from across organization, and build a strong foundation by testing possible outcomes. With thoughtfulness, careful research, and planning, you can choose the right sales tool for your team and implement it in the right way for minimal disruption and maximum effectiveness. The fourth and final part of this guide examines how to be consistent – but also flexible – with sales tools among your team.