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If you've ever wondered what actually happens after you decide to implement a CRM, this episode takes you behind the scenes.
Katie Tassone-Milligan and Ben Fuller unpack the practical steps in a CRM implementation with a partner, from discovery and configuration through to data migration, training, go-live and adoption. The conversation is grounded in the real questions business owners ask before they commit: how much time will it take, what resources are needed, how clean does the data need to be, and what can be done before the first consultation?
The short answer: the best implementations are collaborative, focused and practical. A strong partner does not just configure software. They help clarify the sales process, bring the right data into the system, train the right people and keep a close eye on adoption once the team goes live.
Episode: What a CRM Implementation Actually Looks Like
Voiceover:
Motii acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to elders past and present, and acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this land. Welcome to the Motii Playbook. If you've ever felt like your systems are technically in place, but somehow still feel chaotic behind the scenes, you're in the right spot. This is where we share what we're seeing, what's working, what's not, and the lessons businesses learn the hard way. Think of it as practical strategy, straight from the trenches. Let's dive in.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Welcome back to another Motii Playbook mini episode, our short, sharp answers, sometimes not always short, but you know, they're good answers, to the questions that we get asked the most. I'm Katie, Marketing and Brand Strategist for Motii, and I'm joined again by Motii's original co-founder and CRM expert, Ben Fuller. Welcome back, Ben.
Ben Fuller:
Thank you for having me. Again.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
You're welcome. Last mini episode, we talked about ROI, return on investment, how long it takes to get your return on investment from a CRM. Why implementations fail and whether you actually need a partner or can go it alone. And this episode, we're going to pull back the curtain on an actual implementation process. So, we'll talk about what does it look like, how long does it take, and what can you do right now if you're a business owner considering a CRM before you actually even speak to anybody. Sound good?
Ben Fuller:
It does sound good. I'm looking forward to it. I think this is probably one of the things that stops people, right, from going ahead with a CRM implementation, which is, "What am I in for?" I suppose. And it's actually one of the most common questions. Like, everyone wants to know, what are the resources that I have to allocate for this? How much time of mine do you need? And so, I'm sure we'll get into all of that stuff, but I think that this is a sorely needed point of discussion.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah, awesome. And I think you're right too, because it's that unknown factor, right? It can seem a bit like it's looming there. So we'll get into the first question. Let's talk about what does a CRM implementation actually look like when you work with a partner?
Ben Fuller:
Okay, so let's start from the top in a sense where I'll do a demo, right? For those listening, I do half of Motii's sales, right? And so I will do a demo where I will get an understanding of the business, and then I'll put together a proposal, and I'll send through the proposal, and the proposal will be signed. Once the proposal is signed, Motii issues a deposit invoice, usually for 50% of the project. Once that's paid, we book in a kickoff meeting. The kickoff meeting is all about making sure that we've got access to the systems that we need, that we are aware of the data that needs to come into the system and where it might be sitting, that we understand the business, and we start diving into some of the sales and post-sales processes and everything like that so we can get a really good idea of what we might be building inside of the business. And so everything I've described there, right, happens before the end of the first 45-minute kickoff meeting. Right? So we're 45 minutes into the project, essentially, by the time we've done all of that.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
And we call that the discovery phase? Like where we're really understanding everything?
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, it's the discovery phase. And then usually in that meeting, the client that we're working with will want to know what resources they need to assign to the project. My answer to that is generally, we will need at least one meeting a week, one hour a week, plus you'll need to do another hour of prep or work on top of that to provide us what we need to be able to continue progressing your project at the speed that you expect.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah. And that's like the configuration phase, is that what we call it? So you've done the discovery, and then we're starting to actually get into it and build the structure, and that revolves around understanding it in great detail on a more micro level. Yeah.
