Prepare to Build Your Salesforce Journey
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Identify ways to secure alignment from executives.
- Explain why it’s important to document current processes before implementing a new technology.
Adoption Starts Now
As we’ve noted before: No matter where you are on your Salesforce journey, whether you’re preparing for a launch, or going on 15 years using Salesforce, you can apply the tactics in this Trailhead module to help improve your Salesforce adoption.
If you’re just getting started with Salesforce, here are some things to consider doing before you start building your new Salesforce instance.
Secure Executive Alignment
Having your executives’ support will be crucial down the line, so the earlier you can get them on board with your plans, the better.
Generally, your company is looking to get something specific out of Salesforce. And there’s likely several departments and stakeholders involved—all with different ideas of what the goal is. Take some time to learn what each stakeholder is hoping to get out of Salesforce. Determine what you can deliver, and discuss that frankly to set expectations from the start. And for your part, be sure that you commit to building a Salesforce experience that will meet the needs of each stakeholder. A big part of adoption is building trust with these stakeholders, and delivering on your promise is a surefire way to seal that trust.
Now here’s the really important part: Once you have the execs excited about what’s to come, ask them to support your new Salesforce implementation. Their commitment will look different for different companies, but here are some examples of things to ask your execs.
- Require that their sales reps log in to Salesforce a certain number of days per month. (Some Salesforce customers have used this metric to reward reps.)
- Participate in launch emails or videos, showing their support and expectation that the reps will use Salesforce.
- Only use Salesforce for forecasting and pipeline, and require that the entire sales team do the same thing.
- Enforce a rule that reps can only be paid commission on deals that are entered in Salesforce.
If you can secure this type of support early on, you’re well on your way to making Salesforce your company’s go-to system. Then watch as adoption soars.
Document Processes
If you have executive buy-in, now is a great time to start documenting your current processes—and how Salesforce can improve upon them. You can break this project into four steps.
- Document your current sales process. Ask yourself—and a sales leader with that on-the-ground expertise—these questions.
- What happens at each stage of our sales motion?
- What are we coaching reps to do at various points in the sale?
- Get a detailed look at what’s working and what’s not. At this stage, you want to determine:
- What’s working well for everyone?
- What works well for some reps but isn’t being replicated well across the board? Is it easy to replicate?
- What manual processes can be automated?
- At what points do sales reps have to use multiple systems to get their job done?
- Work with the sales leaders to revise the sales process. A change in technology can be an excellent time to update and streamline your sales process. Focus on how Salesforce can help:
- Automate manual processes.
- Get rid of steps that aren’t necessary.
- Make processes faster and easier.
- Integrate data that sales reps need so it’s in one place.
- Document the new-and-improved process that you’ll create using Salesforce.
The above exercise can help you critically evaluate what works and what changes you want to make with Salesforce. You’ll be able to identify points where you can make your new system into something that sales reps actually want to use, laying the groundwork for great adoption.
Now you know what your various execs and teams need, and you understand what’s worked well in the past and what hasn’t. You’re ready to start building your Salesforce experience!
Resources
- Read more about Gaining Executive Alignment