Much like the MarTech solution explosion of years past, we’re seeing a similar proliferation in the availability of technology solutions for improving sales performance and productivity. As companies begin to assess their needs and evaluate solutions for inclusion in their own sales technology stack, one important success factor is frequently overlooked: Adoption.

The reality is that the best applications in the world will never deliver the promised ROI if your sales reps and managers won’t actually use them, and many new applications that get off to a fast start can fail quickly if reps lose interest, find it difficult to use, or don’t believe the solution is actually addressing their needs.

To overcome this hurdle, some sales enablement teams opt for using more stick than carrot. While this approach can be persuasive in very small doses, it’s rarely a sustaining strategy.

Sales leaders need to communicate not just the “how, ” but the “why” of a new solution investment, and make sure its meaningful for all of the critical audiences within your sales organization: reps, managers, and executives. Internal champions also need to reflect on their own expectations for adoption and ROI and try to anticipate where potential hurdles will reside.

At Qstream, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about adoption and what solution factors are the most impactful for engaging sales teams in a steady, measurable way. And it’s working! Our customers continue to see average engagement rates of 94% or better, and this remains consistent even among customers who have been using our platform for years.

What is the secret to success?

• It’s fast. Just three minutes a day or less. That’s all it takes for reps to respond to scenario-based selling challenges pushed to their mobile device or Salesforce account. Rich media and your reps’ own innate sense of competition engage them on a daily basis and keep them coming back to reinforce the knowledge and skills that matter most. And we apply the same strategy to make it easy for managers by enabling updated dashboard views of sales capabilities and coaching actions.

• It’s relevant. Most reps will complain loudly about how much time they spend not selling. For many, the idea of having to learn and use another technology application represents just one more unwelcome distraction from what they really want to do: engage with customers and close deals. Good content is the key. When reps see the content as being highly relevant to their jobs – and directly related to helping them achieve their sales goals – they not only stay engaged, they actually look forward to it.

• It’s important. Like most sales enablement initiatives, the involvement of front-line managers is a key success factor for adoption. Managers are critical to setting the right expectations of their team, but also using the analytics gained from their team’s Qstream responses to reward successes and execute coaching actions when support is needed. Again, our dashboards make it easy to both see results at a high-level, and to drill-down and take advantage of recommended coaching in just a few clicks.

Interested to learn more about how Qstream is driving enviable levels of adoption? Check out our library of customer success stories.