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, exactly. Sometimes prior to the kickoff meeting, we will ask them to send through an export of their existing database, whether that exists in Excel or whether it's an export from whatever. Say we're doing a HubSpot migration or a Salesforce migration, we will maybe sometimes before the kickoff meeting go into Salesforce or go into HubSpot, do a sample export so that we can talk through what we're seeing. Because for CRM implementation people like us, the data tells the story of what the setup is going to look like. And a lot of people are very wary of this because they are saying to us, "Hey, I'm moving away from HubSpot" or "I'm moving away from Salesforce because I don't like the way it's set up. I don't want you to use that as a basis for the build of this system." And look, you also need to know the industry that they're operating in, right? Who they're selling to. And this is a good segue into, what do we talk about in that kickoff meeting? Because it is things like: what do you sell, in what industry, to who, for how much, and how often? And how much of that is new business versus existing business, and where do you put those quotes together? It just flows through all of those questions, right? And all of that is surfaced in that discovery or that kickoff meeting, so that the next phase, which is the configuration phase or the implementation phase, goes as smoothly and as quickly as possible.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah, and I mean we talked about it in a previous mini episode as well: a lot of the implementation process, or at least the beginning part of it, is really understanding the sales process itself, not the system, the software. Because you can't build that out until you understand it in detail, and that's why there are so many questions, and it has to be a collaborative approach.
Ben Fuller:
Yep. And the other important thing, I think, Katie, in this meeting is we're also providing education and training even in the kickoff meeting, right? Because we're talking about the difference between having a stage in a pipeline, for example, versus creating an activity for whatever that might be, right? And we're trying to talk the client down a lot of the time from having 15 stages in a pipeline, for example, right? Because you might only need eight stages and then six activities that are created at different stages to do things. So it's about training at that same time during that kickoff meeting.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So you start with the discovery, having all these questions, you're starting to figure and actually do the implementation. Then you've got the actual data migration. That's when that's going to happen, is after the understanding and checking it?
Ben Fuller:
So there's two or three phases to the data migration. The first is getting the data out of whatever system or systems that it's in, right? So that's the first bit, and getting it into a spreadsheet, an Excel sheet. The second phase is importing sample data. This can happen quite early in the setup phase, so after the discovery session generally, but get, let's say, 10 companies, 10 opportunities or deals, 10 persons into the system so that when we do the second meeting or the third meeting after discovery, we can show the system with actual data for the client sitting in the system. Because I think we spoke about on an earlier episode, it's so much easier for someone to wrap their head around what's going on when they can see names that they're familiar with inside of the system.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah. Yeah, you're making it real and you're taking it out of that theory. Yeah.
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, so there's the sample data import, right, which is not the full data set, but a subset of it, a cohort of that data. And then generally, the full data migration happens only a day or two, maximum, before we go live. And the reason for that is in whatever other system they're using, whether it's HubSpot or a spreadsheet or whatever, they are continuing to use that and update that while we build Pipedrive. And if we take, let's say, four weeks from start to finish, we can't import the data that we exported four weeks ago,
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Because it's out of date now.
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, it'll be out of date by the time they go live, and the most recent information is not there. And so we generally have to do that go-live data import the day before we actually go live. And look, that's always a nerve-wracking thing, right? You're dealing with a lot of data, and you've got to get it into the system and make sure that everything goes right. And look, we have so many checks and balances in place for this these days. And we're very good at it now, like we don't make mistakes anymore, or we very rarely make mistakes. And we catch them if we do. But yeah, from a CRM implementation perspective, that final data migration is the most nerve-wracking for an agency at least.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Oh, for sure. It makes sense. And then, I mean, you did mention that you've got training that's happening along the way because obviously it's almost like sales process training happening in conjunction with the software. And then after you do go live, training happens afterwards as well? I know you do video recordings and then...
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, so let's say again the training sort of has maybe, let's call it three parts. One is during the implementation, we like to have what we call a champions team, right? They're the champions of the CRM. They don't have to be the senior management. Often the best people are the people that others go to inside of a business to ask questions on how things work, right? And sometimes that's an administrator that's been there for 15 years that knows absolutely everything, or sometimes it's a salesperson who's just a great communicator and has a good relationship with everybody, right? Rather than the sales manager. And so that champion, whoever they are, single person or multiple, they are sitting in on most of the meetings that we have week to week with the client, and also we will do a dedicated training session for that champions group. Generally speaking, that happens prior to go-live. And then in the lead-up to go-live, we will make the video-based training manual, and this consists of let's say 15 videos, but there's usually two or three videos that we will insist the broader team watches before we do the first of the training sessions as we push live. The reason we get them to watch the videos is that if people haven't seen Pipedrive before and we're doing a training session for the first time, they sit there all starry-eyed wondering what the hell they're looking at and try to orientate themselves inside of the system. Whereas if they've watched two two-minute videos that explain what's going on, they can then focus in on the important things, ask the right questions, take more of the session in, take more on board, and leave the session actually with more knowledge than what they went into it with.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah. It becomes a practical session instead of just, once again, theoretical like, "Oh, I've got an idea of what it is," but you're like, "Oh, that's how it's used, that's what we need to do." And so then they're live, they're using it, and implementation is done. They're at that place.
