The standard approach to CRM training is a full day of product training at go-live, delivered by the implementation partner, covering everything the system can do. This approach fails reliably. Not because the trainers are poor or the content is wrong, but because it is built on a misunderstanding of how people learn. This article explains why go-live training does not produce lasting behaviour change and sets out what actually works instead.
Why does go-live CRM training fail to produce lasting results?
The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve is one of the most consistently replicated findings in cognitive psychology. Hermann Ebbinghaus established in 1885 that without reinforcement, people forget roughly 70% of new information within 24 hours of learning it. By the end of the week, retention drops further. Without deliberate review, most of what was learned in a single session is effectively gone within days.
A one-day CRM training session at go-live lands in exactly this window. The day after training, users sit down to do real work in the system. They have forgotten most of the detail. The things they do remember are the broad strokes, not the specific steps for the specific tasks they need to complete. They struggle, ask a colleague, develop a workaround, or simply avoid the system until the pressure to use it becomes unavoidable.
This is not a training quality problem. It is a training design problem. The format is wrong, regardless of how good the trainer is or how clear the content is. Massed practice, where everything is taught at once, does not produce the retention that distributed practice, where learning is spread over time with reinforcement, consistently delivers.
What is wrong with generic product training?
Even setting aside the forgetting curve problem, the content of most CRM training sessions compounds the issue. Generic product training covers the system. Role-based training covers the job. These are not the same thing.
A product training session shows attendees how Dynamics 365 works: how to navigate the interface, where the main modules are, what fields exist across the key record types, and how to run a basic report. This is useful orientation, but it is not what a salesperson needs to log a qualification call correctly. It is not what a customer service rep needs to raise a case, link it to the right account, and escalate it through the right process.
When training does not map to the specific tasks a role performs most frequently, users leave the session with a general sense of how the system works but no clear process to follow for their actual job. They fill that gap with whatever feels most natural, which is usually whatever they were doing before the CRM was introduced.
The result is that teams develop inconsistent approaches to the same tasks. One salesperson logs a call as a phone call activity. Another creates a note. A third emails themselves a reminder. The data is inconsistent, the reporting is unreliable, and the system cannot surface the information that would make it genuinely useful.
What does effective CRM training actually look like?
Effective CRM training has three characteristics that distinguish it from the standard approach: it is role-specific, it is distributed over time, and it is reinforced by managers.
Role-specific content
Each user group should receive training built around the specific tasks they perform most frequently. A salesperson's training covers how to log the five most common activity types in the specific configuration built for their team, how to progress an opportunity through the defined pipeline stages, and how to set and complete follow-up tasks. A customer service representative's training covers the exact process for raising, updating, escalating, and closing a case.
The content should use real examples from that team's actual work. The scenarios should match what they encounter on a typical day. When training is specific, concrete, and immediately applicable, retention improves dramatically compared to abstract product walkthroughs.
Distributed over 90 days
The first session should cover only the most critical daily tasks. Not everything the system can do, just the five or six things each role needs to do correctly from day one. Keep the session to 60 to 90 minutes.
Subsequent sessions, delivered at roughly two-week intervals over the following 90 days, build on real usage. They address the questions that have emerged from actual use of the system, introduce additional capability as users are ready for it, and reinforce the standards established in earlier sessions. Each session is short, focused, and grounded in what users are actually experiencing.
This structure reflects how people actually learn and retain new processes. Spaced repetition, the technique of reviewing material at increasing intervals, consistently outperforms massed practice in retention studies. Applied to CRM training, it means the investment in training produces usage that lasts rather than a post-go-live spike followed by a rapid return to old habits.
Reinforced by managers
Training that is not reinforced by managers rarely changes behaviour permanently. A user who attends a training session and then works for a manager who never references the CRM, never asks about pipeline in the system, and never reviews activity logs will revert to old habits within weeks regardless of how good the training was.
Manager reinforcement means running pipeline reviews from CRM data, asking "what does the CRM show?" in one-to-ones, and flagging when activity is not being logged correctly. It does not require technical expertise. It requires a consistent management habit. When managers make the CRM the basis for their management conversations, the team gets a clear signal that the system is not optional.
How do you design a training programme that produces lasting behaviour change?
Start by mapping what each role actually needs to do in the system on a typical day. This is not a list of system features. It is a list of business tasks: log a call, update a deal stage, raise a support case, send a quote. For each task, define the exact steps in your specific configuration. This becomes the content for the first training session.
Build a 90-day session plan before go-live. The first session covers the critical tasks. Sessions two, three, and four introduce additional capability and reinforce the basics. Each session is 60 to 90 minutes, role-specific, and scheduled in advance.
Prepare managers before you train users. Make sure every line manager knows what good usage looks like for their team, how to check it in the system, and how to raise it if it is not happening. This takes a few hours, not days, but it is the foundation on which everything else depends.
After each release wave, review what has changed and update the relevant training content. Assign someone with clear accountability for keeping training materials current. Without this, the programme degrades over time even if the initial design was good.
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Frequently asked questions
Why does CRM training fail to stick?
CRM training fails to stick because it is typically delivered as a single generic session at go-live, without role-specific content, without reinforcement, and without connection to the real scenarios users face. The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve shows that without active reinforcement, people forget roughly 70% of new information within 24 hours. A one-day training session is almost perfectly designed to produce this outcome.
How long should CRM training last?
Effective CRM training should be spread across the first 90 days after go-live. Short sessions of 60 to 90 minutes, focused on specific tasks for a specific role, are far more effective than full-day product training. The first session should cover the most critical daily tasks. Subsequent sessions build on real usage and address the questions that emerge from actual use of the system.
What is role-based CRM training?
Role-based CRM training teaches each user group how to do their specific job in the system, rather than providing a general overview of the platform. A salesperson's training covers how to log a call, update an opportunity stage, and set a follow-up task in the specific configuration built for their team. The content matches the actual workflow, not the full capability of the system.
What is spaced repetition and how does it apply to CRM training?
Spaced repetition is a learning technique in which information is reviewed at increasing intervals over time. Research shows it significantly improves long-term retention compared to massed practice. Applied to CRM training, it means delivering content in short sessions over 90 days rather than in a single intensive day, with each session reinforcing and building on the previous one.
Who should deliver CRM training in an organisation?
Effective CRM training involves two groups: an external adoption specialist who designs the programme and delivers the initial role-based sessions, and internal managers who reinforce the learning in day-to-day management conversations. The manager's role in reinforcing correct usage is at least as important as the formal training itself.
How do we know if our CRM training has worked?
The measure of successful CRM training is behavioural change, not training completion. The indicators to look for are: users logging activity consistently without prompting, data quality improving over time, managers referencing CRM data in management conversations, and the team no longer maintaining parallel records outside the system.
Need training that actually changes how your team works?
Clearpath designs and delivers role-based Dynamics 365 training built around your specific configuration and your team's actual workflows. Spread over 90 days, reinforced by managers, and built to last.
Written and maintained by Martin Prosser, Microsoft Dynamics 365 specialist with over a decade of hands-on experience. Last reviewed: February 2026.