3 Top Tips to feel good about Salesforce Adoption

3 Top Tips to feel good about Salesforce Adoption

The adoption of a new Customer Relationship Management platform (CRM) can often be an exciting time for any organisation and is key to providing a whole host of new benefits and possibilities for your team. Although the adoption of a system like Salesforce.com can be an excellent opportunity for change, growth and new ways of doing things, it sometimes comes with its own challenges to overcome and enable smooth transition.

We had some feedback from the Managing Director of a biotech company on a recent project, that the system we had built for them was not really being used. This concerned us as we had carefully gone through all of the discovery and documentation of behaviours, user stories, objectives and other elements too. We were conscious that to align with budgets they had taken on the internal training on the system and the roll-out of new sales and operational processes. Whilst the system was doing what was expected, we discovered that the Sales Manager was continuing to use his forecast spreadsheet and the Managing Director was not using it at all. In discussions with the team, we also found that they had not really been given a good what, why & how explanation for the new system; their training had been very light and their expectations were confused.

Salesforce adoption can present a number of challenges and one of the most common is team members not seeing the value or lack of communication or understanding as to why the system is being changed or adopted. Most people don’t like change and along with adoption challenges these can often lead to failures in your CRM too. So how can you reassure your team about these common factors and help everyone to feel good about the Salesforce adoption? 

Ensuring your team is comfortable with the adoption of a new CRM is simple with these measures and indicators:

  • Develop a tracking system: In the early stages of implementation, you want to ensure that you’re assessing the effectiveness of your newly installed or updated Salesforce system. This will provide peace of mind that it is factually working and meeting the correct targets. We suggest you consider working with a Salesforce consultant to address what you feel is worth tracking and don’t forget to communicate this with your team so they will not feel as though you’re keeping additional tabs on their performance – transparency is key to their understanding.  They may also have some great suggestions too!
  • Turn your Salesforce data into understandable goals: Upon successful completion of your Salesforce system, you will be able to go beyond the metrics and tracking to turn milestones and data into actionable and achievable goals. Quite simply by providing your sales team, in particular, with opportunities to achieve tangible results, they’ll be more likely to utilise the system with positive reinforcement. This can be achieved by developing dashboards that present data relating to specific questions such as “How many leads have been converted?” or “How many opportunities have I created?” or “How many opportunities do I need to be generating to reach my target?” which in turn generates motivation to achieve bigger and better numbers. If people feel the system is helping them reach their goals and do their job, they are much more likely to use it.
  • Welcoming questions & support: Although this point goes without saying, it’s essential for your team to be encouraged to ask questions about the implementation of the new system. However, they might be shy to do so, particularly if they have had training and might be expected to “know”. One key indicator of a feel good adoption is when your employees questions start to reflect understanding rather than frustration. It’s important to have a post-implementation plan in place which should include being extremely responsive to users’ questions and feedback to continuously improve the teams usage and understanding of the system. Chatter is a great way to create an environment where everyone can discuss the system, share tips and best practices and create engagement throughout the team.

By using these simple measures and indicators you’ll be on your way to having a team who are positive about the adoption of a Salesforce system. As a registered Salesforce implementation partner, we understand the importance of a feel good adoption and can work to offer support and training during and after implementation. Why not arrange a FREE Salesforce consultation here?

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