Ben Fuller:
Well, no.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Mm.
Ben Fuller:
You want feedback, right? Like sometimes silence is golden, it means everyone's loving it, but sometimes silence is not golden and it means that no one's using it, which is the worst-case scenario, right? Yeah. Where there's no adoption and you're not seeing the deals being created and things like that. And so we do keep a really close eye on the system after we push live to make sure that contacts are being created, deals are being created, deals are moving along the pipeline, we check that everyone's got their email synced, all of those little things, right, to make sure that adoption is there. And we want to make sure that no soldier is left behind as well, right? So we go into the system and we check the login times and stuff. And so sometimes, let's say there's 10 users that have been onboarded. There might be one or two users who haven't logged in in a week, and that sets off alarm bells.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah. So I guess that sort of leads to my next question: how long does the implementation actually take? And I suppose the easiest part of that question to define is up until the go-live point. And after that, some need more, you know?
Ben Fuller:
Yeah. So I would say traditionally for Motii, you're looking at four weeks for a typical Pipedrive implementation, up to eight weeks for a Pipedrive implementation that's got a NetSuite ERP platform integration and a whole bunch of other stuff going on, right? So four to eight weeks. Now the caveat here is we are reliant on our customer to be responsive and to provide the information required at the right time.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Cause it is a collaborative approach. Yeah.
Ben Fuller:
100%. And sometimes, like if they have to clean the data, and we can tell they haven't cleaned the data, and we've done as much cleaning as we can on our side and we need someone within the company to go through because we don't know certain things about the dataset... We will have to postpone a go-live because we're not going to bring dirty data into the system. And sometimes they're like, "Oh yeah, we haven't started that yet," and it takes them two or three weeks and all of a sudden it goes from six weeks to nine weeks and you're like, "Oh God."
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
But in the ideal situation where you've got that really good collaboration between the client and yourselves, it's actually quite an efficient process. It can happen quickly. It does come down to that data. And I suppose getting back to a little of what we just talked about before, too many stakeholders? Because if there is a disagreement around what the sales process should be, if you can't nail that down, then you can't build the system around it and that will be...
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, too many cooks spoil the broth, for sure. And I think the other thing, Katie, is inside of Motii as well, we are beginning to make some changes to get what I would say is the majority of our clients up and running more quickly. Right? And in a more simple fashion. So sometimes you don't have a choice, right? If there's a NetSuite integration that must be part of the system, then yeah, that has to be there for go-live. Other times, though, what we're trying to do these days is if we have the option, we will get a nice simple system set up and a training session done, and the users in the system sometimes within a week or within two weeks and up and running. And then we will add a phase two which we call the growth phase, and phase three which might come a month or six weeks down the track is fine-tuning, right? And so rather than delivering all of those phases upfront over say six weeks, they're delivered over maybe six to ten weeks, but the first phase particularly and getting them into the system can happen within a week.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah, which is priceless because that's really your, I mean, it's not beta testing, but it's the real-life use of the system. And it matters, you know, that's where you can fine-tune and learn how people are using it.
