^{TIPS 6-10:}
What buyers should do

and vendors should support with 👀

Tip #6: Get everyone (yes, everyone) bought-in

Both vendors and buyers want the sales process to move quickly, whether that's due to targets they've set, budgetary cycles, etc. But it is really important to consult everyone who should be bought in before it gets too late.

Sometimes a company trials a software, sees results compared to what they were doing before, but still doesn't convert to a full license only because the team was happy with the old way they did things. Solving business problems isn't always enough because stakeholders need to illicit bravery and curiosity in the face of new changes.

Technology can be successful and solve problems, but it needs people to champion it if you're going to get in a position to see its value. Make sure both parallel stakeholders and potential users understand why the software needs to be adopted.

As an example, a few years ago, Turtl sold to a company and was heading to their office for the first onboarding meeting. After about five minutes, three people stood up and stormed out of the room. It turned out they hadn't been consulted in any way until this point, in fact, our software hadn't even been mentioned to them!

From our side, we didn't know whether they should have been consulted or not, that was our contact's responsibility, but it put everyone in a very difficult and awkward spot, especially given stakeholder seniority and contracts had already been signed. While we were able to get them on board eventually, it slowed everything down by months and wasn't the smoothest of experiences.

Tip #7: Assign an internal champion

When you buy software, you'll be the champion that takes it through the sales process, but what happens after? People in your company start using it and you'll feel like it will all take care of itself as you get back to the day job ...

When users are given new software, the key stakeholder gets distracted by other work for a few weeks, and by the time anyone checks, the users have barely used it. It is very difficult for a vendor to change that behavior because users will naturally be more loyal to internal pressure and attitudes. Rather than focusing on the shiny new software that can help, a complicated relationship forms from confusion, disinterest, and resistance.

Give someone internal the responsibility to make sure users are getting every last drop of value from paid software. Otherwise, problems can arise as disconnected users have no one to train, marshal, or support them on a regular basis to ensure everyone derives value from the (often expensive) MarTech investment.

Tip #8: Map out the first 90 days

This graph shows how differently the first 90 days of using new software can be when they're well planned out vs when they just kind of "happen" ...

Things are predictably up and down before the purchase is made in both possible paths, but then it starts to diverge.

If the first three months are mapped out, there is only a small dip in satisfaction when the initial honeymoon period wears off and the real work of implementing new processes begins. This quickly recovers as results are seen.

However, without a plan, a series of losses can lead to a crisis that will either end in failure or a painful recovery to success.

This is why defining the criteria for success plays a huge part in whether or not you should invest in a MarTech tool.

Turtl sets expectations for days 14, 30, 60, and 90, as well as what both sides need to do to make that happen, so everyone has clear goals and stays on the light blue curve.

If your vendor doesn't do this, take the initiative and do it yourself. You can always map things out internally and then get your vendor to check in at the stages you've highlighted.

Tip #9: Avoid the bunker mentality

It makes sense that people sometimes get a bunker mentality - you put a huge amount of work into getting the technology through procurement and legals and budget sign-off and more. Once those efforts start to show results, some people like to keep the software close to their chests.

The bunker mentality happens when something you have done sees success and you're unwilling to share that success with others. Although understandable, this limits the potential for that relationship and also the key stakeholder's own success.

Consider having the opposite of the bunker mentality; if colleagues are open to sharing helpful tech tools with colleagues after seeing huge improvements for their team, value is delivered deeper into the business too. Content tech always has the potential to scale up and deliver wins for everyone, so if you can stick your name on that success then it can be great for professional development and achievements.

Tip #10: Get your CRM in good shape

You need a CRM that's properly configured and in good working condition. Pretty much every marketing or sales tech product on the planet interacts with your CRM in some way. The more your software and CRM talk to each other, the more transformative its impact will be.

Think of your CRM as a single source of truth - it's the canonical reference for everything you do in marketing and will be instrumental in how you drive and demonstrate value from your new software.

Marketers and operational teams who don't keep their CRMs in pristine order will need to work harder to find ways where things are reported, how lead scoring works, etc. But if you already have everything sorted, you'll have the data to prove the value of a new piece of technology if ever anyone questions you.