Salesforce.com is a great tool, but like any tool it’s only as valuable as proficiently as its used. As easy to use as salesforce.com is, many companies still struggle to increase adoption rates. Here are some tips. This post is a little wordy for now, but at some point I’ll simplify and repost it. Someday 🙂
I believe that tools can shape behavior more than just ideas. I would love to hear from anyone who’s created useful adoption tools.
Finally, note that almost every idea here applies to any system…not just salesforce.com.
Adoption Core Values
1) Executives must lead by example
Adoption starts with the CEO and executive team. As a rule of thumb, users will only adopt as far as their managers do, and managers will adopt only as far as the executives do.
2) Better design = better adoption
* The easier you make it for people to adopt (cleaner interface, training, initial handholding), the more they will.
3) Peer pressure and collaboration work
* Starting with the executive team, everyone needs to expect salesforce.com will be used. Ask ‘why isn’t this in salesforce?’ until you’re even sick of yourself. Bring meetings to a halt until salesforce.com is updated in real-time.
Adoption Methods
1) Set up a CEO/executive team dashboard
2) Reduce salesforce.com clutter (improves usability)
3) Make compensation depend on salesforce.com
4)
Customize a new “Sales” role for specific sales needs (after interviewing sales reps)5) Clearly communicate why salesforce.com adoption matters
6) Start training and creating expectations Day 1 with new hires (create the expectation that everything lives in salesforce.com)
7) Make it a part of sales culture & peer pressure; center conversations around salesforce.com
8) Take an online, pre-recorded salesforce.com training class
9) Hire an experienced salesforce.com user to do short 1-1 training sessions
10) Evaluate AppExchange Mobile
Set up a useful CEO/executive team dashboard
* What metrics are currently tracked in weekly executive meetings? Translate these out of excel and into a salesforce.com dashboard (where possible), using the dashboard as the basis of that part of the meeting. No exceptions. This will create a top-down effect that will greatly help in inspiring adoption!
* Start simple, with a single first dashboard and only the top 8-10 metrics the team cares about
– Examples: closed sales QTD, open deals slated to close this quarter, # leads qualified this month, pipeline created this month, results per vertical, etc.
Reduce salesforce.com clutter
* The easier salesforce.com is to use, the more people will use it. Get rid of the clutter.
* Hide unused tabs
* Hide or remove unused data fields
* Use simple, common sense names for custom fields
* Use simple, common sense names for custom fields
Compensation depends on salesforce.com
* Sales reps don’t get paid if the opportunity isn’t in salesforce.com, and if it’s not filled out to pre-defined standards. You’ll be amazed at how quickly opportunities move into salesforce.com!
Clearly communicate why salesforce.com adoption matters
* Without data in salesforce.com, the executive team either has to navigate blindly or extract data manually from people, hurting the sales team in either case.
* Sales will waste time as teammates (pre-sales, inside sales) struggle or make mistakes because of inaccurate or incomplete views of accounts and their status,
* Customers will be more likely to receive poor service, as customer support won’t have a clear picture of what’s going on with the account.
* Customers will be more likely to receive poor service, as customer support won’t have a clear picture of what’s going on with the account.
Customize a new “Sales” role for specific sales needs (after interviewing sales reps)
* Find out what sales reps need from salesforce.com, and how they could benefit – then configure a specific salesforce “Sales” role for them that excludes anything irrelevant to them.Start training and creating expectations Day 1 with new hires
* Make a first impression and reinforce the idea that everything should and does live in salesforce.com.
Make it a part of sales culture & peer pressure (make every conversation use salesforce.com
* “If it’s not in salesforce.com, it doesn’t exist”
* Example: on a pipeline call, if a rep hasn’t entered or updated a deal, make the team wait while they update it in real-time (assuming they’re at a computer).
Take an online, pre-recorded salesforce.com training class
There are different kinds of classes for every role – sales, marketing, support, administrator…
* Log into salesforce.com, then click on “Help & Training”, click on the “Training” tab
(or use this link: https://na2.salesforce.com/help/doc/user_ed.jsp?loc=training)
Hire a salesforce.com user to do short 1-1 training sessions
* I’ve personally found that many users of salesforce.com are just intimidated by it, and sitting down with them for a couple of half hour sessions, to show them just a few useful tips, is enough to get them going.
Evaluate AppExchange Mobile
* Would salesforce.com on people’s blackberries make it more accessible?
* This is not a first step, because it would cost money and add complexity.
* This is not a first step, because it would cost money and add complexity.
* Also, going Mobile is a waste of time and money until after salesforce.com is properly configured for sales people. Otherwise you’re just giving users mobile access to a poorly designed application.
RELATED POSTS
View all