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, and if the client is willing to come along for the ride with you with that, they end up with a better system, right? Because you're getting the feedback on the way through. Plus the client, after using it for only a week, has a way better feel of how this thing is actually going to act inside of their business, and they're able to give you some really deep, in-depth quality feedback on what will and won't work for them. And some of the things that they thought were set in stone in their mind and must happen, all of a sudden when they see the system in action or feel and play with the system they're like, "Oh okay, that doesn't matter, I'm happy not to do that." You're like, "Sweet, let's set that aside then. Don't worry about that, maybe down the track it could be part of the fine-tuning phase." You add that as an item to the fine-tuning phase, you do come back to it, see if it's still important then or not important then, and it makes for a better system, it honestly does.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah, it's more of an agile way of doing things isn't it, where you can actually iterate as you go but you're getting that really good solid system up and running early so they can start actually using it, which is where the value happens. So that's amazing.
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, things can easily be over-engineered before someone's even laid a finger on a keyboard. And so this way that we're working with some clients now sort of saves that, it means that you're not over-engineering before you get started.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah. Yeah, love that. It's gonna be exciting to see how that rolls out too, but yeah. So is there anything that somebody who is, you know, considering embarking on a CRM implementation with say Motii or with a partner, is there anything that they could really be doing to prepare?
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff. I wouldn't sweat any of it, right? If you want to do the demo meeting first, and then get a list of things that you should be doing out the back of that, by all means that's a valid approach and maybe the best approach. But if you want to get prepared a little bit to get the most out of that demo, that initial consultation, a little bit of a visual chart of your sales processes is good. Again, don't sweat it, but just a little bit of an outline of that, and be ready with the answers to the questions like: what industries do you guys operate in? Who are your customers? What do they buy? How much do they spend? When do they buy? How often does that occur? What do you do once a sale is signed? Is there a post-sales administrative flow? Like, most people can answer these questions off the top of their head, right? Those businesses that are a bit more of a mess, then maybe... again, it's hard, Katie. To be honest, I'd probably rather be dictating to them the information that I need rather than them imagining what that might be.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah, yep. But I mean, if they have it they can like do a rough sketch, they can use a Miro board or whatever, just even like be ready with those insights and see how they go. But yeah, it's not necessary because you can actually sort of work through it as well. So you do need to know how things are operating, but also like what's not working right now. That's so valuable, right? Like what's broken in your systems? What are you struggling with? Where is your team struggling? Because that's where the solution lies, right?
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, so the question is like, why are you reaching out to us sort of thing, or whatever variation of that it is, right? Like, why are you considering a CRM now? Why are you considering Motii now? Why are you considering Pipedrive now? And that answer I think is probably the most informative for me. And usually, it comes down to reporting, data segmentation, accountability. Those three things always float to the top of that probably quite long list of items, but those three are super important.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah, makes sense. So I guess at the end of the day, the best thing that you can do if you want to and you're considering rolling out a CRM and working with a partner is actually just start the conversation.
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, yeah I would. To not waste anyone's time, right, most of all your own time, book a consultation and have the discussion and ask whoever it is that you're talking to: "Okay, what's the next thing you need from me to be able to A) maybe provide me with a proposal, or B) understand more about my business so that you can get a bit further down the track to providing me with a proposal." Because like, at the end of the day, it's not only the solution that's being provided, but you've got to be comfortable with the cost, not only of the subscription of whatever platform it is but the cost for the agency like Motii and everything like that. You've got to be comfortable with that. Which is why we publish our price list. I share it with everybody, so that everyone knows, "Hey, I'm paying the same price as Bob over there for exactly the same stuff and I'm not being priced based on my ability to spend."
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Yeah, which I think makes people comfortable working with us because they know that, hey, all of these prices are fixed. It's just all upfront.
Ben Fuller:
Yeah.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Absolutely. So bottom line, have the conversation. You don't have to have it all sorted, just start the conversation so you can get into it. Yeah. Cool.
Ben Fuller:
Yeah, by all means. It's the best approach.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
Awesome. Well, we've done it again. We've not made a mini episode very mini, but that's okay, it was extremely valuable. So that is all for us for now, until our next episode. Thank you Ben, thank you for joining us, appreciate it.
Ben Fuller:
Thank you Katie, cheers, thanks for having me on again.
Katie Tassone-Milligan:
And thanks for listening. Bye.
Voiceover:
That's it for another episode of the Motii Playbook. One shift, one system, one measurable improvement. All information shared in this podcast is general in nature. For tailored advice specific to your business, visit motii.co/playbook and book a momentum call with our team. See you next time.
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