This is a guest blog post by Victor Rosado, Senior Consultant, 'Salesforce Change Management and Training' at Valintry360

So you're implementing a new CRM and need to train your employees on it. You need them to know how to use it, want to use it and — most importantly — actually use it. The right training manual can help with all of the above while alleviating constant questions and emails regarding the new CRM.

While you might already be familiarized with the new CRM your company is adopting or migrating to, your employees won't be. Remember, they didn't sit through the sales process or the C-Suite meetings regarding the new CRM. They're going into this relatively blind — and they're likely going to be reluctant to change.

Why a training manual?

A CRM training manual will help alleviate any employee reluctance. It's essentially a consolidation of articles that tell your employees how to do things, where to find things and why they should do things. Done right, a CRM training manual will be the most informative tool when training employees on a new CRM. To engineer a manual the right way...

Follow these 4 key steps:

1. Be Specific

First, be hyper-specific in your article creation. This specificity will lend relevance and value when employees need it. Further, specificity will ensure that your employees know how to complete tasks — even meticulous ones — the right way. How will they know? Because it's all laid out for them in your manual.

How specific should you be? Very.

Your CRM training manual should include everything your employees will ever need to operate within the new technology. This means including the iotas of information you might have otherwise disregarded. It means paying attention to detail and providing exact figures and operating procedures. This way, when your employees are faced with real, on-the-job scenarios, they'll know what to do.

2. Introduce Scenarios

Next, you'll want to say goodbye to slides and say hello to scenarios. PowerPoint decks simply aren't effective in properly communicating the information your employees will need. While they do contain everything employees will need to know, employees aren't going to retain what they say. What they will remember is an actual experience — or scenario.

With these scenarios should come specific instruction and standard operating procedures. This is a form of scenario-based training and is the most effective way to inform your employees on the intricacies of your new CRM.

3. Arrange by Process

Next, you'll want to make sure that your articles, videos, scenarios, datasheets, etc. are organized to be referenced by process. This will provide your employees the ease to recall where to go for information and alleviate frustration when it comes to searching for guidance when needed. The key here is to create manuals easily searchable due to process relevance then to organize by the CRM software data architecture.

For example, there could be 15 different ways to log a customer calls depending on which department the employee is in. Within those departmental differences, there could be 20 different conversational guidelines based on call details. If these guidelines are arranged by process, each employee will be able to find the information they need to successfully take the calls and log the appropriate activity in the CRM.

Rather than, "Hi, can I put you on hold."

Your employees will answer the phone saying, "Hi, I see you're calling about... here's how I can help."

4. Digitize Your Manual

This step (although somewhat obvious) is essential to creating a CRM training manual for your new system. Without digitizing your manual, your employees won't be able to search it without fussing with an index. If your employees can't search your manual, they won't use it. And if they don't use the manual, they definitely won't use your new CRM.

Digitization is key when it comes to creating a CRM training manual — think of it as a necessity rather than luxury. Without it, employees won't be able to find the information they need to operate efficiently within the CRM. But you might not have the tool-set necessary to create a searchable and intuitive CRM training manual. You might think it's too expensive or doesn't fit your unique business. That's just not the case.

(Software can help)

The right knowledge base software is cost effective and customizable and can help you create an effective CRM training manual. With it, you'll be able to introduce scenarios with specific and searchable instructions all within a digitized manual.

Want to learn more about knowledge base software and why you need scenario-based training?