Burned by Tech that’s Never Adopted Internally

See if this sounds familiar:

You purchase a software solution for your team because it can eliminate a lot of roadblocks and improve efficiency.

Everyone’s excited because they see the product’s true potential. But a few weeks in, the excitement wears off and there’s hardly any product usage. 

If this has happened to you, hang tight because today’s buying bottleneck is -

Avoid being burned by software that’s never adopted internally

User Enablement Is as Critical as Buyer Enablement

According to Sudarshan I (Director of Presales, yellow.ai) user enablement is as critical as buyer enablement to ensure your team is empowered with information to make the right decision.

1. Organize activities like hackathons, extended credits, certificates, and prizes to improve product adoption
2. Put up an OKR for teams to use the product
3. Boost confidence by making available readymade components like templates, Marketplace, access to SMEs, etc 

Gamify the Adoption Process 

Kalpesh Kunsavlikar (Head – Strategic Initiatives & Sales Development, Netcore Cloud) is a big proponent of gamifying the adoption process. 

• Identify the spots where the end users stop and get stuck
• Convert those stumbling blocks into pitstops where people might want to take a brief pause and refuel themselves and move on to the next stage, with better energy and efficiency
• Incentivize the end users to use the technology. Tie that into their end goals/KPIs
• Make the process fun and not boring
• Design a tracker and add a competitive edge
• On top of everything, it’s about inculcating discipline and making it a daily habit

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Don’t Purchase in Silos 

Paul De Barros (Sales & Success, Salesroom) makes a strong case against purchasing software solutions in silos. 

• Start with a V1: It’s amazing how many pain points can be solved with just a good old Spreadsheet. Start in the simplest form and then purchase software to add on or automate the process.
• Confirm the Why: Talk with the Executive team, ICs, and department leaders and have a vision for the short term and long term before you roll out the new tool. 

• Define Success: It’s easy to skip this and jump into turning the product on. Be sure you know what the success metric for the product is 6 months and 9 months later. 
• Encourage and Measure Adoption: One week after the training and going live, surface up a dashboard or email digest showing everyone the progress. Have a list of each user and the amount or % or time they’ve used the tool. Most often, when a tool suffers low adoption, it never was turned on successfully. 
• Discuss Early and Wide: When a single department or new leader purchases a tool in isolation or in a silo, it often always leads to the tool not being adopted well. 
• Do an Audit, Decide Where to Cut: According to the SFDC State of Sales Report 2023, the number of tools used by sellers in their day-to-day was identified as 10. There may just be too many tools and too much direction change between systems. Make sure this is not the case when you purchase software.

With that, it’s a wrap for today’s edition of Buying Bottlenecks!

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