Implementing Salesforce is an exciting process due to the near-endless possibilities the platform provides for making teams more efficient and effective. Additionally, it provides relevant insights regarding both customers and the internal workings of the team. However, the possibilities of Salesforce can only be recognized if every team member is using the platform the way you intend. If you want to accelerate growth through Salesforce, you must take important steps to ensure high end-user adoption.
Top-Down Buy-In
If you want people at all levels to consistently use Salesforce, it has to start at the top. If employees sense that leaders are not all in on the platform, they won’t feel the need to jump on board. This means that leaders should emulate every best practice they want to see from their employees. The key is to develop the mantra, “if it’s not in salesforce, it doesn’t exist.” Leaders that resist and continue to input data into old systems or use old processes will only hinder adoption.
Train, Train, And Train Some More
Change is hard for people, and you’ll have employees that not only resist change, but fight it tooth and nail. Fear is often the underlying factor when it comes resisting change. Comprehensive training to get everyone onboarded to Salesforce is essential. If people fear they can’t find what they need or that they may “mess something up” once in the system, they’ll use workarounds to avoid making a mistake. Tasks can also take longer when learning a new system. Even if Salesforce makes a task or process more efficient, people will insist that the old way was faster, simply because they know how to use the old system. If you want people to jump into Salesforce, you must train them, train them again, and then train them some more.
“High end user adoption is not built on a one-time training event, but rather strategically implementing a continuous, high-touch reinforcement system,” says Liana Trigg, Salesforce.com Technical Account Manager (CSS Tec).
Tie Salesforce To Job Performance
Nobody wants to be the boss that says, “you’ll do this because I said so,” but sometimes it’s a necessary tactic. If you want people to use Salesforce, you should make it a requirement of their job and include it in ongoing performance reviews. This is often the only way managers have to move resistant staff to new systems.
Cut The Cord On Old Systems
As long as employees can find workarounds or still access old, comfortable systems, they will. After a set time frame (the shorter, the better), eliminate end-user their access to those old systems, making Salesforce their only option.
This can be complicated if integrating legacy systems into Salesforce takes longer than expected, or if your technology stack isn’t compatible with Salesforce. Set hard goals and deadlines for engineers and developers to migrate from old systems as soon as possible, to ensure 100% Salesforce adoption is possible.
If your organization is looking to attract the best and brightest Salesforce talent, contact the recruiting experts at CSS today to learn more about the ways we can help you achieve your staffing goals.