Create the Ideal Salesforce Org for Your Company

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Assess what salespeople want and need to do their jobs effectively.
• Host a successful pilot of Salesforce.

Build in Adoption as You Build Salesforce

As you prepare to launch Salesforce to your reps, you’re doing a lot of work behind the scenes. You’re like the proverbial duck—you look calm and collected on the surface (“Oh the launch? Yes that is coming soon, isn’t it? I nearly forgot because I’m so prepared.”) but underneath you're paddling furiously. 

We know you have a ton on your mind at this stage, but now is the most crucial moment for setting yourself up to achieve long-term adoption. So trust us, integrating these key adoption steps now will position you for success. 

Learn from Your Sales Reps

When you’re deciding how to configure Salesforce—what features to use, how you’ll lay out the pages, what tools reps may need—you’ll need a deep understanding of what your salespeople need to do their jobs well.

We know you’re super smart—it’s one of our favorite things about you. But unless you’re a quota-carrying salesperson, you can’t possibly know everything there is to know about the experience and the needs of a salesperson. Now can be a great time to chat with one of your sales reps and discover these things. 

Here’s a few ideas to get those conversations started.

• Conduct a survey: This is the quickest way to get a variety of perspectives, especially when you’re not able to actually talk to lots of salespeople. You won’t get a lot of depth through a survey so if there’s something specific you want to know, make sure to ask it directly in the survey.
• Go on a ride-along: This will take the most time, but it’s a great eye-opener. It’s where you actually accompany a salesperson for a day, going to their meetings, listening to their calls, and watching exactly how they use the tools they have. A ride-along only works if you make it very clear that you’re there to observe, not judge.
• Host a focus group: This is a nice middle ground that lets you talk to a group of people but doesn’t take too long. To make a focus group work well, choose a good variety of participants and make sure everyone has a chance to speak up. Your focus group can also become peer champions later on. More on that in the next unit.

Remember to be gracious and consider offering a small gift or provide food as a way to say thank-you to the reps who give you their time (and insights). Having a new sales rep friend can only make your adoption journey more fruitful.

Use this newfound information about your sales team’s needs to drive the way you set up Salesforce. Along with providing key insights and management opportunities for leadership, aim to make the sales rep’s experience as seamless as possible (the fewer clicks, the better)—solve as many of their pain points as you can, and ultimately help them succeed at sales. It sounds like a tall order, but with your new sales knowledge and Salesforce at your side, you can do it!

A Note About What Sales Wants

Once you’ve satisfied your sales reps’ needs, consider their wants. You'll be asking these sales reps to log in to Salesforce, on the regular. If you add some cool features that sales reps are asking for, they’re more likely to embrace Salesforce. Here are a few ideas to consider sweetening the Salesforce pot. Bonus: These are included in a Sales Cloud license (no upgrades needed, woo-hoo!):

• Einstein Activity Capture
• Macros
• Sales Path
• Salesforce for iOS and Android

Pilot Your New System

So, you’ve got Salesforce set up, and you even incorporated the feedback that you thoughtfully collected from the sales team. Go, you!

Now, it’s time to see it in action with a pilot. This is where you gather a small group of your end users to be your guinea pigs—let them take Salesforce for a spin before anyone else does. This is a great time to identify things that worked really well, spot opportunities for training, and find those pesky kinks. 

Now who should you choose to pilot your Salesforce experience? 

• People who are great with technology, because they’ll be keen to participate, and they’re a great barometer for what’s too complicated. (If they can’t figure it out, the average bear probably can’t either.)
• People who are natural leaders or trendsetters, because as they inevitably talk with their coworkers about Salesforce, they’ll generate excitement among the team. (Planting adoption seeds already!)
• People who are excited to make a difference, like some of your junior reps, because they’ll get to help shape how Salesforce is designed.
• People of all types—look at different departments, different levels (sales reps, managers, VPs), and even people who aren’t excited to be getting Salesforce. (Yes, really, it’s great to have a naysayer in the group because they’ll be totally honest. Plus, when you win them over, they can be your best advocates!)

Be sure to include your stakeholders as well. They’ll have invaluable input from a leadership perspective, and this is a great opportunity to cement Salesforce as a real winner in their minds. As they see the system in action and watch it evolve as new feedback and ideas are integrated, they’ll get to know its true power. Having them on board and turning them into vocal advocates will work wonders for adoption. 

Getting the right people involved will bring you the best feedback, making your pilot a meaningful learning experience. But you should also set some measurable goals to ensure it’s successful. Here are some examples from other Salesforce customers.

• Don’t ignore survey scores, especially on questions like “I see value in Salesforce” or “I understand how to use Salesforce to do my job.”
• Assess usage statistics, like how many participants logged in, ran a report, made a Chatter post, or created a new account.
• Track feedback, whether its bugs or new ideas. Be sure you have a process for collecting feedback. For example, use a form your pilot participants can fill out.

In this unit, you got the lowdown on learning from your sales reps and how you might understand both their needs and their wants, and you learned all about testing your new system with a pilot. Next up, we talk about how to launch Salesforce to your reps.