The incredible impact of technology on business growth is well known, especially in sales. But you have to choose the right technology for your business or you run the risk of it not being used at all. Bad sales technology is worse than none, as it can actually disrupt your business growth.

The most commonly used tool for salespeople is a customer relationship management (CRM) system. It helps businesses work more efficiently and understand their customers so they’re able to sell more.

To reap the full benefits of a CRM, the team must use it. But employee adoption of a CRM is neither assured nor easy. It’s a smoother process if you understand what your teams really need from a CRM system, as then you can find a system that ticks all the boxes.

Here are the four qualities your team members will absolutely want to see in a new CRM system.

1. It automates your processes.

A CRM should both automate processes and be simple to understand. Fancy features that aren’t essential to your business needs can be distracting and make the whole CRM journey more complicated than it should be. The bells and whistles might be attractive, but are they necessary?

Look for features that will save you time, not take time away from you. The ability to automate tasks and processes are the most time-saving qualities of a CRM. For example, you send an invoice and it automatically appears in your CRM under the right contact. You know exactly who’s paid and what’s outstanding.

Automatically having customer data pulled into one place is not only a time-saver but also provides the valuable benefit of constituting one source of truth about your customers. Automating other time-consuming tasks, such as manually generating sales reports, provide great incentives for your sales team to adopt and use a CRM system (so long as those tasks are also simple to automate).

2. It is user-friendly.

We all know the feeling of frustration when you’re unable to figure out how an app or piece of software works. When something is confusing or difficult to use, we tend to quickly work it out and will stop completely if it takes too long to understand.

The same applies to a CRM system. The moment a system starts becoming a source of friction is the moment people will stop using it. Look for a CRM solution with a clean design and that is intuitive to use. It will frustrate your team if they don’t instinctively know what to do. Sales reps spend more than 60 percent of their time in technology,so they can’t afford to have a CRM they don’t understand. An early warning sign is if the CRM solution comes with long training guides or sessions. It seems obvious but is worth repeating: The less training a system requires, the more likely that it will be easy to use and adopted by your team.

3. It has a quick implementation.

Some businesses need a full-time staff member to implement, train, and manage the CRM system. For SMBs, this isn’t realistic or even necessary. CRMs shouldn’t be complicated to set up and maintain. Find a CRM with an easy implementation process. Again, the less training the better. It’s not a great start to your employees’ CRM experience if it begins with a long, drawn-out on-boarding process. It’ll be much better if they can get started straight away.

4. It integrates with your existing software.

Think about the software tools your team already uses, from marketing, sales, and financial tools to project management, along with all the ones you may need in the future.

It’s essential to check that your CRM integrates with the tools you use; if it doesn’t, it will add to your team’s workload and lead to further frustration. When it does bring all the customer data from all these tools into one place, it becomes the hub of the business. It gives each employee a bird’s-eye view of everything they need to know about the customer, quickly and easily.

At the SMB level, simplicity should be the driving force behind your CRM software selection. A CRM system can be easy to use and powerful. The less complexity there is, the more likely your employees will understand it and use it.

When the time comes to search for the right CRM for your team, look out for a user-friendly solution that will grow with your team and connect all the software they love to use. This will drive adoption and greater efficiencies. If you do that, you are more likely to see your team use it regularly and get real value from it. Your business data will be more accurate and you’ll get powerful insights to help grow your business.