10 ways to help your team adopt new tech
After weeks of researching, demoing, and finally purchasing a new SaaS tool that promises to automate your workflows, align your teams, and revolutionise your daily operations, you roll it out with great fanfare, wait for the magic to happen... and three months later, half the team is still using their secret, color-coded Excel spreadsheets.
Software shelfware (tools you pay for but rarely use) are a massive drain on your budget. But more importantly, are a drain on your team's potential.
Our SaaS integration experts at The SaaS JEDI explore why tech adoption is notoriously difficult, why full-team buy-in is non-negotiable, and provide ten proven ways to get your team to embrace the tools you invest in.
Why adopting new technology can be difficult
Human beings are wired to resist change. When you introduce a new tool, you aren't just changing a login screen; you are disrupting muscle memory. Your team already has established routines, even if those routines are wildly inefficient. Learning a new system requires cognitive load. It temporarily slows people down before it speeds them up, creating a friction period where the new tech feels like a hindrance rather than a help. Add in a fear of breaking something or looking incompetent, and you have a perfect recipe for resistance.
Why tech changes aren’t going anywhere
Whether new digital initiatives are led by company leadership aiming for greater productivity, cost savings and smoother operations, or are being instigated by the teams working with these tools day-to-day in the hopes of improving their own outputs and processes, we’re being inundated with new tech platforms and an AI revolution set to improve business and working lives, only if they're adopted well.
However, managing and coping with technological changes can be difficult for a number of reasons and there is often resistance and reluctance to overcome, as well as new habits that need to be formed to ensure consistent adoption by all.
The importance of getting your whole team on board
Why not just let the tech-savvy early adopters use the new CRM or project management tool, and let everyone else catch up later?
Because SaaS tools only fulfil their ROI promises when data is unified. If, for instance, marketing is in the new platform but sales is still in the old one, you haven't solved your operational silos. For workflows to automate, for reporting dashboards to be accurate, and for cross-functional collaboration to work, adoption cannot be optional. A system is only as smart as the data fed into it by your team.
10 ways to help team members adopt new tech
If you want to banish those out of date spreadsheets for good, here is your playbook for successful software adoption.
1. Ensure you have the right tech to suit users' needs
The biggest mistake leadership makes is buying software that looks great to the C-suite but is a nightmare for the end-user. If the UI is clunky or it adds five extra clicks to a rep's day, they will abandon it. Audit your team's actual pain points before signing a contract. The right tool should feel like a relief, not a chore.
2. Provide training for all team members
A single hour-long Zoom recording dumped into a Slack channel is not training. People learn differently. You need a mix of live demos, written documentation, and hands-on workshops for your SaaS tool training. Ideally, you’d give users a safe environment to click around and make mistakes without fear of deleting live client data.
3. Explain why, and more specifically, why for them
"This will help the company scale" is a great message for shareholders, but it means very little to a stressed-out account manager. You need to answer the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?). Explain exactly how this new tool will eliminate their tedious admin work, help them hit their bonuses faster, or get them offline right at 5pm to spend their time doing whatever they do for fun (which we all know, isn’t more unnecessary work).
4. Demonstrate the improvements
Don't just tell them it is faster; show them. Run a side-by-side comparison. Show how building a report used to take four hours of exporting CSVs, and now takes exactly three clicks. Seeing the direct before-and-after contrast is incredibly persuasive for sceptics.
5. Show them with a good use case
Tie the tech directly to their daily, specific tasks because abstract features don't sell software, contextual solutions do. So, instead of saying, "Here is the automation builder," say, "Here is how we use the automation builder to immediately send a welcome message when you close a deal." If they can see clearly and easily how it will improve their own working lives, and understand how they can put it into practice, they'll want to start using it straight away while the knowledge is fresh.
6. Get input from a tech implementation consultant
Sometimes, you are simply too close to the problem. Bringing in an external expert (like a tech implementation consultant) removes the internal politics and the emotional response. Consultants bring best practices from hundreds of other rollouts, foresee roadblocks you might miss, and act as an objective guide to set the system up correctly from day one.
7. Plan ongoing communication
Launch day is just the beginning. Tech adoption fails when leadership goes quiet after week one. Plan a communication rollout that includes weekly tips in Slack or Teams, highlighting "power users" in company or team wide meetings, and providing regular updates on how the tool is impacting team goals for the better.
8. Follow a change management process
Treat tech adoption as a formal project and use a recognised change management framework (like ADKAR: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement). Appoint internal champions to advocate for the tool, map out milestones, and have a clear protocol for gathering user feedback and addressing bugs. Taking it seriously, like you would any other major project, will ensure a far more successful outcome.
9. Help establish habits with KPIs
Even after all of the above, if you want your team to use the new tech, you probably need to align their performance metrics with it. For example, make it a rule that "if a deal isn't logged in the new CRM, it doesn't count toward stats." Gamify the process by tracking login rates or task completions in the early weeks while the habit is still forming with your team members.
10. Provide ongoing training
SaaS platforms evolve constantly, people’s roles may change slightly, and new team members will come onboard, meaning your team’s initial knowledge may become outdated and best practice can end up shifting off the mark. Set up ongoing SaaS training and support, establish a living library of resources, host quarterly refresher sessions, and always provide training when the software drops a major feature update or new users join.
Creating a culture that copes with change
Rolling out new technology is fundamentally about managing human behaviour, not just installing software. By communicating the personal value to your users, structuring your change management, and committing to continuous education, you can transform tech adoption from an uphill battle into a seamless transition.
At The SaaS JEDI, we don't just hand you a software license and wish you luck, we partner with you to implement, integrate, and expertly train your team on your essential SaaS tools, ensuring you get the ROI you were promised. Chat to our team about how we can support you in successful tech adoption.
