OPTIMIZE YOUR MICROSOFT TEAMS ADOPTION

Optimize Your Microsoft Teams Adoption

An all-in-one platform with extensive integrations, Microsoft Teams is something of a one-stop shop for sales team workflow and collaboration. But as with any new technology, success is based on how well it is adopted and used.

You can improve uptake by adopting some change management best practices:

Create a Teams Steward

Choose someone to oversee creating processes, access rights, syntax and naming. It should be someone excited about the Teams adoption, but also ideally whose organizational skills are recognized and emulated.

Don't be too Rigid

Some sales professionals can be notoriously set in their ways and hesitant to adopt new processes, even ones that will help them. Guide their Teams adoption, while recognizing that each member absorbs technology and thinks about organizing and workflow differently.

Start Small and Grow with Use

Create a separate environment before going live where you can test apps and processes. When you do go live, don’t throw everything at your team at once, but build incrementally as they use Teams more and more.

Pro Tip: Don’t get locked into using a particular app, if something doesn’t work the way you expected, stop using it.

Show Don't Tell

Lead by example. Once a process is in place, use it consistently. For example, if a member messages someone from another group on Skype, message back in Teams.

Show how Teams will make their lives easier: having information to answer customer questions promptly; being organized more easily; responding faster than competitors; etc.

As your sales group begins to use Teams, you may find a few key features particularly important:

Data Labeling — Customer data is sensitive and must meet strict privacy requirements, not to mention being a competitive advantage. Information in Teams can be flagged as sensitive to keep it private, secure and accessible only to members or permitted guests.

365 Dynamics CRM Connector — Users of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform will benefit from the integration between it and Microsoft Teams. Files can be synced directly between the two, and conversations and meetings in Teams can be added directly to a CRM account.

Power BI Dashboard — Reports from Microsoft’s business analytics platform Power BI can be embedded right into Microsoft Teams, unlocking real-time access to powerful easy-to-read business intelligence virtualizations and insights for team members as you collaborate.

Teams Meetings — Use Microsoft Teams to schedule, host and record sales calls, or meetings with customers, all integrated directly with Outlook. The business of a sales meeting does not begin and end with the meeting itself, and Microsoft Teams tracks actions so members can remain productive before and after the meeting.

Group Chats — Not every exchange is a meeting and using Teams you can hold workplace discussions in a highly organized manner, by team or customer account. This keeps vital ‘water cooler’ conversations happening, even when working remotely.

Pro Tip: Think about creating private groups to prevent conversations from being disrupted or taken off-topic. Of course, you can also mute conversations that have gone too far afield, or once they are no longer needed.