CRM And Teamwork – How Teams Buy-In to Your Business Model?
I believe when the members or an organization have completely bought into the vision and mission of the organization. That means that employees, customers, prospective new customers, board members, vendors, and all the families related to these key roles of any organization have a stake and claim to delivering the vision and mission. Thus, even small companies can unify around quite a few people to succeed.
Let me share my three critical ingredients to achieving buy-in from everybody involved.
1. Alignment
To me, this means moving the conversations with your team from what they are doing and how they will do it to why they are doing what they do. What’s the difference maker here?
For me, it begins the journey of thinking about the vision and mission from other viewpoints. Thinking about the White Rock mission not just from my view, the leader, but from those on our team, their families, our vendor support, our customers, and more. When we start looking at why we do what we do from the eyes of others, we are better at the doing because we deliver empathetically. This drives authentic behaviors that drive great feelings from within. Thus, enthusiasm grows from within all and is shared.
2. Clarity
This is the hard part too. For your mission and vision to be clear it needs to have these qualities in the DNA:
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- It must be believable – everyone must see this as possible
- It must be fully inclusive – everyone must see how vital they are
- It must be reinforced – everyone must know where to go to see the vision and mission actions
- It must be transparent – everyone must have access to where the vision and mission are taking place
- It must be practical – everyone must see the vision and mission as healthy to all involved
- It must be people-centric – everyone must know that the vision and mission are larger than any one person but smaller than the team – give them the confidence to achieve
- It must have purpose – if I don’t live it why would I expect those on my team to live it; be exemplary
- It must be visible – I’ll end this article on how to do this – keep on reading
3. Challenge
Challenge yourself as the leader and let your team challenge you too. Challenge them in the same healthy manner.
So, back to 2. There is no better system where the vision and mission should live than your CRM system. This is where your stakeholders are anyway. So, make your CRM demonstrate the vision and mission. If you follow the principles that I have developed over the last 15 years around what constitutes a great CRM system, strategy, and policy, then having a place like your CRM for your team to witness the accomplishments of the organization’s vision and mission will provide the transparency and authentic culture growth you desire.