Enabling Teams & Managing Change to Realize Maximum Value from Your Tech Stack

Now that you’ve audited your processes and taken a look at the utilization and value of your tech, you are better prepared to optimize use of your marketing stack and make some changes to your martech strategies. 

However, making big, organizational changes is much easier said than done. How can you ensure that any adjustments are successful and have staying power? By successfully executing a change management strategy and setting your teams up for success every step along the way. 

Before launching a series of technology initiatives or corrective actions, you need to understand the potential and use cases for each tool so that it can be communicated to all stakeholders. In this article, we’ll break down the concepts of enablement, objectives, and change management in order to help you succeed.

Enabling Your Teams With a Strategic Vision

As powerful as your martech stack may be, your team members will not understand how to maximize its value unless you show them first.

If you hope to correct the siloed and disconnected stagnation that martech stacks tend to settle into, you must demonstrate the “art of the possible” for each technology and shine a spotlight on the stakeholders that a particular tool will impact. 

For example, if your sales, marketing, and customer success departments all share a piece of technology, the company must clearly define its objectives for this system. Otherwise it won’t be clear who should be doing what and how it all fits together. 

Here are some questions you should be able to answer for your team before diving into your specific objectives:

• What problem or problems is this system intended to solve?
• What value is the system intended to add for the business, the marketer and your audience?
• What specific benefits will users realize from adding this new system or changing the use of an existing solution?

After you have the answers to these questions, it’s time to dig deeper by determining objectives.

Setting Actionable Objectives and Metrics

With an established, strategic framework for your martech usage, it’s time to set objectives for its use. Always remember that these objectives need to be quantifiable, measurable, and time-bound. Whenever possible, define your objectives in terms of specific outcomes that can be tracked. 

Here are a few questions you should answer for your teams to get started.

Which Metrics Are You Measuring? 

For example, consider tracking engagement with your key personas. If you want their engagement to increase 15-20%, then this is the first information that you should communicate clearly to your teams. That way, they’ll have a clear understanding about which metrics you’ll be monitoring to evaluate success. 

When, and How, Will You Measure These Metrics?

Next, you need to ask which systems, data, or mechanisms will you use to accurately collect the persona engagement data and report on its performance. Most importantly, what is the specific timeframe during which you will be tracking this data? If you want to increase engagement to 20% by the beginning of Q1, make that a clear, posted goal, including the data and methodology that will be used to measure. This needs to be driven by leadership to ensure all users are measuring impact in the same way. 

Why Are You Choosing to Measure These Metrics? 

What is the desired impact in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, or productivity? You don’t want your campaigns team to use technology because they feel that they have to. You want them to understand why it benefits them and the business. Keep in mind the distinction between utilization and value that we’ve previously discussed.  

Finally, be sure to establish mechanisms to solicit and track both formal and informal user feedback so that all stakeholders in your organization are ensured a voice in the implementation of your new systems. Keep in mind, too, that technology is always evolving and adding new capabilities. Your goal is to encourage experimentation among your workforce so they can produce the best marketing output these tools can deliver. 

Change Management: What You Need to Know to Be Successful

Making big changes in strategy, tools, and goals is anything but easy. However, it’s essential if you want to succeed. A change management process is a formal, strategic, planned-out process in which you gain the confidence of your marketing team while rolling out new tech.

This process is the perfect time to demonstrate the capabilities of your systems and to make sure everyone understands how everything works together and what you’re looking to achieve. 

If you’ve never formalized a change management system before, here are some guidelines for managing a stack change successfully to get you started.

Be Patient and Persistent 

Driving a technology adoption is going to take more than a single rollout meeting. Typically, you’re going to be requiring your marketers to unlearn old habits and start new habits, and that’s going to take time. 

To be sure you sustain your tech changes, you’ll want to plan for sessions to discuss questions or concerns, updates, and training to make sure your team doesn’t slip back into its old ways.

Accept that People Fear Change

Many people fear or are resistant to change. If you present them with a haphazard presentation that doesn’t take into consideration the sacrifices you are asking them to make, or if you demand they make these changes—or else!—they will be less prone to cooperate.

Conversely, if you show you have thought about the changes you are asking them to make, winning them over won’t feel like putting teeth. Do this by taking into account any processes that will change, and don’t forget to consider the downstream effects that might occur as a result of the new systems. Do whatever you can to answer your employees’ biggest unspoken question, “What’s in it for us?”

If you can tell your team how a new process or piece of tech can save them time and effort, produce better results, and make them more successful, they are more likely to get onboard. Show them what they will be able to do that they couldn’t do before, and watch them join your team and help it thrive.

Mind the Managers

When it comes down to it, managers are among the most important players in the change. One boss who isn’t on board can derail a well-developed tech rollout. Keep in mind who in the company needs to hear what kind of feedback to keep them on track, and make sure teams use tech as intended. 

Clear Any Roadblocks

Ultimately, your goal should be to make the process of change as painless as possible. Schedule your meetings for times that are the least disruptive to your teams. Keep your eyes open for any roadblocks, whether they are people, processes, or technologies. Eliminate any unnecessary distractions. By doing so, you’ll set everyone up for success.

Up Next: Taking Advantage of the Expertise of Your Tech Partners

From the current challenges facing marketing teams to the best ways to leverage your tech to meet those challenges, our Martech Masterclass series has been designed to share a myriad ways to increase ROI without adding to your budget. 

In the final article of the quarter, you’ll learn how to make the best use of your partners’ expertise to help you complete the integration of your stacks.

We’ll cover ways to engage your customer success resources:

• Sharing your full vision with your tech partners to lead to better solutioning
• Informing your Customer Success resource of your complete tech stack to make the best use of integrations for maximum impact
• Working with them to track and articulate the ROI of your technology and use cases

Hungry for more? Head over to https://go.inverta.com/martech-masterclass and subscribe to the Masterclass to receive each new article straight to your inbox.