The only constant is change, they say. If you’re looking for certainty, there are death and taxes for you.
Remember when you couldn’t imagine NOT using AOL messenger, your Blackberry, or MySpace? Me too. Extra credit: remember when you couldn’t imagine living without Graffiti.
Software is changeware unknowingly aspiring to become bloatware.
Humans become accustomed to the software they use at work and home. Getting them to change their software habits can be difficult. At the organizational level, this is magnified by the number of people in a company or department. Do any of these phrases ring a bell?:
“I’ve used Salesforce for 20 years.”
“All my leads are in our custom-built prospecting tool.”
“Our emails are generated from our order entry system.”
The excuses are endless — constant. Just like change.
Enter HubSpot.
Your company has purchased it (SMART MOVE you corporate climber). Your employees will benefit from using HubSpot. They certainly need to use HubSpot. BUT, be mindful of highlighting what’s in it for them — efficiency, transparency, and ease of use are among the many benefits of HubSpot
There are a few key ways to increase HubSpot adoption in your company.
Email is not dead. It’s just being used differently.
New HubSpot users may not automatically gravitate to the system right away. You’ll need to remind them that HubSpot will be an important point of truth in your organization. One of the best ways to do that is to bring the data to them.
HubSpot allows you to email HubSpot users selected reports or dashboards regularly. You can set up recurring weekly emails that will come with the reports attached as a file of your choice.
Once you bring the data to the people, the people will come to where the data lives.
“I logged in and clicked around. It looks solid.” - Ricky Bobby
You completed a customized onboarding program from Lynton. You feel good. You feel CONFIDENT. What does everyone else on your team feel like? Well, the first data point you’ll need to consider is how frequently folks use the new system.
HubSpot lets you see user activity and export everyone’s login history You’ll want to make sure your core HubSpot users are spending sufficient time in your HubSpot portal.
Low use after HubSpot training may indicate a change management issue, or that more specialized training is needed for smaller groups of HubSpot users. Employees in a large group Zoom training setting may be hesitant to ask questions, believing they may have a “stupid question.” There are no stupid questions — just questions that are best asked in a small group.
Another reminder: You will need an executive sponsor saying that HubSpot will be the way of work. If you allow any wiggle room in the use of old or sunsetting systems, your employees will wiggle in that room.
Finally, probably the most low-key yet underused way to bring people into HubSpot is to assign them tasks in HubSpot that trigger email notifications to them. If you receive an email about a task assigned to you in HubSpot, you will more than likely log into HubSpot to get more detail on the task. If you start creating task queues for HubSpot users, they will get into the habit of working through their tasks in HubSpot.
Tasks can be segmented by those due today, overdue or upcoming. You can also add your own task queue. For example, you might want a dead lead follow-up queue. Consider using tasks for any activity that involves HubSpot — following up with leads, creating emails, reviewing emails etc. More on creating task queues.
Something that we cover in our HubSpot onboarding is individual user notifications in HubSpot. Users can choose when and how they want to receive notifications regarding HubSpot activity. Initially, we recommend setting up email notifications for relevant HubSpot changes specific to an employee’s use. If you have HubSpot Enterprise you can also set default user notification profiles which can be very helpful in driving HubSpot utilization.
If you buy HubSpot, your employees will come, as long as you remind them that HubSpot is a point of truth for data and give them a regular reason to login into HubSpot consistently.
Want to know how well your team is utilizing HubSpot? Take this quick assessment to understand whether you’re getting the most out of your portal.